A BACKGROUND TO THE NEWS

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 202, 23 May 1936, Page 7

A BACKGROUND TO THE NEWS

Britain and Austria Mr. Anthony Eden, when asked in the House of Commons what obligations Britain had incurred to defend the independence and integrity of Austria, referred the questioner to the League of Nations Covenant. The article in the covenant governing the ease is No. 10, which reads: “The members

of the League undertake to respect and preserve as against external aggression the territorial integrity and existing political independence of all members of tho League. In case of any such aggression or in case of any threat or danger of such aggression, the Council shall advise upon the means by which this obligation shall be fulfilled.” The Luddites. In an article in yesterday’s “Dominion” on “Price-Fixing” it was said that “the price-fixers of to-day are the Luddites and rioters of yesterday.” The reference is to the Luddite riots between 1811 and 1816 in England. They were the expression of a notion among the workpeople, especially of Yorkshire, Lancashire and Nottinghamshire, that the distress, which was terrible and general among the poor, was caused by the introduction of machinery into industry. About 25 years before, one, Ned Ludd, a half-witted boy in a Leicestershire village, made himself notorious by destroying stockingframes. The Yorkshire rioters ehose to take a name from this Ned Ludd. The distress was widespread; there was little work to be done; prices were very high; the'Continental war was still draining the resources of the country. Believing, however, that machinery was the root cause of the trouble, the poor, ignorant, half-starved crowds set to work busily to destroy all the machinery they could reach. During 1811-12 particularly, the northern counties were in a perpetual state of disturbance. If the riots were quelled in one place

they broke out in another. The repressive policy of the Government only had the effect of manifesting to the people the necessity of union among themselves by secret societies. With the return of prosperity, however, the riots gradually died out. London County Council. The London County Council will not permit the late Earl Beatty’s EmpireDay message to be read in its schools. The London County Council was constituted in 1888, London being formed Into an administrative county, covering an area of 117 square miles. (The City of London is an electoral division of the county.) The council comprises a chairman. 20 aidermen, and 124 councillors. The term of office for aidermen is six years, and 10 retire every three years. The councillors are elected for three years. The councillors are elected directly by the ratepayers, and the councillors elect the aidermen. The positions of aidermen and councillors are the same except as to the term of office. The council discharges its duties by a very generous delegation of powers to committees under well defined rules, reserving to itself all questions of principle. The Education Committee comprises 38 members of the council and 12 co-opted members, of whom not less than live are required to be women. The education service Involves an annual expenditure of nearly £12,250,000. The council maintains 1134 elementary schools with nearly 554,000 pupils, and 246 secondary schools and technical schools, evening institutes and training colleges, with nearly 173,000 students. In addition it gives grants-in-aid to the University of London and to 80 secondary and technical schools with nearly 75,000 students. The chairman of the London County Council is Lord Snell. The majority of the present members of the council are representatives of the Labour Party. Jedda. Mr. R. W. Bullard, Consul-General at Rabat, has been appointed to represent the British Government at Jedda. Rabat is a seaport of Morocco. Jedda is the principal seaport of Hedjaz, Arabia, situated on the Red Sea, between 50 and 60 miles west of Mecca, of which city it is the port. Consequently the pilgrims bound for Mecca disembark at Jedda. It exports bides, mother-of-pearl, coffee and carpets. On May 27, 1927, Great Britain recognised the complete independence of the dominion of Ibn Saud, King of Hedjaz, in a treaty signed at Jedda. The population is 25,000. Poland and Silesia.

The Polish Government has decided to try more than 100 Nazis arrested in Poland on charges of conspiring to separate Silesia from Poland and join it to Germany. Poland, an ancient kingdom whose history dates from 966, and a great Power from the fourteenth to the seventeenth century, in three partitions—l 772, 1793, and 1795—was divided between Prussia, Russia and Austria. During the Great M’ar it was overrun by the Austro-German armies. On November 9, 1918, it declared Its independence, and this was recognised by the Treaty of Versailles. The territory detached from Prussia and returned aggregated 6973 square miles, and included the “Polish Corridor,” and, by plebiscite, Upper Silesia; from Russia, 101,196 square miles; and from Austria. 30,914 square miles. In Upper Silesia Poland secured 1300 square miles of the 4100 involved. Most of the mineral and industrial values are in Polisir-acquirecl territory. Poland has a non-aggression treaty with Russia, which is to remain in force until 1945. and a 10-year amity agreement with Germany, signed in January. 1934. Communism.

Eighty Communists have been returned to the French Chamber of Deputies. Communism is the organisation of society on the basis of the common ownership of the means of production and of the goods produced. In its negation of private property, and i n its insistence that the production of goods must be for common use, and not for private gain, Communism is akin to both Socialism and anarchism. It differs from Socialism in its theory of the State, in that it substitutes a federation of groups or small communities for the central government of social democracy. This difference is fundamental, the Communist being always mistrustful of the State and desiring its overthrow; while to the Socialist the State is the appointed instrument for working out the economic changes desired. Anarchism differs from Communism in denying even the right of the group or commune to legislate for its members without the consent of all. Communism preceded private property in the early stages of mankind. It is still found among primitive peoples.