WORLD AFFAIRS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 247, 18 October 1928, Page 6

WORLD AFFAIRS.

A WEEKLY REVIEW.

(By BYSTANDER.)

Two days ago it was reported from Melbourne that there was a good prospect of seeing the-strike finished by the middle of the week.- It is not over yet, but I am already wondering if, when it is "off, n the real trouble may not be just beginning. For' it is not to be expected that the employers will promptly- "sack" all the "free" workers who have "held the fort" at great inconvenience and some danger to themselves. As a matter of bare justice some proportion of the "free" labourers will be kept on, and .the unions will object strongly. What complicates the position is the fact that in » great many cases the volunteers have done far more work per day or per hour than the ordinary union hand. A fortnight ago the Sydney shipowners issued a statement to the effect that) volunteer labour was "outclassing" the strikers on the wharves. "The amateurs are loading 50 to 100 per cent more cargo than the professional workers did formerly." If this is even an approximately correct estimate, the employers will be very reluctant to reinstate the unionists all at once when peace comes.

Law and Order. In the meantime one of the most depressing and discreditable features of the strike is the tendency to brutal violence that has manifested itself occasionally among the watersiders. One can make some allowance for the resentment felt by workers who believe themselves to be in the right and who see their places filled by men who, they think, should be helping them to fight the employers. But nothing can excuse'the unmanly and cowardly conduct of the mobs that He in. wait for a handful of "free" labourers and overwhelm them by force of numbers. The authorities at the great Australian ports have been compelled to realise that the time has come for strong measures, and no doubt when the rioters are induced to understand that their violence will be met by resolute force the situation will improve. But in such circumstances there is a real danger that a few desperate and resolute agitators might stir up trouble that would be hard to check. The; "Bulletin" has gone so far as to say that if the rioters at Adelaide had been led by a capable organiser they might have stormed and sacked the city. In its opinion even the regular troops, scattered over wide areas as they are, "could do no more than a girls' school against a mob that meant business." Mr. Shinwell ridiculed the British unionists the other day for being afraid of the sight of blood. No doubt there are a number of "left wingers" in Australia who share his amiable convictions, and the authorities cannot afford to leave these tilings out of account.

The Kaiser's Peace. At intervals during the period of "European anarchy" which preceded the war, and many times since, the Kaiser Wilhelm has posed as the patron and preserver of the world's peace. What he really meant by this claim is suggested by some of his letters dating back to 1905 which have just been published at Berlin. Writing to von Buelow, his Chancellor and close personal friend, just after the crisis created by the famous trip to Tangier and the Kaiser's intervention in Moroccan affairs, he warns his Minister to "go slow," because the time for action has not yet come. That was the keynote of his "peace" policy—"watchful waiting" till the hour had struck and "the day" had dawned. The reason for protracted quiescence given in this letter is singularly illuminating. The Socialists, says the Kaiser, are strong and active, and "we: cannot send a single man from this country without exposing the life and the property of the citizens to danger." But apart from this, he was quite willing to fight then, so as to humiliate France and break up the Entente. Incidentally the Kaiser reveals 'his attitude toward the Socialists. They should be "shot down or beheaded," and generally reduced to impotence in "a bath of blood." All this from a man. who professed to "love peace and ensue it" is rather paradoxical. But in all probability to this day the Kaiser believes in his own pacifist professions.

Politics and Religion. One of the distinctive characteristics of a highly-civilised community is its ability to keep religious questions entirely separate from political questions. In this principle is involved the whole hisrtory and progress of religious toleration, a virtue to which all democratic peoples are supposed to aspire, though few indeed have yet attained it. -And among the many that are still struggling and wallowing in the slough of religious intolerance must be included the great American nation. Everybody who has learned anything of the activities of the Ku Klux Klan in the United States must be prepared to hear that the candidature of "Al" Smith for the Presidency has meant a violent outburst of sectarian bitterness. For the redoubtable "Al" is a Roman Catholic and is proud of it; and, as often at other crises in his public career, he has shown that he is prepared to speak his -mind on this subject to his critics and opponents regardless of consequences. When it comes to public declamation and oratory few men in America can hope to compete successfully with Mr. Smith, and his protest against the bigotry of his enemies is eloquent, sincere and unanswerable. Nothing, he says justly, could be more inconsistent with the principles of American Demecracy, nothing more clearly incompatible witfc the teachings of the Founder of Christianity,-than this attempt to inspire one section of the American people with hatred for millions of their fellowcountrymen, on the sole ground of religious belief. Al Smith's courageous denunciation of such ignorant and iniquitous fanaticism should strike a sympathetic chocd in all democratic hearts.

A Free Press. Ono of the most amusing attempts made by Signor Mussolini to add to the gaiety of the nations is his assurance that "the Italian Press is the freest in the world." Knowing that all newspapers that have ventured to oppose, or even to criticise Fascism, have been violently suppressed, and that their editors and leader writers and contributors have been "disciplined" by methods ranging from life-preservers and knuckle-dusters to castor oil, one is a little at a loss to understand what this means. But Mussolini proceeds to explain. The Press is free because "it avoids what is harmful, and seeks what is useful" for the State; "it is free because it serves the regime"— otherwise, because it is the bond slave of Fascism. 'Now this strikes me as the most barefaced attempt to associate or identify Tyranny with Freedom that history yet records. Because the Italian Press writes what it is ordered to write, therefore it is free —to do as it is told! This goes far beyond anything that even Bismarck ever attained in his highly successful attempts to dominate the organs of public opinion in his own country. For he had at least the grace to admit that they did as he told them, not as they liked. "Tuning the Press" is the phrase that he employs in his "Reminiscences" to describe 4his process; and Mussolini has used the same figure of speech, for his own peculiar purposes. "The Fascist Press is like an orchestra playing the same note, of its own accord"! But when ever in this world did an orchestra play anything "of its own accord"? "In spite of his high-sounding rhetoric about Freedom, Mussolini is forcod, even against his own intention, to admit that he is conductor, instruments and music all in one. ~ ~ ~