TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 9669, 6 March 1897, Page 7

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Some time ago we received The French news per cable that the at French had occupied Raiatea Raiatea. in force. Thi3 island is very interesting to the •tudent of comparative mythology, because it is one of the few spots in the world in which the ceremony of "passing through the fire*' is still practised, without injury to the "passces." However, that is not *by the French have landed there. The •""reach Pacific flagship Duguay Trouin transported 500 troops there a few weeks **?o, and called upon the " rebels " to come •0 and surrender. Most of the chiefs ""ftturally enough refused the invitation, •lad a column set out to teach them a lesson. The natives laid an ambush for the invaders, "-t made a mistake about the number . °f their enemies, and actually let the column Set right past them before attacking. The hault was that the French were able to •"•rronnd the ambushed party, and bayonet of them without loss to themselves, •"•is defeat seems to have broken the spirit *"? the natives, and many of them with tteir wives and children now threw them"•lveioa the merej/ of the conqueror.. The

"great chief" of the island with a few followers is still at large, and the French are searching actively for him. Meanwhile, a large number of the inhabitants of Raiatea, with about ISO prisoners of war, have been deported to the Marquesas islands; so that we may regard the island as definitely annexed by the French. Now our interest in this island, as British subjects, depends upon this rather important consideration, that Raiatea is one of the many places which the French promised never under any circumstances to annex. .Some twenty years ago England made a compact with France that neither nation would ever take possession of either the New Hebrides or Raiatea. In 1880 France first began to ''occupy" Raiatea. An explanation was demanded, but the British Government of the day was not at all self-assertive and acquiesced provisionally in the breach of faith. Thereupon the French went on their way rejoicing, and in 1886 seized the New Hebrides. Downing street now gave tho matter its undivided attention, and decided to allow France to keep Raiataa if she would evacuate the New Hebrides. The last act in this solemn farce —the theft of the New Hebrides by France —will probably follow in due season ; and this is how the interests of the Empire liave been guarded in the Pacific. There is a very imposing The sound about the naval ostiNavy mates just submitted to the Estimates. House of Commons. When Mr Goschen produced his plan of campaign last year, he spoke hopefully of probable reductions in naval expenditure for some time to come. Sir Charles Dilke and his friends protested loudly ; and it would scorn that in spite of Sir Michael Hioks-Loach and his prudent economy, circumstances have altered the intentions of Government. The basis of England's naval policy is pretty well agreed upon now. The authorities have to assume a possible combination of any three great navies as opponents, and they have to make preparations to ensure the command of the tea by treating the ocean as an English province, with the enemy's coastline as its frontier, and blockading hostile fleets upon their own borders. This is indeed a comprehensive policy. At the beginning of this year it was I calculated that, to keep pace with the naval growth of France and Russia, England would require by 1893 at lea3t fourteen more battle ships, seventy more cruisers, and at least 100 more torpedo boats and " destroyers," and that in addition to the ships j then building. As battle ships take in England at the very least two or three years to build, preparations must forestall the event j by many months. The £7,000,000 to be spent this year in ironclads, cruisers, &0., do not, therefore, imply that there I is immediate need for a larger fleet, but only that we are endeavouring to prepare for emergencies. The inorease in the i number of trained seamen and the formation of a reserve are matters that have long demanded attention, and steps are being taken none too soon to meet the difficulty. For not even the ships that England has could be fully manned if war were declared to-day, ! and most of England's reserve would be | used up before a shot was fired. However, i England has two great advantages over her I rivals—her wealth and her industrial resources. France is also embarking on a policy of naval development, but she has met with some Borious obstacles. So far back as 1891 the French Chamber decided to spend £30,000,000 in ten years in building about ten ironclads, fifty cruisers and i other vessels too numerous to mention, without whioh no decent navy can be called complete. But the French ' Admiralty cannot, get through more than £3,500,000 per annum for the simple reason that all the great arsenals and shipbuilding yards in Franoe combined cannot turn out more than the amount of work represented by that comparatively paltry sum. A natural result is that while it takes two or three years to complete an English ironclad the French first class vessels cost £300,000 apiece more than the English and take five years or more in building. The only course open to the French Government to be the extraordinary step already suggested in the Chamber, of getting their warships built in England. This would probably raise a storm of indignation among the protectionists and Chauvinists, who are just now rampant in France; and: it is a question how far it would be wise or creditable for English builders to furnish weapons for' the handthat may some day be turned against their country. But whatever be the fate of the French naval estimates, it is consoling to reflect that Great Britain is straining every nerve to cope with any possible national emergency, and that she has the power as well as the will indispensable to success. Germans are popu- -« You Dirty Boy I" larly supposed to do every thing thoroughly and methodically when they start. The ! attention of the German authorities haa i been called to the necessity of providing proper sanitary appliances for workmen in manufactories; and the result suggests nothing so much as Pears' famous " Dirty Boy" disguised as a German mill hand. In one white load factory each man has a separate lavatory for his own use. Like the "gentleman's villa residence," he has hot and cold water laid on; he has soap, nail -brush, hair brush, towel, and glass tumbler supplied. He has even a wardrobe* this advanced German mill-hand, in which he may stow his day clothes, while he wears a specially provided costume, which ia served out clean once a week. Four times a day, before each meal, and before "knocking off," he is required to wash arms, chest, hands and face—four changes of j water, please—and to rinse his mouth and I noso according to rule. There are also some copper baths, tin lined, in which every workman, if he is not sufficiently diluted I by the daily " wash," can get a hot bath I once a week. For extreme cases, that is for men doing really dangerous work in the white lead faotories. there are warm spray baths, in which the victims of the industry may take refuge whenever they please. Aa all this takes place in Germany, ' it is almost needless to add that the baths are under the control of a superintendent and a large staff of attendants, who see that the regulations are strictly carried out. At the worsted mills in Augsburg the same elaborate care is bestowed on washing. Every man or woman employed can once a week get tickets from their overseer which they hand to the bath attendant. They receive in return a clean towel, a comb and a piece of soap; and with these accessories they may disport themselves for half an hour in hot or cold water, aocording to taste. There is a steam laundry for the towels and a centrifugal washer for the combs, and the soap returned by the workmen is utilized for washing wool. The stokers in these establishments get two baths a week, but they can hardly be as clean at the end of the week as the colliers of Dortmund. In that favoured clime the operation of washing ia performed in two separate stages. This mea are copiously sprayed over first, and subsequently wallow five at a time in large tanks, which are warmed in winter by steam. The best point of all this washing is that it takes place during work boors, ao that the men are actually paid to keep tbemaelvee clean. It is to be hoped they succeed - ti_ur

