WORLD AFFAIRS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 198, 23 August 1928, Page 6

WORLD AFFAIRS.

A WEEKLY REVIEW. (By BYSTANDER.) There is every reason to believe that the split in. the South African Labour party will have farreaching effects on the political fortunes of the country. It is impossible for Hertzog and the highly conservative Nationalists who follow him to associate themselves with the extremists who have just expelled Colonel Creswell from the Labour camp; and Creswell himself seems now to admit that the alliance of Labour with the Nationalists was only a temporary expedient. He is therefore urging his followers for the time to keep aloof from both parties, with a view to holding ultimately the balance of power. Meantime General Smuts, the official Leader of the Opposition, is appealing to the moderates of all parties, Dutch and British alike, to stand together and work for national unity. There is certainly more affinity between Smuts and Hertzog than between either of them and Creswell, and though much must bo done in the way of mutual concessions and compromises, it is already clear that the Afrikanders and the Boers hold the future of South Africa in their hands. London in Peril. In reading what the Earl of Halsbury had to say about the aerial bombardment of London last week, we must remember that he is temperamentally a pessimist, and that he has reached an age at which the passing of years is likely to aggravate rather than soften this tendency. But making due allowance for this, one must admit that there is a great deal of force in his ominous warnings. As Lord Halsbury was in charge of the operations for the projected bombardment of German cities at the time the war closed, he may be assumed to speak on this subject with authority, and he is most emphatic in his convictions as to the "deadly peril" in which London stands and the very inadequate measures that have been so far taken to meet it. The experts point out that the bombers did their work at night from a height of 20,000 ft. Lord Halsbury insists that the most modern bombing planes could swoop down to a level of perhaps 100 ft, where they would be too close to the aerial defence guns to risk any trouble and where they could mark their objects almost with impunity. It is certainly not a pleasing prospect. What Air Manoeuvres Mean. From the British point of view this bombardment of London was intended simply to test the possibilities of aerial attack and defence in regard to the great city, and apparently the results are by no means so reassuring as might have been desired. But it is interesting, and, indeed, amusing, to observe the effect produced upon public opinion in France, and the comments offered by the leading Parisian journals on the episode. One paper regards the bombardment as an attempt to "kill the war spirit" by revealing to a horror-stricken world the awful possibilities of destruction "ruining along the illimitable inane." On the other hand, a rival organ takes the airraids as a reminder to the world that, in spite of pacts and leagues and protocols war is not yet banished from the earth, and in this sense it sees in London's object-lesson "certain definite advantages." A third, the Communist "L'Humanite," interprets the experiment as "a dress rehearsal for the forthcoming British attack on Moscow." It is proverbially impossible to please everybody, but the British Government, by providing the bombardment of London as a spectacle for the nations, seems to have supplied a text which parties of all political colours and creeds can use for their own edification.

That Anti-War Pact. All preparations have been made for the signature of the Kellogg Anti-War Pact by the contracting parties in Paris, and it is to be hoped that nothing will happen at this late hour to mar the harmony of the proceedings. There arc rumours that M. Poincare wants a definite assurance from France's allies regarding their views on the occupation or evacuation of the Rhineland; and it is also reported that Mr. Kellogg may require to know more than he knows at present about the recent Anglo-French Naval Agreement. In the meantime, however, pacifist hopes beat high, and President Coolidge has been drawing the attention of his people to the enormous benefits that this Anti-War Pact may entail upon the world at large. But when he tells us that the proposed treaty offers greater hopes of peace than any yet afforded to the world, he is asking us to forget M'hat happened in Paris nine years ago. If the United States had endorsed President Wilson's signature, and accepted the Covenant of the League, there would have been no need of any Anti-War Pact to supplement it. It is only because the American Congress refused to ratify the treaty signed by its representative that the world has been seeking ever since for fresh and more effective safeguards against war. And now that President Coolidge, by his unjustifiable claim for American priority, has drawn the world's attention once more to America's past record in the way of repudiation, we can hardly be surprised that sober-minded critics are asking themselves gravely if, supposing this treaty is signed, it will ever be ratified, or that, as the "Action Francaise" has remarked cynically, "it is to be hoped that this pact will not cost us so dearly as the last."

Lord Haldane Disappears. Viscount Haldane was only 72 years old when lie died, and in view of his immense intellectual energy there seemed to be no reason to apprehend that his manifold activities would close so soon. A leader of the British "intelligenzia" for many years, and a philosophical thinker by training and habit of mind, there is no doubt that his close association with purely abstract views of life unfitted him to attain consistently high success in the field of practical affairs. His mind was singularly clear and powerful, and his work at the War Office, when he was founding and organising the Territorial Army and reorganising the Regular Army, should always be gratefully remembered by Britain. One unfortunate effect of his closely intellectual training was a certain lack of tact or perception when he was forced to adjust himself to practical considerations. No doubt his reference to Germany as "my spiritual home" —a literal truth—never carried to him the significance that it unfortunately bore to the nation at large. A Political Resurrection. The triumph of M. Venizelos at Athens is now complete. By a turn of Fortune's wheel which twelve months ago might have seemed incredible he has again secured the confidence of the volatile Greek people, and his party has topped the poll with a huge majority. It is a remarkable tribute to the statesmanlike ability of Venizelos that he has been able, after all his past vicissitudes, to secure control of the nation. For he is a difficult man to understand or to follow, and his people, though intelligent enough, have not had much training in practical politics. Unfortunately outsiders are. liable to estimate his merits from the purely partizan standpoint. We admired him largely because he was pro-Ally during the war, and the Germans and Austrians always depreciated and affected to despise him. His record seems to show that he is really a genius among statesmen, and the historian of the future will probably rank him with the two greatest nation-builders of the nine|£enth century, C-avorr and Bisne rcic. j