NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 91, 11 January 1919, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY

'"'Like ■.•'raaiiyapotKer leaded' of revolution the' master, mind of - tho Bolsheviki, .-would seem to have' been crushed, by tho - tyranny which he assisted so ; largely to create. 1 Trotsky, ' his ', subordinate and; as some tliink,_ his, tool, has captured the popular will and ( LuNiN...has been..'overthrown. It. would seem that becomo alive to.the impossibility of continuing the campaign .qf carnage and terrorism .he, had .done. so/'much to■inaugurate and was seeking a. means' to v check' the" 'excesses of ,• the extremists by establishing an alliance with ttie "Moderates." He- is not the first .demagogue: .to fall a victim to mob'.passipn t -"which he'had influehoed-..aricl ipl&yed; on to serve' ■his-ends/ Trotsky : -has used the; Terrorist^ -'to •ifurthov-'his. purpose' against: his old "associates.' It .may be His turn to-morrow.

What, could Sir Thomas Mackenzie tell the women farm "workers of England who-are--anxious, to, Qomc overseas to work on the land! These ■women, who have jbcen tried ojit in farm work'during-the war, do not \yant' to .go back 'to- what is usually known, as .work, and many of them would like to come to. New Zealand and- settle- here if conditions warrant the 'venture. But what can our High. Commissioner tell them?- What can He. tell anyone 1 We want every acre of our idle lands mWde'productive; there are experienced Jarrn workers and others eager to comb here from overseas to settle on the land; but,'what encouragement .can be held out.to thcm-P Practically none at all. The Government, appears to have as much as it can do under present methods to provide sufficient • land for our. own'returning, s'oldieis. It looks, although .New. Zealand, is going, to miss the opportunity' which the war has opened up of developing a' flow of immigration which if properly directed and : controlled woyld be of,incalculable value to the country.

;It would'.be interesting to know precisely what conditions govern the uses of-the, term "official" in cable messages, if, 'tliat is'to say, there are any such conditions. While the war was,-.in .progress .tho term had an explicit 'value; being .restricted almost solely to' the communiques of the Various belligerent Powers. Latterly,' it seems'to be thrown in at -times in quite an irresponsible waysimply for .effect A New York message, which Was'published yester-' day seemed to represent a case in point.' It stated,:; amongst other things,' that: '-'.It_is officially stated that Bolshevism is making alarming headway in : this"country." -Although the ■ message referred to alleged discoveries by . the United State's Department of Justice,, itwould evidently, be credulous to regard it as -an American official statement-; aild in the circumstances' it must equally lie doubted whether the information it purports to convey is in any way reliable.

; The generosity of the Defence Department in .: distributing military designations, and tlie .emoluments that go.,with' them, is. carried at times ; to .somewhat astonishing lengths. -, A good many .people, for instance, would no doubt like to hear'moro about a series- of Dental Corps promotions and transfers gazetted a: day i or two ago and published in our'news columns yesterday. In one case a lieutenant in the .Dental Corps was jiosted to the Expeditionary Force with the rank of major.. Some half a dozen other ■lieutenants in the Dental Corps were posted to the Expeditionary Force with, the rank of captain. Why dentists who have been working in the camps should be nent stepping upward , in. this fashion may. be clear to the Defence authorities, but will •hardly' be clear to. the man in the strcctiy It is still more an occasion of. wonder .that these dentists should be-posted to the Expeditionary' Force when it is in process of demobilisation.': The appointments instanced, it may be noted, arc dated December r 11,. and December 15, so that they take effect from dates later, by. a month than the ariii'istfce,';.wit.h. Germany. ; JtfoV that

the war is over have been serving in the camps ,: will : presumably either be returned to civil life or employed'for .a ■ time oh transports .or in foreign camps. This being so the.v will probably lie. inclined to 'protest the,, lavish promotion, that is being showered'upon them, more especially since there is no indication that the Defenec Department proposes to deal,in a similarly generous way, with the combatant officers of' the Expeditionary l f orcc. As they stand the- promotions, mentioned...awaken a feeling of curiosity which the '.Defence.authorities ought to be willing to satisfy.. ... ' , .... ,

At time of writing the. latest reports dealing with /events in - Germany suggest.:that' the Ebert : Gov-. ernment is likely to prevail over the,. Bolshevik elements, which arc' striving Jo ,make themselves, supreme';in> Berlin:, Thci position, of course, is still-far from being cleared up, but as they stand and to. a point, the reports ' which' speak of a Government triumph carry; conviction.They state, it will be noticed,, thatthousands of Government troops arc entering Berlin. It seems /'quite likely that evenwhen -the'situation in the capital itself got. out of hand the Government 'w.a? able, to hold disciplined forces in hand elsewhere ready- to intervene at the right moment. It has still to'be seen, however, whether the troops selected, for this i duty will themselves!,beXpr'o,of against the. infection of-Bolshevism. The character, of: the extremist' revolt.in Berlin and some-other,parts of Germany is clearly brought' out in the statement that t{ie prime, ojij ject of its. promoters is! to, prevenD, the, genera] election.; In'this they are: following the example set. -b£.vatic llussian Bolsheviki. It) is..obvious enough that in Germany as iii Russia an allegedly proletarian'movement which aims-above all : things at clocking a popular election is a fraud and a sham." ' ■; -•