NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 15, Issue 154, 25 March 1922, Page 8

NOTES OF THE DAY

A further addition to the growing list of ultimatums to Germany on the subject of reparations is reported. She is ordered by the Reparations Commission to make during 1922 payments in cash and kind to an aggregate. value of £108,500,000. A payment on this scale would provide interest and sinking fund on little more than one-fourth of Germany’s reparation debt at the figure of £6,600,000,000 at which it was assessed in May last year. In addition Germany is required by April 1 to submit to the Entente a scheme of internal financial reforms. She is threatened in default with a levy on capital. Whether suoh a penalty could bo enforced without spending more than the levy would be likely to return is at best doubtful. It is no doubt in anticipation of the latest Allied demand that the mark has touched a record point in depreciation. At the figure reported to-day it has sunk from its normal value of nearly a shilling to less than one-fifth of a penny. April lis perhaps the most appropriate limit date that could be selected for an ultimatum to a debtor nation which persists in going financially to the dogs whenever it is pressed for payment. 1

A British Select Committee on the telephone service has recommended an amended scale of charges under which a lower rate will be charged for “residential” telephones than for those used in commercial establishments. A similar reform is overdue in this country. At present in Wellington householders in some of the suburbs are paying nearly twice as much for a telephone as commercial establishments in the mid-city area, in which tho telephone is used continuously all dav long. This condition of things is modified .« to some extent, but not very satisfactorily, by the arrangement under which a party-wire connection can ,be obtained at a lower rate. There is something to bo said for the suggestion made by a correspondent, whose letter appeared a few days ago, that this ) country should adopt the system in

vogue in New South Wales. Under that system telephones are installed at a low rental, and a penny is charged for every ordinary call, trunk calls being charged extra. In any case, rates certainly ought to be adjusted on a fair relative basis. Business people presumably would not object to make a reasonable payment for the service they receive. At the same time the effect of cheapening tho telephone to private subscribers no doubt would be to extend the usefulness of the service and make it at once more popular and more profitable. The introduction of the automatic system of course lends itself to a change on these lines.

Many towns in the Dominions have been christened with the names of towns in Britain, and an interesting suggestion in this connection is made by a correspondent in ‘‘United Empire” for February. After the war British cities “adopted” towns in the devastated regions of France, and the proposal is that in the scheme of redistributing Empire population towns in the Old Country should adopt some settlement overseas, and populate and finance it through its teething stages. This idea, put forward by Mr. A. Bartholeyns, has much to commend it. In New Zealand, for instance, if centres such as Hull and Manchester could be interested in the development of suitable blocks of our country a close tie would be created between such cities and this Dominion, and the New Zealand producers and the Manchester and Hull consumers might begin to ■ take an intimate interest in one another. The difficulty would be to provide country of a character suitable for development for such immigrants, and to secure the right stamp of immigrant. The advantage of creating a close link between the Dominion and such great markets as the industrial Norh of England affords would be very considerable in itself, apart from the direct benefits that would be derived by the creation of new and successful settlements.

Close secrecy is shrouding tjie Near East Conference in Paris, at which the fate of Turkey comes up for further and, it may be hoped, final review with a definite peace settlement. British policy in this quarter of the world is swayed by conflicting considerations, and up to the present has not been successful;fijonr any point of view. We aimed at pushing the Turk bag and baggage from Europe—in the histone phrase—but when it came to the point it seemed preferable to leave Constantinople in the hands of tho Caliph of the Faithful rather than rouse the ire of the Empire’s Mohammedan citizens to boiling point. We have shown partiality for Greek aspirations in Asia Minor, largely on the humanitarian principle of securing Christian rule for the Christian populations there, and have clipped Turkish wings so severely that the concession over Constantinople has proved no salve to Mohammedan opinion. France and Italy have viewed the aspirations of Greece —which cannot f be described as an efficient or particularly .worthy State—with jealous eyes, .and, our Near Eastern policy has not improved our relations with these countries. In fact, France has been supplying the Kemalist Turkish forces with arms and ammunition to oust the Greeks altogether from Smyrna, where their adventure promises to have a sorry ending. It is not easy to detect broad general principles in Lord Curzon’s foreign policy, nor to discover any great successes in his specific cures for particular cases. It is only possible to hope that a new leaf may be turned over at Paris. _______