The Press Wednesday, August 13, 1924. A Treaty Difficulty.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18150, 13 August 1924, Page 8

The Press Wednesday, August 13, 1924. A Treaty Difficulty.

The unusual preamble to the AngloEussian Treaty has caused Mr Massey some uneasiness, as he told the House of Eepresentatives in very ■ cautious language yesterday. For various reasons the British Government .decided that the Treaty should declare itself as an arrangement made with Russia bv Great Britain, and not, as is usual, by his Majesty the King. We have had no official statement concerning this departure from the customary practice, but it has been explained by newspapers which have apparently obtained their information from official sources, that the omission of the Sovereign's name was required, not only by Russia's lack of a representative corresponding to the King, but also by the fact that it was not desired that the Dominions should be bound by the Treaty, as they would be if it were, made and signed in the name of his Majesty. In due course we phall doubtless have an official explanation, but in the meantime it may be pointed out that in the Treaty of Versailles the. "high contracting "party" for Britain was the King, and on Germany's side sfoiply "Ger"many." As for the Dominions, their interests and rights could have been protected by a clause exempting them from the operation of the Treaty unless and until it was approved by their own parliaments. Mr Massey says that the British Government has taken up a ''serious" position. The omission of: the Sovereign's name appears to him to mes'n that "tho prerogative of the '/Crown ia being interfered with so far. f'as Treaties arei .concerned," nod he cannot look at it from any other point of the point has at-' j tracted some attention in Great Britain, .there does not,;appear ; to be any seri;'ous anxiety concerning what is certainly a new precedent,:; It is hardly conceivable that Mr BarhsayMacDonald would vary fine; traditional formula out of respect for of 'the Soviet Eepubliet'vHe is the King's Minister, and he is an Englishman; and however much he might desire to conclude a Treaty with Russia he would not make a concession which would amount to a repudiation of the traditional authorityof the King. 'ln any case, the Russian Government, for all its wild ideas .concerning Monarchy, is intelligent .-;. enough -to know that until it :oonquers RoniS it'must, when ini Rome, dot-as the Romans do; and it seems to ns "to. be in the highest degree unlikely that its representatives were so foolish or so impudent as to make a stipulation concerning the formula in which Britain made its contract. Indeed, if any such .'stipulation had been made, Mr Mac Donald would 'Obliged to take it as a request that the status of Britain as a Monarchy should' be disavowed. The matter is 'one, however, ; upon which a clear State%ent by the British Govern-ment-!wj:otMdesirable,' r and Mr Massey/hirited that he is about to give Government an opportunity to make such a;,statement. , ,Mf Massey's anxiety that there" should, be no interference with the-prerogative of the Crown is of course riot, based upon "any notion that ,his Majesty is at .liberty to make, on hisi:own.behalf \ and without reference to his Government or Parliament, any Treaty he pleases. Air he ia concerned about, we presume, is that nothing Shall be done to weaken the Crown as the syrnbbl'of the Empire's unity under one hea'd, and this is a very wise position to take up at a time when the curiotis anomalies in the constitution of the Empire are impelling logicians and experimenters to dovise plans which may contain the seed of disruption.

Germany After Five Years. On Sunday, the! fifth anniversary of the\ foundation/of the German Bepublic,'thc President declared that "-only " with the Ideal ; of' liberating their " brethren, in the Ehineland could "they find, strength to undertake the " heavy burdens involved in the Dawes "plan.'' On Monday the 'Nationalists said that- "unless the- German "delegation return having secured "the military evacuation of the Kuhr, "they need never have gone, and '' General Dawes need never have come "to Europe.'' In those two voices we have all of Germany that counts. The, Jiacticals hate France, hate . the peace, hate their debts, hate the occupation of the Kuhr, .but hate chaos the'gbqse-step more. The Reactionaries hate the double humiliation they have 'suffered and can think of nothing else. They want" France out of the Buhx for the reason for which most people want her out—because her occupation is illegal, provocative, harsh, and rruinous; ,but rthey want, her out most of all because her occupation prevents their atupid preparations for, revenge. The world laughed at Ludendorff and his recent "brewery rebellion," but it is as well to remember that he is still the idol of tens of thousands v of. hifl countrymen. The! fact is—an. almost incredible fact to Englishmen—rthat millions of Germans are stiU.in the political nursery. -Ludendorff himself is a mere child politieaUy, or he would ngver .have made

such an abysmal mess of things at Munich; yet he is listened to, goes everywhere, and is everywhere wel r corned, and solemnly awaits the day when the people will call him to a dictatorship. His politics are, of course, so simple that he cannot be misunderstood. He wants to tear up the Treaty of Versailles, arm the whole nation for a war of revenge, restore the Monarchy, destroy the Jews, and get the nation back to "the only form " of government for which the Ger- " man people are adapted." His attitude to the Dawes Eeport was made clear in a recent speech. After declaring that enemies on both frontiers were concentrating for a final blow that would "break the backbone of the " noble Northern race that once dominated Europe and Asia Minor," he wont on: "And to the devil's work " of Versailles a second devil's-work is " to follow —the so-called Experts' Ke- " port which signifies our perpetual " slavery and our being'robbed of any " prospect of achieving freedom." It is because that is the mentality of Ludendorff, and of millions who secretly admire him, that the London Conference means little more to the German masses than a meeting to discuss tho liberation of tho Ruhr. Germany knows in a dim way that the Allies won the war. Her intelligentsia know also that Gerc'many provoked the war. But neither the Eadical masses nor the Keactionary classes accept, or ever will accept voluntarily, a plan for paying that reminds them every day of defeat. The party led by Ludendorff has only thirty-two members in the Eeichstag, and a gang of fanatical desperadoes organising it outside. It is not the same as the Nationalist Party, which is more than one hundred strong, and admires Ludendorff more than it admires his methods. But on the reparations question the Nationalists are as stupidly Fatherlandish as he 1 is, and the Dawes Plan would have no hope at all if the artisans, financiers and industrialists did not realise that once ruined is enough. And so far as the Government is concerned, it realises, shaky as it is, that to shake itself out of existence is to bring back tho Monarchy or the French army. Ludendorff at present is merely a picturesque and fanatical patriot whom defeat has left stupid but unbowed. Ludendorff saving the Fatherland would be the same thing in intelligence, but a far less endurable thing in patriotism and ' picturesqueness, and it is not at all likely that the Government will facilitate the change.

