POLITICAL POINTS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXI, Issue 136, 9 June 1906, Page 12

POLITICAL POINTS.

Concerning the Marring of the King of Spain, Mr. Edgar Wallace writes in the Daily Miil: — The match found no favour in tl c ultra-Catholic circle of the Court. Queen Maria Cristina, had hoped that- the choice would have fallen upon a princess of Austria, of her faith; and the gre. t officers of State, who have for yeais stood next to the throne and who through the King have ruled Spain, were at pne in that opinion. "A Catholic by birth," they urged, and though they were in the minority, yet they formed the minority that rules and has governed Spain for years. The friends of France in this country — which ifi only another way of saying the British people — (says the Daily Chronicle) will note the composition of the new Cabinet with great satisfaction. We have, indeed, no reason to take sides on the internal politics of other countries, or to discriminate in our sympathetic interest between varying shades in the Republican Party. But as the friends of the French Republic, we may rejoice at the formation of any strong Government across the Channel, and that is what M. Sarrien'a Ministry certainly is. Mr. Irvine, the late Premier of Victoria, who (says the "Pastoralists' Review) is a thoughtful man, arfd one whose views will be received with respect throughout the Commonwealth, has recently, in a speech at St. Kilda, made the suggestion that the mischievous legisj lation of the Commonwealth Parliament I arises from the narrow sphere to which t its operations are confined by the Constitution. Having really nothing to do, he argues, the .Commonwealth Parliament gets into mischief, and consequently ho suggests an extension of its powers at the expense of the State Parliaments. Mr. Irvine's argument appears to up far-fetched and contrary to common sense. It practically amounts to this — that having been unfaithful in few things, the Commonwealth is to be made ruler over many. Major-General L. V. Swaine makes the fallowing interesting communication to The Times: — The occupation by the Turks of Tabah and the incident on the Persian frontier is clearly a game which appeals to the ingenuity of Turkish commanders When I was Military Attache in Constantinople twenty-five years ago Dervish Pasha's name cropped up in connection with the occupation of Dulcigno. I enquired of one of my colleagues what the antecedents of this Pasha were. He replied, "Dervish Pacha est tres fort 6ur dcs questions de frontieres," and then went on to tell me that some years back he had received a command near the Persian frontier shortly after that portion had received a rectification, and one of his first acts was to move the frontier stones several kilometres back into Persian territory. . Mr. Henry W. Lucy, the London correspondent of the Sydney Morning Herald, writing on the Education Bill, says : —The olerical party cannot in existing circumstances dominate the House of Commons as they did four years ago; but they can control the House of Lords, and may bo counted upon to do so. Nothing will please noble lords more than the opportunity of marching under the sacred banner of the Church to flout a triumphant Liberal majority in the Commons. If. the Education Bill passes on anything like the lines on which it now stands the Lords will throw it out, bringing about a conflict between the two Houses that in the present drift of political opinion may have -momentous consequences. Following, as in all probability it will, on similar treatment extended to the Tradesunion Bill, the limit of popular patience may be reached and passed. Regarding 'the suggestion sometimes made that the exercise of tho franchise should be compulsory, the Sydney Morning Herald pertinently writes :—lt: — It is not the man who values his electoral privileges who would be effected by a law compelling the registration of a vote. 1 The man that ought to bo influenced is the man who' does not value his privilege at a pin's point. If he were deprived of this privilege for the term of his natural life he would not care in the least ; perhaps he would welcome the sentence. Further, the compulsory enforcement of voting is an impossibility. You might drive a man under threat of capital punishment to the polling-booth, but if you pay any regard to the secrecy of the ballot you cannot ensure his voting. He may mark his ballot paper, since that would be necessary to secure the avoidance of pains and penalties ; but how can you ensure that ho will not purposely add to the disappointing number of "informal" votes? You cannot make men good members of the body politic by forcing them to vote. All you can do is to educate them up to their responsibilities, and -let them see something of what they owe to their unpatriotic neglect of their public duty. By the enormous majority of 376 (says the Daily Chronicle) the House of Commons has placed on record, first, that in the recent general election tho people of the United Kingdom declared in favour of the principle and practice of Freetrade ; and, secondly, its own determination to .resist any attempt to create a system of Protection, "whether by way of taxation upon foreign corn or by the creation of a general tariff upon foreign goods." Some people, now that the debate is over, have begun to wonder whether, after all, it wus worth while. What was the use, they ask, of affirming the obvious and recording the well-known? In answering the question, something must be allowed to human nature. It was desirable on publio grounds to place on record the true significance of the recent elections, and to take a vote of the new House upon the issue which dominated them, so that the -strength of the two parties upon it might be precisely known. It is a memorable fact that not even one hundred members were found in the lobby against Sir James Kitson's profession of faith in the principle and practice of Freetrade. After so significant a vote, the cause is finished. The North-German Gazette (says The Times) has "heard" that the resignation of Baron yon Holstein has been accepted. There is no reason to question the accuracy of. its. information, or to doubt that the man who has hold the threads of German foreign policy under successive Chancellors and Foreign Ministers for a quarter of a century has quitted tho Wilhelmstrasse for ever. Herr yon Holstein filled a position for which no equivalent exists in our service. He was for all practical purposes the permanent head of the Intelligence Department of the Foreign Office. In this capacity, after having been the confidant of Prince Bismarck in the old days, he has been the confidential adviser of every Chancellor and of every Secretary of State who has directed the foreign policy of Germany since that statesman's fall. He waa tho ablest of the group of able subordinates whom Bismarck gathered round him, and he was iv many respects an apt and an eager pupil in the methods of his, master. The sudden disappearance of so importani and so constant a factor in German policy can hardly fail to affect, and to affect materially, tho general trend of that policy itself. It is a far more important event than the retirement of any Foreign Minister, whether in Germany or in any other Continental State. It makes a gap, and a great gup, in the continuity of German foreign policy, and makes it, .too^ at a critical tim«. t