certainly have every opportunity. But it is certain that such elaborate sanitary arrangements could not be forced upon the "ordinary British workman without a severe struggle. There is no doubt that in Germany many of these ' precautions taken by masters on behalf of. their employees are resented as the sign and seal of the great capitalistic tyranny ; and certainly unless the ordinary German likes wishing more than the Lancashire operative who "missed the trip last year," he has a fair cause of complaint against his master. The message of Riceiotti " A Mighty Garibaldi to the Greeks Name." reminds us how deeply the Cretan struggle appeals to all those who in Europe have ever fought in the cause of freedom. The national aspect of the revolt—the effort of the great Greek nation to reassert its unity and strike a blow for liberty, even at the risk of destruction—this view of the case can even stir the blood of the subjects of the British Empire at this remote corner of the globe. No wonder that the Italians, and above all the Garibaldians, as they hear of tyranny and massacre and patriotic rebellion, recall their own heroic past —the overthrow of Austria and Naples and Rome, the rescue of their enslaved brethren and the redemption of their nation's honour. Riceiotti Garibaldi has good cause to remember every episode of that most gallant struggle of which modern history can boast. His mother, the Creole, Anita, braved the hardships and dangers of her patriot husband's campaigns' against Austria, and died nearly fifty years ago, when the " Red Shirts " in the darkest hour of their many defeats stood at bay on the shore of theAdriatic. His father, the great Garibaldi, is still, not only to Italy, but to Europe, the type of the self-sacrificing patriot, rising with the inspiration of a noble cause above calumny, and delay, and defeat, through innate integrity and courage to triumph in the end. It is a heavy responsibility, even for a pure-minded patriot, to bear the great Garibaldi's name. And Riceiotti has had experiences of his own which must make the name of Freedom dear to him. He fought by his father's side in tho Tyrol during the 1866 rising, and Bhowed himself not unworthy of the confidence reposed in him. In 1871, when Franoe lay helpless before Germany and rescue was already hopeless.lticciotti, for Freedom's sake, led the " red shirts " to aid those whom ho had little cause to love, and by his skill and courage won in this romantic enterprise the praise of even the stern and by no means sentimental German Commander who opposed him. Itwould be no unnatural climax to his eventful career that he should rouse his father's followers once more in defence of that liberty of which the mere name has always acted on them like a spell. Even in this age of material prosperity and military barbarism and financial diplomaoy, when we remember what Greece has dared for Crete and what Garibaldi would dare for Greece, we may reflect that the age of chivalry has not yet passed.