NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 300, 13 September 1921, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY

Figures supplied by the Civic League Hiis morning show the city’s unemployed as numbering about, 500. This is a considerable reduction on the total of 1200 mentioned in some quarters last week. A minimum wage rate of 10s. a day for single men, rising to 15s. for married .men with families, has been suggested by the Civic League. If the average were 12s. 6d., this would mean a weekly bill of about AJIBOO to be met until the council is able to finance the relief works from loan (money. The smallness' of the unemployed figures is a matter for congratulation, and shows that on the whole conditions, though , depressed t are 'ar steadier than would be gathered from •jho talk of some panic-mongers. Some of the uneiilployed are doubtless bettor off financially than some of those who may be asked to contribute towards their support. It remains to bq seen, however, whether tho number that actually turns up for the relief work will be torger or smaller than the registrations. The starting, of relief work is likely, also, to attract unemployed from other districts. If the Government is doing nothing further' in the matter, and leaving the work to the local bodies, each district should certainly bo called upon to provide for its own, and it should be made clear that it is no use outsiders coming in 1 from other parts for jobs on the works to bo put in hand here. * * ( * *

When M. Poincare was President of Franco at the time of the drafting of the Peace Treaty his'influence throughout was on tho side of Marshal Foch against Al. Clemenceau. A cable message this morning shows’ AL Poincare as still briskly agitating to securfc more substantial guarantees for France against ft recurrence of | the German menace. He now points out that when Mr. Lloyd George and President Wilson insisted that Franco should not occupy the Rhine provinces for more than fifteen years they promised that Britain and . the United States would support France against any subsequent aggression. These guarantees lapsed «-on the United States Senate rejecting tho Treaty, and AL Poincare demands new guarantees. This matter has been dismissed at some length in the French Press of late, and while there is a section which is Uncompromising, unyielding,. and pitiless in its logic in pressing for the advantages of victory, the more influential newspapers have intimated that France no longer desires to see made absolute the British guarantee of her territory. At the sariie time there is a strong desire for the “development of the Entente into an alliance. > The basis of such an alliance, it is suggested by Mr. Gauvain in the "Journal f des Debats,” should be a determination to uphold the political system which has sprung from the common victory. A line of conduct should also bo agreed upon in the different fields in which friction is to be foreseen, and as far as possible there should be a common policyin world affairs methodically followed. Neither the world not tho Entente is likely to stand ‘still, And to prevent Britain and Franco from drifting apart there are those who would bring them closer together than they have ever been. British opinion will probably be . that while definite understandings are 'desirable witli all Powers; exclusive alliances are dangerous.

To increase the public opportunities of hearing good music in the city the Society of Musicians has planned a series of concocts, the first of which will he held about the middle of next month. On each evening the work of one composer will be taken. At tho first concert it .will to Grieg, and the selections will include a concerto for pianoforte and orchestra, two melodies for string orchestra; unaccompanied eongs, for male voices and baritone solo; solo pongs; &- planatory remarks; ballad for male chorus; baritone solo and orchestra; and part of the mjjsio to 1 Ibsen’s “Peer Gynt.” This premises a well-varied evening's entertainment. The concerts will bo under the direction of Mr. Horace Hunt and Mr. Robert Parker. The undertaking should appeal to* all musiclovers, and in the term one would like to think the greater part of the population is included.' 'Wellington has been rather lacking in organised series of concerts of this sort, and support of them should bo both a pleasure and duty. Music is an intangible, immaterial thing that many hard-headed people may class as a pure luxury, but if people would, get more of it into their composition it might allay some of tho present perpetual acerbities of politics and industry.

At its face value, to-day’s nows of the Turco-Greek campaign in Asia ; Minor means that the Turkish Nationalists have fought a successful defensive battle Fifty miles west of Angora, and that in consequence of their failure to break the enemy’s stubborn resistance the Greeks may be deprived of ths beet fruits of an offensive which they hod developed to a

point with considerable success. Since the present offensive opened, the Greeks have advanced well oyer a hundred miles, but they cannot win a decisive victory without reaching tho enemy’s rail-head and main base at Angora. If they retire from their present front in the region of tho Sakaria River, the Greeks will leave their enemy not only unbroken, but in unchallenged possession of his heavy equipment, including any guns that can only be moved conveniently by railway, and railway rolling stock. So far as a decisive outcome of the campaign is concerned, everything depends upon tho ability of tho Greeks to dislodge the Turks from the fifty miles of railway still in their possession. If the task of 'breaking through the Turkish positions, in tho neighbourhood of the Sakaria is given up as a bad job, evidence of the plainest kind will be afforded that Greek resources are hopclessly inadequate to tho task' undertaken. The Greeks, of necessity-, have sacrificed c great deal in extending their advance to its present limits, and obviously would not retire if they saw any prospect of reaching their goal—Angora. Although to-day’s news awaits confirmation, it is a familiar fact that tho Turks, never give a better account of themselves as soldiers than in mairitaining a stubborn defence.

No doubt the objection raised by Mr. W. L. Hichens in addressing the economic section of the British Association to the adoption of a differential wage for married and single workers .will be generally endorsed in Labour circles. It is indeed a difficult question to deal with. At the-same time, the'great advantage enjoyed in current economic conditions by the bachelor and wage-earning spinster raises issues which might well be given practical consideration with a view to levelling up the existing inequality to soma extent. In a measure,/the position is met in this country by the income tax exemptions granted on account of children, but even so tho single wage or salary earner has in many cases a great advantage, and this advantage may be accentuated if the new tariff has the effect of providing some additional revenue from Customs duties. Single people, of course, on an average pay much less in Customs taxation than people with families. Considering the bearing apd effect of the different classes of taxation, it would be strictly equitable to impose .heavier direct taxation on single people, with fair exemptions where they are contributing to the support of bona, fide dependants. The position might be met by making the ordinary statutory exemption lower in the case of single people than in the case of those who are married. , In view of the likelihood that high taxation will be necessary for a considerable time to come, tho whole question deserves the thoughtful attention of the Finance Minister and his Department. There is no doubt that high taxation and economic stringency in their combined effect have increased tho bfirdens of married people not only absolutely, but relatively in with those are unmarried.