POLITICAL POINTS.

Evening Post, Volume LXVIII, Issue 128, 26 November 1904, Page 12

POLITICAL POINTS.

Mr. Hay, the American Secretary of State, speaking the other day at the Boston Peace Conference, said: "We shall continue to advocate, and carry into effect as far as practicable, the principle of arbitration in such questions at» cannot be settled through diplomatic negotiations. The President is now considering the negotiation of treaties of arbitration with such European Powers as desire them, and hopes to lay the treaties before the Senate next winter." r Mr. Bryce, M.P., addressing the Four Hundred, a Canadian Club, at Toronto last month, declared that Mr. Chamberlain's fiscal proposals would, if carried out, create dangerous friction, and weaken rather tlian strengthen the bonds of the colonies to Great Britain. A possible rise in the prices of necessaries would result in. discontent among the working classes in England and a feeling against the colonies. The traditional adhesion of England to Freetrade would require much to overcome. Britain and the colonies must retain perfect freedom to modify their fiscal systems when necessary. After a long and heated discussion the Government recently decided, by thirteen votes to eight, to ratify the absolute prohibition of bull-fights on Sunday throughout Spain. This resolution is considered as the coup de grace to bull-fighting . Mr Justice Kennedy, addressing the Universal Congress of Lawyers at St. Louis, on the subject of the degree of recognition that should be accorded by Court of Law to judicial action by Courts of foreign nations, expressed the view that a foreign divorce decree should only be recognised when the Court pronouncing the decree belonged to the territory in which the marriage was celebrated. An exception, however, should be mnde in favour of a wife who had been deserted, or was justified in living apart from her husband, and who up to the time of the desertion or misconduct of the husband was domiciled with her husband in the country in whicn the divorce was granted. Honest adherence to this principle would preclude the scandal arising in cases where a couple were held to be man and wife in one country and strangers in another. • Father Hyacinth, of Paris, says of the Pope in an article in the Siecle of the 3rd ult. : "His is a beautiful soul, sincere and pious, but with no real culture. He may read the Abbe Lpisy's complete works in order to set his conscience at ease before condemning them. His state of mind will prevent him from understanding them, as that of the Pope and the Holy Office in 1633 prevented them from understanding what they were doing when they condemned Galileo. Belonging to a family of the working class, with which I am far from reproaching him, the Pope has kept all his native uncouthness. Without scientific and political views, this worthy Italian priest, Giuseppe Sarto, imagines that he can rule France and the modern world by divine inspiration. Deus providebit he says piously after each of his blunders. That is his whole policy. It is sublime, but insane. One of my friends had a private audience with him. . . Pius X. expressed himself in severe terms concerning our Prime Minister, M. Combes, but, on the other hand, praised the German Emperor. Forgetting for a moment that the latter is heretical, schismatical, and excommunicated, he called him this holy Emperor (santo Imperatore)." ' Tlfe Europeen, of Paris, recently published the following information from St. Petersburg: — "I hear from the safest source that for more than a fortnight past M. Lessar has been in communication with Prince Chine, President of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with the cognisance of the Imperial Court and certain cjiiefs of the large Chinese commercial corporations, with a view to negotiating the purchase of the Trans-Manchurian Railway by a Chinese company to be formed for the purpose." Previously the same journal published an article pointing out that it was not- only thtTiutention of Russia, but also of Japan, to restore Manchuria to the Chinese. The Europeen accounted for Russia's attitude in the matter by pointing out that even after a victorious campaign she could only Jkeep Manchuria by providing for the 300,000,OOOf (£12,000,000) which the administration of the province would cost by introducing, prohibitive tariffs, a measure which might cost at no distant date another war, this time with the United States and England. One of the most noteworthy features in the activity to which the Anglo-Tib-etan Treaty has given rise in the Russian press (says The Times) is th.c reproduction at great length of the numerous articles published in German newspapers for the special purpose, apparently, of stimulating Russian hostility to the treaty and increasing the traditional distrust of British policy in Asia. It is believed, however, in well-informed quarters^- that the communications which are passing between the British and Russian Governments on the Tibetan question will defeat the German attempts to make mischief. The discouragement which prevails in German colonial circles is attested by a letter to the Hamburgischer Correspondent, which says that " nothing is so well calculated to destroy all popular interest in ' transoceanic ' policy as the present experiences in South-west Africa." This depression is intensified by the wasteful administration of such poor resources as the colony possesses. Thus the pier at Swakopmund has been allowed to go to ruin to such an extent What noc only are the millions of marks which had been spent on its construction lost, but the German taxpayer is being involved in a very heavy expenditure by the costly expedients which have to be adopted in order to land men and horses, provisions, and ammunition through the surf. The Reichstag will, doubtless, be asked next session to vote a large sum for the construction of a new pier, over and above the increasing demands for the expedition itself. Prince Sviatopolk-Mirski, the new Russian Minister of the Interior, recently held a reception of the higher officials of his De23artment, and declared his policy to them in an important address. The views (says The Times) which he laid before his subordinates, and which he appealed to them to help him to execute, are those of a school of thought to which many of the best type of Russian noblemen belong. They are distinctively liberal and humane, with not a little of the liberalism and the humanity which were in vogue amongst the enlightened members of the French noblesse at the close of the eighteenth century. Prince Sviatopolk-Mirski has been Governor of three yrovinces, and he has shown by the nature of his rule that his devotion to moderate doctrines is not confined to empty professions. His wife, who is a highly-cultivated woman, was a correspondent of Count Tolstoy before tha opinions of the great reformer had degenerated into extravagance. XiouillillillilinnniiiiiniMitiuiiMuiiiiiiiliiliiiliiiiiniii