NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 230, 23 June 1920, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY

The crime for which Dennis Gunn yesterday paid the extreme penalty was of a peculiarly coldblooded , and atrocious character. On the evening of March 14 last tho postmaster at Ponsonby, Mr. A. E. Braithwaite, was shot dead in his house, tho keys of the post office taken from his body and the office robbed. The case, was remarkable in tliafc the evidencefor the prosecution consisted mainly of fingerprints on tho cash-boxes in the of-fice-and on a revolver subsequently found near Gunn's place of residence. The prisoner's defence was that he was at a picture theatre at the time of the murder. He gave a very detailed account of his movements through the day, but he could give no details of what he saw at the picture theatre, and wrongly stated that a. comic film was included in the programme. _ He refused to allow a print of his palm to be ■taken. His finger-print was identified by Inspector Fowler when placed in a bundle with a thousand others. Mr. Justice Chapman, who presided, said he fully concurred in the verdict, and complimented the finger-print experts, Inspector Fowler and Senior Sergeant Dinnie, on their great diligence and absolute fairness to the prisoner. The statement made by Gunn seeking to implicate others gives no ground for thinking that any miscarriage of justice has taken place. The movements of the men named had previously been investigated by the polidb, and nothing beyond Gunn's assertions has been adduced against them. / * * * *

The Air 'Board is V body whose members can speak authoritatively and with experience. It will possess the best military advice available in the Dominion, it will have a first-class knowledge of Public Works engineering problems to draw upon, the skill of the Lands and Survey head will be at its disposal, and the Post Office will lend it some of its best brains. The only thing; that seems to_ have been forgotten in its composition was to provide a knowledge of the elements of aviation. Perhaps this is as well. From the explanation supplied it appears that the task of the board is intended to be akin to the old one of making omelettes without breaking the eggs. It is to provide us with an air service on paper, and to spend as little money as possible.

■ The attitude of Germany continues to show little evidence of an intention to deal in good faith with the Allies, We are told this morning the German rate of disarmament is officially regarded as "profoundly unsatisfactory." Under the Treaty of Versailles the German Army was to be reduced to 100,000 men oh April 10; but this was extended to July-10 by the Entente. Documents seized b k v the French in the neutral zone in April threw a lurid light on German good faith in this matter. _ A copy was secured of a circular issued by General yon Seekt, in which it was definitely stated: "In no ease will the Army T, e reduced to 100,000 men, as laid down in the Treaty." General von Seekt also approved a circular dated July 1, 1919, issued by the German Ministry of the Interior, informing military commanders that a code word should bo used to notify the impending arrival of Allied commissions of inspections, "in order to-be able to hide certain things of importance." The special correspondent of The Times at Frankfort, in a dispatch giving translations of these circulars, declared that the existence ,of plans for a German mobilisation cannot be doubted, and that conservative estimates of tho number of armed Germans already enlisted in the four military organisations run as high as a million men. Certainly no honest effort seems to have been made to comply with the Treaty, nor will be unless the Hun is drastically shown that further subterfuge is useless.

That Germany is persistently, deceitfully, angrily trying to avoid the' just consequences of her crimes is the verdict of Bishop Cannon, of. the American Episcopal Church, after travelling through the length of the country from Danzig to Berlin, and from Berlin to Holland. There are no devastated fields, no ruined buildings, no flooded mines to be seen in Germany, but all is in order, with the crops growing, the 'factories ready for work, and tho peoples undisturbed iri the homes of their fathers. A few _ kilometres away are the ruins of Liege, Ypres, Albert, and Noyon, the wrecked and flooded mines, the fields torn and ragged with great shell-holes, the dug-outs and woodon huts now-used by the French peasants in place of the homes destroyed by German hate. "A truly repentant Germany, 1 ' says Bishop Cannon, ".would sorrowfully, but eagerly, try,

to make reparation. Tho present] Germany is trying by hypocrisy and delay to evade reparation." If the world cannot have a repentant Germany, it should at least insist od the submissive, obedient, and dePrussianised Germany that is necessary for the future safety of civilisation. #** * . The extreme uncertainty _ of American politics was effectively brought out in the selection of Senator Harding a-s the Ecpublican nominee for the Presidency. It is further exemplified in tiie haziness which obtains in regard to the selection of a Democratic candidate. A list which was cabled yesterday, though it professedly dealt, only with "outstanding aspirants," ran to eleven names, excluding those of President Wilson and Mr. W. J. M'Adoo, a former Secretary to the Treasury. Both the President, and Mr. M'Adoo are retained on the list of candidates, although Mr. Wilson's health is evidently impaired to a serious extent, and Mr. M'Adoo has not only refused tn stand, but took an early opportunity of denouncing the campaign mothods in vogue, and declaring that "the corrupt use of monev to nominate and elect candidates to office is one of the most sinister and serious menaces to democratic institutions." Not the least surprising feature as matters stand is the suggestion that President Wilson. if he_ refuses to seek nomination for a third term, may nominate ' Mr. Bainbridgf, Colby, the present Secretary of State, as his successor. It is said that Mr. Colby's appointment in succession to Mr. Lansing was a surprise to everybody in the United States except the President. This is partly explained by the fact that in his somewhat undistinguished political career, Mr. Colby was at first a Republican and subsequently bfceame a Progressive. In 1902 he was elected to the New York State Assembly as a Eepublican. In 1914 he' unsuccessfully stood for the United States Senate as a Progressive. At that time he severely criticised the Wilson Administration, with which lie now declares himself to be in complete sympathy. As recently as March, 1916, he declared. at an Irish mass meeting in New York, that there was "not even a scintilla of legality at. the foundation of British pretensions to authority in Ireland." The New York Times observed recently of Mk. Colby that "neither his training, his practice at the Bar, his political activities, nor, so far as the public is informed, "bis private studies have given him any special qualification for the office of Secretary of State, where he will be, in title at least, in charge of the foreign relations of the' United States." A new and astonishing turn would be given even to American politics if such a candidate, with or without Mr. Wilson's backing, were put forward by the Democratic Convention as its Presidential nominee. * # * The Prince op Wales, on laying the foundation stone of Australia's future Parliament House at Canberra, jocularly remarked that Canberra seemed to consist at present mainly of foundation stones. The Prince, though he _ would be toq : polite to say so, might have detects ed, also, some resemblance between' those foundation stones and the good intentions with which tho floor of a certain establishment is saidto be paved. It is twenty years since the Commonwealth came "into existence, and it is still without a permanent capital. It was only after the insertion of a provision in the Constitution that .the capital should be in its> territory that v Ncw South Wales consented to; joii& tho Federation. A further; provision that the capital must not' be within one hundred miles of Sydney and must be temporarily in Melbourne was necessary to secure'the adhesion of Victoria. So far Victoria ha? had the best of the transaction, and the capital seems to be firmly" established in Melbourne for a long time to come.