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Press, Volume LI, Issue 15219, 5 March 1915, Page 6

A correspondent, who says that ho does iK)t doubt our statement. Hut who seems to nnd it difficult to believe, asks for a demonstration that if Sir .1. (J. Ward had in 1909-10 made a normal transfer from revenue to the Public Works Fund, he would hare had to wind up with a deficit in that year, while the -deficit would have been repeated in the following year, with a

very small surplus to follow in 1911-12. There was, of course, no obligation upon Sir Joseph Ward to make any transfer to the Public Works Fund, but neither before, nor since, has a".V Minister of Finance omitted to make a transfer. The following table gives tho actual figures for tho last four years of the Ward Administration : — Balajiop at. Excees Trauefer'd Suiphie i>e«nTiTiing of to at«T)d of r«ir. revenue. P.W. F'd. of r«ir. ~£ £ X £ .. 767.813 216,17.1 600,000 16-1,321 1903-10 .- lta.3-2! 247 995 nil 432.31G 1910-11 ■■ 4*2,316 !154.167 800,000 sSfi,4«? 1911-12 ... 356,463 720,793 500,000 607.27G We may observe, by the way, that our Opposition friends, in commenting on the figures for 1908-9. would not see any sign of drift in the shrunken surplus.

"We shall now set forth what the position would have been had Sir J. G. Ward, in 1909-10,- transferred to tho Public Works Fund a sum equal to the average transferred by the Kcform Government in 1012-13 and 1913-14. namely, £712,500. The figures would have been: — Balance at Excise Tr&asfcr'd Balanrc beginning of to at end of y<?a-r. revenue. P.W. F'd. of γ-ear. £ £ £ ~£ IOCe-3 .. 767,849 210, tT3 SOO.OOO 184.321 Surplus. 1900-10 •• 1&*,321 2(7,335 712,500 2So.ltft Deficit. 1910-11 .. JSO.IS-i 951,167 800,000 126,017 Debit. Delicti.. 1911-12 .. 1-25.017 720,703 SOO.fOO 01.770 Debit. Surplus. Wh.ether Sir Joseph acted wisely or unwisely in adopting hi.s plan of 1909-10 need not bo discussod. The figures wo have quoted show clearly, in any event, how misleading, to «iy tho least, is the absurd statement that tho Reform Government has inado aw«y with "Liberalism's" "surplus."' In some remarks made some years ago on the "Silent Navy," an English writer said that when the" Fleet was next engaged it would probably go into action without any signal such as Nelson flew at Trafalgar. Any such appeal he considered foreign to the temperament of the Navj , . It is stated in to-day's news that ViceAdmiral Sturdeo hoisted the signal: "God Save the King" before he went into action off tho Falkland Islands. This is the first mention of any such signal in tho present war. Admiral Sturdee's signal was typically British — no direct appeal to the virtues or tho emotions, but simply "God Save the King." Nelson appealed to duty, but Nelson -was, more emotional, more inclined to tho dramatic, than the average Englishman.

Tho city is not to be congratulated on the result of yesterday's poll on rating. The friends of capital value rating had to contend against the normal difficulty attending any proposal to replace an existing system by a wholly different one, and also against the fact that in point of keenness the supporters of unimproved value rating arc far ahead of them. Just as at any Parliamentary election the Bed Feds take care to poll every available vote, so the single-tax enthusiasts take caro that nothing Khali prevent their getting every supporter to the poll. The faddist and the doctrinaire are always more determined than normal people. It •would appear, from the letter which Mr K. 8. "Williams sends" us, that the friends of the equitable and just system of-rating on capital values had to contend with something more than the apathy of their supporters. Mirny op-, iiohents of the existing system were apparently prevented from voting, although entitled and anxious to'do so.. The narrowness of the margin justifies the expectation that on th« next occasion the. oxi.sting system will bu condemned.

As.was to Ix 3 expected tlu> Germans are circulating Mr Bernard Shaw's odiotus pamphlet on the war. and saying that it {jives a truthful and unbiassed, survey of the British people. Germans, of course, cannot bo expected to kn6w the position Mr Shaw occupies in his own country. To them he is a great literary man and one of the leading intellectual forces in England. Before the war he was to most Englishmen morely a jester and a charlatan, somes times clever and amusing, sometimes intolerable. Henceforth to patriots throughout the Empire ho will he wholly intolerable, If the matter xvero not so serious it would be amusing , that anyone should suggest that Mr Shaw could write tho truth about England. He has lived in England for many years, and made a' large fortune by satirising English faults and sneering at things that Englishmen, hold dear and sacred. In all that time he hus been unable to find a single redeeming trait in the English character. He is as incapable of appreciating English ideals an<! achievements as a tone-deaf man k incapable of appreciating Beethoven. The latter, however, does not rush into print to depreciate Beethoven.

Mr H .0. Well* has done the community a service by saying' what he thinks of his sometime Fabian associate. • .

I Jmvo been oiiite exceptionally and generously disposed to take him seriously and find out what he amounts to, and this i« what I find lie amounts to. Ho is. an activity, a restless passion for attention. * Behind that is a kind ot Jackdaw's lioard of other people's notions; much from Samuel Butier; scraps of ivseudo-ohilosophieal phraseology such :ts that '"Life Force" phrase he got from Dr. Gnost ; old Hammersmith economics ; worn fragments of Herbert Spencer; some Xietzscho, conveyed, no doubt, from the convenient handbook of Mr Orage: shrods of theoeophy: current superstitions, as. for example, his idea that "fear "poisons" meat, or that wool is a more "natural" and hygienic clothing than cotton; sweepings of all sorts of "advanced" rubbish ; but nothing anywhere of which one can gay, "Hem is the thought of a man." .... And nothing will *top

him. All through the war vro sliall have this Shavian accompaniment going on, likn an idiot child screaming in a hospital, distorting, discrediting, confusing. Many people will thank Mr Wells for expressing so well what is in their minds. But the hospital simile, excellent though it is, hardl.v covers all Mr Shaw's offence. He might be likened also to a brawler in a church. There is one satisfaction, however—ho will in future hai'e still less influence among his own countrymen, and there will be a much greater number of Britons with an itching eagerness to kick him vigorqusly.-