RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 71, 17 December 1937, Page 10

RANDOM NOTES

Sidelights On Current

Events

(By Kickshaws."*

You can be sure that a Hull knows all about the sinking of American vessels.

A league has been formed in Britain to defend men against permed hewomen. Now we shall know who really rules the waves.

It may be correct, as the Prime Minister of England says, that slump talk is dangerous, but the boom from those big guns everyone is making is getting louder and louder.

“I remember, after the judgment of the Parnell Commission, when the Irish members were exonerated from the charges laid against them, in a speech at the Cambridge University Union, ’ says “J.D.,” regarding the nicknames of the London "Times,” “Sir Anton Bertram, later Chief Justice of Ceylon, said that the name of this eminent journal should now be changed from 'Jove the Thunderer’ to ‘Vulcan the Forger’.”

it may be that the Emperor of Japan is too sacred to apologise, but it is probably a fact that where the wielding of power is concerned be fails miserably to measure up with the President of the United States of America. Not. only can the President of the United States apologise, but he can do most other things of a diplomatic nature. The recent move to make it impossible for Congress to start a war without a referendum is, in fact, a move to limit his powers. This move will not be carried easily, if only because it involves the very fundamentals of the American Constitution, which, curious'y enough, wanted to make it impossible for an American President uncurbed power. So differently do things work out from that intended that the President is actually more than a king. It is perfectly true that he has not the power to declare war. Congress alone has that power. Yet the President may bring diplomatic proceedings to a point at which war is inevitable.

The President of the United States may wield dictatorial powers in times of peace, but in times of war he is more powerful than was Cromwell himself. The President even in peacetime is Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy, and of the militia of the several States when called into the actual service of the United States. In war time, as Commander-in-Chief, he is entrusted with "the faithful execution of the laws.” These six words may scarcely amount to a sentence, but they give the President of America more than complete power. The framers of the Constitution intended to make the President purely an executive officer. He was given no direct legislative powers. He was, indeed, excluded from the legislature, as were all heads of departments. Yet in order to s check the legislature the framers of the Constitutionwnade every Bill passed by both Houses subject to Presidential veto, only over-ridden by a two-thirds majority. It also occurred to the framers that as the President was iu close touch with affairs ail over the country he would be a useful adviser, so they wrote into the Constitution "He shall from time to time recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary.”

If the present situation due to the sinking of British and American vessels by Japanese airmen is reminiscent of the sinking of the Maine, nations do not go to war so easily these days. Whether it be true or not that the Maine blew up internally, as was suspected after the war had ended, it is a fact that it takes more than that to-day to start a war. Perhaps we still remember the pistol shot that started the Great War. In itself it was a trivial incident, a second-class grand duke was killed. The pall of destruction that this incident created still frightens us from war. But it does not frighten the individual Powers from minor wars. During the 19 years that have elapsed since the Great War ended there have been 16 wars. The list includes wars in Galicia, Ireland, Russia. Morocco, Arabia, Poland, Armenia, China four times, Asia Minor, Syria, South America, Manchuriii, Abyssinia and Spain.

When oue looks back upon the incidents that start war it is curious that, whereas major incidents have been smoothed over, some trivial little thing that a second-rate diplomat might well 1 :tve settled has grown into a major incident, The tierce guerrilla war in Ireland would probably never have assumed the proportions of hostilities but for the fact that a policeman was shot in 1919. War between Britain and America in 1812 was produced by a series of trivial incidents. lu fact, trouble with neutral ships was the cause of that war, made worse, it must be admitted, by the bullying attitude of some British shipping captains of those days. Actually this war was caused by the striking of a brother of an American Congressman by a British lieutenant. In 1731 the alleged chopping off of an ear from Mr. Robert Jenkins, an English sailor at Havana, started a war eight years later. More curious still, a war was provoked between France and Switzerland when according to the custom of the day the friendly nation of Switzerland was asked to select a name for the new-born sou of Francis 1 of France. The King disliked the name selected —Shadraeh. The Swiss Government refused to change it, so Francis declared war.

Perhaps the most surprising cause for war was the fact that a window frame was half an inch out. Louvois, Finance Minister of Louis XIV, built a magnificent mansion for himself with money he had taken from the people of France. The Minister showed Louis over this mansion, but irritated the King with his pompous self-satisfac-tion. Louvois boasted that everything was perfect in the mansion. The King pointed out that a window was half an inch wider at the top than the bottom. The architect was sent for, and admitted the mistake. Louis dismissed Louvois. Louvois knew, however, that Louis would never dare wage a war without his Finance Minister. Louvois therefore stirred up trouble, and iu no time was back in office directing a quite unnecessary major war, all because a window had been half an inch out. One might perhaps add that in the ease of the Great War Turkey would probably have fought for us but for .the fact that a battleship she cherished highly, ordered in England just before the war, was commandeered for the British Navy. This may have been good naval tactics, but. it was an appalling diplomatic blunder.

An error crept into the answer to “Wager” regarding the date in 1935 when the present Government was elected and the date on which the Ministry was announced. The dates given yesterday were the dates that the news appeared in “The Dominion.” The correct dates therefore were a day earlier—November 27 and December 5.