NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 305, 19 September 1921, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY

With last Saturday's Test game the South African team of footballers brought to a close their New Zealand tour. At tho beginning of the visit -they were not ranked as quite first-class either in Australia or in this Dominion, and it is now plain that they were underrated. As the tour progressed they developed unexpected qualities, until fin. ally they have demonstrated that they can hold their own with the best we have been able to . put against them. Only twice in New Zealand have they been beaten, and twice they have played drawn games. On the remaining occasions victory has gone their way, and usually with a good margin of points in their favour. There can lx? little doubt that the improvement in their form towards the close of the tour was due not merely to better combination, but also to some extent to the ready way in which they adapted themselves to our style of play, and especially to the successful use of the line kick as a means both of gaining ground and saving their forwards. In the Test games honours have been even—a win each and a drawn game. Though the final Test was interfered with by the weather, it produced a really magnificent. forward struggle between two splendidly matched sets of men, and it was fitting that so close and even a contest should have ended as it did. Whether their style of play has taught us anything worth learning may be open to doubt. They do not like our wing-forward game, and they do not specialise as wo have done in tho forward positions, and the fact that they have held their own in getting the ball from the scrums cannot be lightly passed over. Their back play on the whole has been better than ours, but it has been due rather to individual merit than to any specialising in methods or tactics. Incidentally, they have proved the best defensive team that has ewer visited us. They will leave New Zealand carrying the good wishes and respect of all who follow’ the game, for they have not only acquitted- themselves with distinction, but they have shown themselves to be fine sportsmen both on and off the field.

An announcement that Mr. de Valera has accepted a conference should mean that the Sinn Feiners have withdrawn their demand for tho recognition of Ireland as a sovereign State. Mr. Lloyd Gcorgo has made it quite clear that no conference will be held until this demand is withdrawn. The position remains in a measure obscure, however, by reason of tho ambiguity of Mr. de Valera’s letter of acceptance. “Wo have not asked you," he writes to the British Prime Minister, "to abandon any principle, even informally, but surely you must understand we can only recognise ourselves for what we are. If this self-recognition be made the reason for cancellation of the conference,” he adds plaintively, "wo regret it, but it seems inconsistent." As far as it can bo grasped, Mr. de Valera’s idea appears to bo that the Sinn Fein representatives are bound to enter a conference regarding themselves as the representatives ot a sovereign State, but that there is no occasion in the world for Mr. Lloyd George and his colleagues to regard them in that capacity. It is a somewhat bewildering proposition, but pvssibi'ity it does not preclude negotiations for a settlement. The most promising note in Mr. do Valera’s letter is struck in the concluding sentence, in which he speak's of securing "tho result which tho two peoples urgently desire."

Is tho Washington Disarmament Conference likely to do any better than tho Paris Peace Conference? This question has been discussed 1 in America in the comment on a series of addresses delivered at Williams College, Massachusetts, by Lord Bryce. The Versailles Conference, Lord Bryce thinks, attempted to settle definitely too many geographical, racial, and political details and did not deal enough with general principles. It had, of course, a task of unprecedented difficulty that called Tor super-men; persons who had a profound and accurate knowledge of the facts they had to deal with, but also a wide vision, a grasp of fundamental principles, and a calm judgment raised above the angry and revengeful passions of the moment. Tho appearance of such men was not to be expected, as the delegates who attended were bound by the national ambitions, jealousies, anil passions of the constituents who sent them. Tho only cure that Lord.' Bryce sees for this situation is a change in the temper and outlook of tho individuals in the nations. The New York “Outlook” points out that as tho Washington Conference is based on moral rather than political and geographical relationships It is pardonable to hop? that it may be successful in some of tho respects where tho Paris Conference failed. It is in tho main a conference to consider obligations and duties in precedence over rights and privileges, but tho public opinion which makes .self-denying ordinances popular internationally is not as yet very marked.

Japan is apparently sriS determined to persist in settling her relations with China direct and not via the Washington Conference. Further details of her proposals for returning Kiaochau arc forthcoming this morning, and a Tokio message says it is authoritatively stated that if Chimvdeclines these terms Japan will refuse to discuss the question at Washington. /As America is insistent on the open door in China, with all outside nations on equal terms, the very demand of Japan to settle Chino-Japanese questions as matters exclusively for China and Japan is in any case scarcely likely to lie well received in Washington. Nor is the condition that the mines on the route of the Kiaochou-Tsinaufu railway shall be reserved for joint Chino-Japanese exploitation in as strict keeping as it might bo with the open-door principle. The position of China is the kernel of the whole Pacific question. The country is

sinking into anarchy with no central government, and Peking can enforce its decrees only in tho neighbouring provinces. Tho general dislocation resulting has far-reaching consequences. It means, to take tho British insTunce, tho collapse of a most important market for tho British textile trade, and dullness in that trade is not without a bearing in its turn on our own prosperity. Japan until lately was supporting Poking against tho now’ semi-independent provinces, but it was said she was doing it for her own purposes. Latterly Japan has been less active, and Peking without support does not seem to be able to do anything to preserve order. Chinese questions settled in advance may suit Japan, but this method may not coincido with tho interests of the rest of the world so closely.

According to tho London "Times,” an arrangement reached between tho British and Australian Governments regarding the final settlement of tho outstanding balance of about .£87,060,000 still duo by tho Commonwealth to tho Mother Country on account of war expenditure by the former, has been revealed through the medium of an American journal. Australia is to pay annually a sum equal to six per cent, on tho capital. On the bulk of the amount interest will be payable at the rate of 5 per cent., on 111 millions at 4i per cent., and on a small balance remaining! at 31 per cent. The payment of 6 per cent, will provide a sinking fund which will cancel the advance within 37 years. The British Government, it is further stated, has consented to take six and twelve months bills at par in settlement of arrears of interest amounting to some four millions sterling This delayed settlement seems to have been arranged on terms very advantageous to Australia; Tho highest rate of interest to bo paid is low by ruling standards.