POLITICAL POINTS.

Evening Post, Volume LXX, Issue 37, 12 August 1905, Page 12

POLITICAL POINTS.

"Enough!" the St. Petersburg Slovo exclaims. "Blindfolded for two hundred years, the Russian people have been marching to tho brink of destruction; but tho bandages are now torn from the eyes of a hundred and thirty millions of Russians, and they will neither be led nor driven over the precipice. Let the people speak ! From this moment a convocation of the people has become as necessary as the air we breathe." St. Petersburg for the first time since the war began (writes the correspondent of The Times under date 28th June) is directly affected by the mobilisation, which has hitherto been restricted to the suburban districts. It is expected that about eighty thousand reservists, mostly mill hands, belonging to the conscriptions of 1891, 1892, and 1893, will, be summoned in the city and province, but that' not moie than a third of the number will be taken. The Federal Labour leader, Mr. J. C. Watson, does not think that the Papal encyclical will affect the controversy as to the. extension of State Socialism in Australia either one way or the other. "From what. I know of the Roman Catholics in the Commonwealth," he said, "they, while deferring to the judgment of the Pope upon matters of religion, refuse to accept any politica l guidance from that source. Consequently they are> likely to form opinions for themselves." The belief, deduced "-om Paris tele--grams (says the St. Petershirg correspondent of The Times), that the FrancoGerman crisis is on a fair road to a settlement evokes a sigh of relief in Russian official circles. The newspapers oannofc forgive Germany for what is considered perfidious aggression on her part, and even the Novoe Vrernya now openly denounces the German attempt, as it says, to subjugate France by "scaring" her from England. Moscow's political meetings (writes The Times correspondent) are attracting considerable attention. Perhaps the most interesting one has been a gathering of five hundred peasants from various provinces who seem to have assembled and dispersed in the most unostentatious, businesslike fashion after passing resolutions condemning the present communal system and recommending the extension of Zemstvos to the village administration. The fact that -such a gathering has been held is remarkable evidence of the progress of the peasants. Punch publishes the following communication on the subject of the Colonial Conference:— "My dear sir,— l write as one who may bo said to have initiated the idea of Colonial. Conferences, Why, I want to know, should they necessarily he held in England, one o,f the smallest sections of our world- wide Empire? Could they not meet in rotation at our various seatsx of practically independent Government? I shall be most happy to inaugurate this development, and to afford "facilities in New Zealand for a conference of delegates from the Home Country and om sister colonies. Details follow as soon as I have held a general election.— Yours preferentially, S-dd-n." "For the moment," says the London Outlook, "the Kaiser is scarcely less than the dictator ol Europe. He holds a position of actual and potential power almost Napoleonic in its range and effectiveness . . The Kaiser, who for eighteen years has tried tinavailingly to hypnotise France, is now trying to terrorise her, and the same pressure tint was exerted to secure the downfall of M. Delbasse will be employed again to extract concessions on a yet greater scale France, according to the German calculations, must be taught, roughly taught if necessary, to realise that she cannot afford to neglect Germany, that her very existenco depends upon the forbearance of her eastern neighbour, that she is absolutely isolated in Europe, and that against the perils of that isolation no agreement with England can be of real protection. . . . When these lessons are learned the inference that it is to the interests of France to cleave to Germany will, it is thought, become unavoidable." On the subject of the Odessa trouble The Times writes"ln any ordinary European State possessed of a more highly organised political and social life the events which have occurred would probably be regarded as the forerunner of a general convulsion, if not as tho tokens of impending dissolution. That would be a large assumption to make in Russia, where the body politic is so loosely knit that the maladies of its outlying members do not necessarily affect the vital organs to the same mortal degree as in societies of a more developed type. But even in Russia they are evidence of profound social disorder which may prove pregnant with the gravest consequences to the Government and to the established institutions of the Empire." The Saturday Review, in discussing the renewal of the Japanese Alliance, expresses the opinion that India does not lie within the field of Japanese activity: "There is no reason to anticipate any missionary enterprise of Japan on behalf of the Asiatic idea; though she mght use the idea for her own national ends. A more considerable danger threatens from her future relations with parts of our Empire which are not Asiatic. In fact, it is very difficult to see what effective answer we can give to a protest on her part against the exclusive policy pursued by some of our colonies towards her subjects. She has proved herself the superior of a great European Power in the field and at least her equal in all the humanities of warfare. She enjoys an alliance on equal terms with ourselves. By what logic then, can her subjects be excluded from some of the King's dominions as unfit to work and live in them? Our only anwer can be that wo have no control over colonial legislation, which amounts to saying that our Empire is nothing but a very loose confederation with no central authority — which is unfortunately the fact. . . . These reflections must raise doubts, but in considering alliances tho demands of the present are peremptory ; while tho far future is generally left to take care of itself." Adolf Beale, a Norwegian, writing on the Scandinavian difficulty to the Daily Mail, says:— "Union is strength"; disunion and separation, weakness for both countries. Scandinavia is more than a geographical expression; even if practically a common language went for nothing, the common danger from stronger neighbours should ever bind together the separate parts into" a strong, united whole, that the doom of a sister race, tho unhappy Finlanders, might never even threaten free Scandinavians. Is it too late even now for moderation and compromise? Cannpt some alternative be found by tho statesmen of both nations that shall not entail the breaking of a bond whoso maintenance is not only in the interest of the countries immediately concerned, but also in the best interest of Northen Europe as a whole? While each nation shall bo free, independent, self-controlled — may God grant not separation, but closer union— that at somo not far distant day tho separate flags of Norway, Sweden, aim Denmark bo blended into a Scandinavian "Union Jack" — a trinity in unity, under which all may go forward in united strength, and closer brotherhood.