POLITICAL POINTS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXI, Issue 148, 23 June 1906, Page 12

POLITICAL POINTS.

Tariffs (says the Daily News) promote extravagance, and extravagance raises tariffs. There never was a period (6ays the Daily Telegraph) when the -older people in the world were not convinced that manners were on the down-grade. There i 8i 8 to be a general Afrikander rising from the Cape to the Zambesi (says the Transvaal Leader) for the purpose of throwing off British supremacy. It is to be on the face of Si an Afrikander versus British struggle. But there will be a vast number of Britishers by descent who will willingly throw in their lot when the cause is a free and Republican South Africa. Schools (says the Outlook) may be regarded as armouries where those who have the desire may, in part, equip themselves for tho battle of living. If tho nation takes the responsibility of selecting the equipment it must pay due regard to the requirements of active service. We may easjly make the mistake of supplying a sword when all that was needed was a ploughshare. Whilst m ten years the- population has increased 10 per cent, (says "A.8.C.," in Public Opinion) the Imperial expenditure has . increased 39 per cent. While tho savings of the thirty years ending in 1899 e^bled the country to reduce the National Debt by 150 millions, our capital indebtedness has by Tory misrule been re?u? vc ™ }o the condition in which it was in 1871. Meanwhile our unfunded debt has increased by over forty millions, lhose figures may be humdrum. But as an indictment they are enough to crush Tory prospects for many yeara to come. Concerning the Home Budget, the Westminster Gazette says, "It is the best possible in the circumstances," and the Manchester Guardian describes Mr. As.quith as "still liquidator of another Chancellor s business rather than master of hie own." "Chaos at the War Office," says the Daily News, "chaos upon the money market, and chaos among the local authorities have followed the footsteps of spendthrift statesmen, and have left for Mr. Asquith a problem of appalling complexity which it has required his clear head to state, let alone to solve." Lady Warwick (saya a writer in Lloyd's News) is go strongly in favour of the btate maintenance of school children that she is convinced the time is coming when everybody *tdll speak not of "my children," but of "our children." There is nc f Socialist so extreme, some might say so absurd, as tho aristocrat who takes up what is regarded as the people's cause. Lfl-dy Warwick is simply adapting to the purposes of her own peculiar crusade the ideas of the school pf Rousseau. We can only say, ''Pity the children" if they are to substitute the parentage of the State for that of their fathers and mothers. Discussing the Tabah incident, the TriDune says: — Abdul Hamid may perhaps have undertaken this adventure with somt idea of revenging himself upon Engalnd for tie lead which she took in imposing reforms upon him last December in Macedonia.. He may also have assumed that Germany, which at that time aspired to the role ot "moderator" of the demands of civilised Europe, would naturally lend him her aid. The miscalculation was not unnatural. For ten years past Germany, in pursuit of commercial advantages, has steadily pursued the policy of supporting Islam against the reforming activity of the West. She has chosen a difficult client, whom she cannot alwayc control. It is to be hoped that the suspicions, groundless though they are, to which her habitual policy has given rise in the present instance, no less than the reckless and il-mannered conduct of her protege, may suggest to Germany the unwisdqra of a&sociating herself too closely with the fortunes and policy of a State which stands in effect outside the comity of nations, " , Evidence (says the Pall Mall Gazette) is accumulating to prove that Germany is losing no timo in making the results of the Morocco Conference felt in French Africa. The correspondent of the Temps at Tunis has just recorded certain facts which go to show that there is a Mussulman agitation at work, which is being stimulated by Germany. In Tunis itself acts of aggression against Europeans are becoming more frequent, and "foreign agents are travelling throughout the Regency, affirming that the real protector of the Mussulmans is the German Emperor, and that the Sultan of Turkey is going tp recover Tunis." This, of course, is only an ex-partp statement, which will, if it be thought worth while, be met by the most uncompromising denial on the German'side 5 but anybody who doubts the inherent probability of its truth must be blessed with a belief jn the guile! essness of Teutonic methods which scarcely renders him a fit judge of such a question. It is the obvious German game to promote such a spirit of unrest in French Africa that, m the event pf a European war, France would not dare to withdraw a single sold>r qf her enormous gurrison beyond the Mediterranean. The week m Parliament (says the latest Westminster Gazette) has been businesslike, but not sensational, unless we accept thf. mild sensation mad.c by the Women's suffrage demonstrators in the Ladies' Gallery. That led to a prompt clearance of the Ladies' Gallery and a fur, ther hardening of the heart on the part of the nuile Pharaohs of the Hpuse of Commons. It was a foolish and impolitic disturbance, but masculine logic will, we hope, be stropg enough to consider the question on its merits, opart from this trivial incident. Woman's Suffrage is in the unfortunate position of dividing both parties, which deprives it of the ac* tive backing of any Government, Liberal or Conservative. There is probably a majority pledged to it m the present House of Commons, hut there 'm nevertheless no serious, qhance Q f jt B pasoing into law in the present Parliament, or, indeed, in any Parliament in which the Government itself is not pledged to it. This is i'xasperatipg to zealous Suffragists, but tho meaning of the situation is that there is nnt enongh steam behind the movement to carry it against the passive resistance or half-heartednes» of the ma T jority of the community. Mr. Philp, leader of the Queensland Oppositipn, addressed a large public jaeebing at OlopcHrry on the oth inst. Mr. Philp, fipeaking of the Government, (said he could see bnt little difference between them and his own. party. While the members pf the present Government were in opposition, they opposed syndicate railways and Belling land, hut niqce they came to power they Jwd been worse offenders in this respect than the late Government. They had given a concession to a syndicate to build the Ethpridge line, for which, had he given the same terms, he would haye been bowled at all over the country, He referred to the Bill introduced five years ago to provide for a lone to Cloncurry, and the action of the Labour Party, especially Mr. Kidson's action, in blocking the measure. He (Mr. Philp) was anxious to provide railway communication to Olonourry. Ho had built a line from Hugbenden to Richmond. It would nqt have stopped there if tho present Government had been in earnest. He thought the Government chould build a railway to Qloncurry, and then, let the companies build tramways to their mines, the same as in tho BUgar districts. Speaking of the coming elections, Mr. Philp said hio party had been twitted with not contest ing by-elections. They liad not done so, but intended to put forward seventy-two candidates at the next election, contesting, eyery neat •in ib&iloiue* * '