POLITICAL POINTS.

Evening Post, Volume LXVIII, Issue 134, 3 December 1904, Page 12

POLITICAL POINTS.

Mr. Asquith at Ladybank the other day again tackled the Fiscal question. He criticised the recent utterances of Mr. Balfour and Mr. Chamberlain, and, with reference to their repudiation of Protection, said the latter statesman exactly advocated that which the former abandoned. In view of this state of facts, he suggested that we should have to revise all our definitions and re-write our political dictionaries. He ridiculed the idea of a Colonial Conference, contended that such a gathering would be productive of harm rather than good, and urged that the policy of Freetrade was more than ever necessary, not only to our prosperity but to our very existence as a, people. Mr. Victor Cavendish, M.P., Financial Secretary to the Treasury, addressing his constituents in West Derbyshire, said he was moat heartily and cordially in agreement with the Prime Minister, who assured his hearers, in the most emphatic terms, that if ever the policy of Protection became the policy of the Unionist Party, he would be unable any " longer to continue as its Leader. If Mr. Balfour retired rather than accept such a policy, he would find one humble follower in him. Mr. Andrew Carnegie, in a letter to the International Peace Congress, says : — "Suppose Great Britain, France, Germany, and the United States, and such other minor States as would be certain to join them, were to take up a position to preveat appeals to warj and would be prepared, if defied, to enforce a peaceful settlement, the first offender being vigorously dealt with, war would at one fell swoop be banished from the earth. The gravity of the financial condition Of Cape Colony is emphasised by the revenue returns for August, which, although swollen by the inclusjon of the yield of Excise duty, are the lowest recorded for any month during tha last two years, with qne exception. Of the two months of the current financial year the figures chow a deficit of £154,976. Rigid economy is being exercised in all departments of the Administration. The general trend of public opinion in India appears to regard Mr. Balfour's proposal for an Imperial Conference with lukewarmness, if not with actual indiffer- ! ence. The Tunes of India admits that such a conference would be of great advantage, but urges that its decisions should not be binding on Governments sending representatives, and sees no reason for departing from the view of the Indian Government, that any alteration iv the existing system is undesirable as far as India is concerned. Other Indian journals refer coldly to the proposal, and 'in some cases disapprove of it. Sir Wilfrid Laurier, speaking at Guelph recently, said: — "We have a place in our hearts for British preference, but the feeling is not mutual yet. It is true that preference would be a benefit, but would it not be more beneficial if the preference came from Great Britain? Undoubtedly it would. I teil you, fellow-countrymen, that the Government of Canada, as constituted to-day, is readfy to go on and make a treaty of commerce with Great Britain to the extent of preference as soon as the British people are ready to give corresponding preference. The answer is no longer in our hands but in those of the English people. With goodwill and a determination to give common ground an understanding can be reached." The Times says of Lord Milner: — "Whenever Lord Milner leaves South Africa his' departure wiJ mark a date in the history of that portioD of the British Empire. Fierce controversies have raged at Home about the character of his policy and the wisdom of his measures. ' In the colonies of. the sub-continent; and most of all, as is but natural, in the Transvaal, some of the plans he has drawn out and some of the acts he has sanctioned have been sharply criticised by different interests. But all white- men in South Africa, whether they be of British or of Boer stock, have fully recognised from the first days when they learnt to know him the greatne&s of the man and his work." The Novoe' Vremya, the semi-official journal of St. Petersburg, said the other day that it was necessary for Russia to make up her mind to the necessity of a long and arduous struggle. She must resign herself to all the necessary eacrices in men, time, and money in' order not to permit, through a hasty peace, the further growth of a power which would oblige her to shift the centre of gravity of her foreign policy. The correspondent of the popular Republican journal adds that such language would not have been used at the beginning of the war. Since then there has been a considerable change in public opinion. The Johannesburg Leader, in an article on Lord Milner, says:— "The news of Lord Mijner's early departure conies as j a' shock to the public, inflicting a sense I of almost personal loss. Even his critics will feel that with him goes a man of absolutely single-minded purpose, high and large ideals, and pure and lofty patriotism. It will require careful study to find a successor worthy and able to take up the work which Lord Milner is laying down." The Star says : — "Lord Milner returned last December for the purpose of fringing the Transvaal ship of State into port, and that purpose has now possibly been fulfilled." There must now (says The Times) be some 7000 German troops engaged in the operations against the Hereros, and the new insurrection of the Bondelzwart Hottentots and of the Witbois in the southern part of the colony will doubtless necessitate the despatch of further reinforcements. The members of the Reichstag, which wjll reassemble next month, are looking forward with apprehension to the financial demands which the Government will have to make for the cost of the expedition and for the support of the devastated colony. The Russian order to American firms fox 30 submarines of the Protector type, which are now being built, has been immediately followed by an order from Japan of 50 submarines of the Holland type. Neither country has drawn the attention of the Slate Department to the building of these boats, and neither is expected to do so, as both are practically in the same position, while it is, believed in Washington that the United States does not violate the laws of neutrality by carrying out these orders. Commenting on the news that the Tibetan Treaty was not signed by the Chinese Amban, the Novoe Vremya of 6th October says:— "Some foreign newspapers, discussing the impression produced by the expedition to Lhassa, proceed from the assumption that this expedition consfci tales an ovtrwhelming success for England and, at the same time, a crushing blow to Russian policy in Asia. Wo are unable to adopt this point of view. Public opinion in Russia was no doubt disagreeably impressed by the feverish, we might almost say the childish, eagerness of the British to profit by our difficulties in the Far East ; but, after all, not one of us would have raised his hand to throw a stone at British politicians merely because they elected to puisue a matter-of-fact policy." The Times believes that the recent defeat of the Portuguese in their. West African territories and General yon Trotha's slow progress and small success are calculated to create a temper among the natives which may become a grave menace to the peace of South Africa, unless energetic measures be immediately taken to put a speedy end to the state of affairs in the German colony.