Municipal Electricity Department The annual report of the Municipal Electricity Department (summarised very fully in yesterday's "P,r'ess") proves first of all, and most importantly j of all, that the demand for power is rapidly increasing. The number of consumers five years ago -was only 7217. To-day the number is the increase for the current year (2641, or 15 per cent.) being the largest so far recorded. The report points out also that not only has the maximum load increased Bince last year by 23.7 p.e., but that the "constant extensions to exist- '' ing wiring confirm the conclusion that "most installations prove subsequently "to be inadequate for the increasing "needs of consumers." The more power a consumer uses the more he wants to use, and the meaning of that clearly is that.the City must protect itself against any failure in supply. Tor it mast be noted that the increases 'recorded' came in spite of the uncertainty regarding future supply, and without any attempt to stimulate business. Had the Department been able to. guarantee supply, indefinitely, it could have improved all its figures, though these are well beyond its expectations at the beginning of the year. Financially also:the report is very satisfactory—though there is one respect in which we do not like it. In. the matter of supply only there is a gross profit of £22,790, as against £18,996 in 1923, £10,523 in 1922, £12,756 in 1921, £5932 in 1920, aind only £lOl2 in 1919. The domestic revenue also- has trebled itself since 1920, the commercial revenue jumped from £25,181 to £41,707, and the power revenue in the period from £20,390 to £29,604—a most' encouraging result throughout.. But the trading account shows, almost no profit at all (about 2 per cent.) on,a turnover of neaTly £45,000, and it must be remembered that the Department pays neither rates nor taxes, and is* in a specially good position for securing business. A private concern with the same turnover could not carry on with • this small margin, and if competition were open and fair as it ought to be,the trading department would hardly pay its way It may of course be argued that, having a monopoly of the supply of current, the Department acts wisely in providing the means for using current at a price as near as possible to cost; and that would be a good argument if nothing else were involved. But it is not equitable that a municipal trading concern should be exempt from any of the charges its competitors have to meet, and exemption is not in the long run an aid to efficiency. As matters stand it is clear that the trading department's charges are too low, or that it is not conducted with the efficiency that would be necessary to success if competition were unhampered.

One of the unexpected results of recent American' legislation has been the revival of the ancient trade of smuggling. Our cables this week told of the efforts of the Canadian Government to stop illegal trading on the long frontier, between Canada and America. But it is not only goods that are being smuggled across the border. According to American reports smugglers have been making fortunes running immigrants into the States. The Canadian Government became interested in the trade when it discovered that assisted immigrants were disappearing soon after their arrival in Canada, and as a result of its enquiry concluded that in six months smugglers had added 30,000 to the population of the States. Canada now requires immigrants to sign bonds to prove their bona fides. The trade is said to be highly organised, and, aB in rum Tunning, dollars count more thaii lives. i

Railway working conditions are very different in New South Wales from what they are in New Zealand, but the objective in each ease should be the same: a service capable of handling the freight and passenger traffic of the conntry with despatch and at a tariff low enough to attract business, yet sufficient to enable the railways, after meeting working costs and allowing for depreciation, to pay interest on the capital invested in them. And as the English experts, Sir Sam Fay and Sir Vincent Raven, have been engaged to help us to solve this problem in New Zealand, we are directly interested in the investigation which they are conducting in New South Wales. After a tour over the State lines the Commissioners opened a public enquiry in Sydney. The Chamber of Commerce had prepared a statement embodying its suggestions for the better management of the railways, and the president, Sir Mark Sheldon, was the first witness to come before the Commission.

Declaring that railway finance was "a hotch-potch, not fair either to the public or to the service," the Chamber urged that it should be placed on a proper business footing by transferring to the railways, as their capital, the portion of the State debt incurred in their development. Capital extensions would be financed by railway bonds, and the railways would be required to produce a yearly return sufficient to cover the interest chargeable on the capital, to provide for renewals and depreciation, and partly for extensions and improvements. Control was to be vested absolutely in five commissioners, experts respectively in traffic, construction, general administration, accounts, and staff supervision. The Chamber also proposed electrification, -wherever practicable, on the ground that it reduced maintenance charges, and the building of motor roads to feed the existing lines. "I would even advocate that the railways be sold," said Sir Mark Sheldon, in presenting the Chamber's case, "but I do not think it would"be possible. The economic effect would be very much to the advantage of the railways.''

In the South African Union the basi? of railway finance is that, the total earnings shall not bo more than the amount required to meet working costs, maintenance, improvements (such as deviations, re-grades, and straightening of curves), depreciation, and interest on capital other than capital contributed out of railway revenue. The rate is fired at 3| per cent., which represents a daily charge of £11,030. In a review of the operation of the railways since the year of Union (1910) the General Manager, Sir William Hoy, stresses the necessity for caution in railway expenditure, which, he rightly says, "should generally be of a reproductive nature. A forward policy, combined with reasonable caution, must ba adhered to."