POLITICAL POINTS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIV, Issue 108, 2 November 1907, Page 12

POLITICAL POINTS.

In Mr. John Burns the Spectator discovers tho statesman who has most, improved his portion s-ince tho formation ol" the Government. It goes on to say : — Tho qualities which havo gained Mr. Burns the contideme of his countrymen, and obtained for him what we may say, without exaggeration, is a leading placo in the present Cabinet, aro courage and straightforwardness. Mr. Burns has shown throughout his career that he is not afraid of his enemies. But, after all, that is a comparatively easy thing to show. What is far rarer and far more difficult to achieve is not ,io bo afraid of one's friends and supportets. Real political courage consists in being able, when it is right and necessary to do so, to disappoint one's own friends, and to be willing not to do what they expect you to do, or, indeed, what a man might bo expected to do from his previous record or previous utterances. That Mr. Burns will obtain tho support of tho nation as a whole, and of the working-classes quite as much as of other sections 1 , we do not" doubt for a moment. There is nothing that tho British people like moro or respect more than courage in tlu-ir politicians. Nobody cares very much to stand by, or to make, much sacrifice to support, a man who is timorous in his well-doing. When, however, a man hits out boldly for tho s-'-ght, or, at any rate, what ho beKtves to be the right, and does nob trouble about the consequences, mer. willing to stand shoulder to shorter with him -spring up from the -ground. Mr. Burns, in spite o*- enc threats of the Socialists,, will, -we do not hesitate to «vy, retain t'j.e confidence of his own party and of tho country in general. The Saturday Review finds it not easy to determine whether" the financial or the moral objections to the Transvanl Loan Bill are the more serious. The Imperial Government (it says) has pledged the credit of tho British people (half of whom tire their bitter political enemies), in order to bribe a Colonial Premier to adopt a policy which may ruin the colony, but which, it is hoped, will prove that Eadical speeches at the General Election were- not tho rascally, vote-catching lies which all educated men know them to havo been. Mr. Ridsdale, one of tho Eadical members for Brighton, suggests, in a letter to the Timps, an explanation of the conduct of his Government, which saves them from tho grosser charge of political corruption, but still leaves an "extraordinary aberration from tho paths of prudent finance. " Under the Colonial Trustee Act. of 1900 the new Transvaal loan would. have boon open for trustees to invest in. General Botha, Mr. llidsdalo conjectures, said in ' effect to the British Government, "Either guarantee niy loan, or sco your trustees invest in [ what you Know to be an unsafe I security." This suggestion savours I more of Throgmorton-street than of Downing-street : and we do not believe that Mr. Churchill or General Botha gave a moment's thought to (ho trustee and his ward. On this tho Westminster i Gazette observes that "the heart of tho j Saturday . Review has not been touched by tho gift of tho Cullinah diamond." Mr Roosevelt's speech at Princetown, thinks the Spectator, was in every way worthy of tho occasion, and of the man I who made it. It says: — The people of tho United States havo hitherto bslieved too much in the virtue of the printed- statute, and have thought too little of how to carry out tho law. Careless in their easy optimism, and persuaded by claptrap rhetoricians that the principles of democracy would be infringed by giving their judges th-e pay, the pivstige, and the social power and influenco which they possess in this' country— a power and influence which greatly facilitate even-handed justicewhen millionaires and politicians with ft "pull" a/'O to bo dealt with, and in no way prejudice the poor man's CAUSG — they have too often allowed ■ their courts to be impotent when faced by 'great and wealthy trading organisations. The American people have been too apt to think, in fact, that when a thing is ordered to bo done it is done. They have forgotten that there is another stage quite as important as giving an order, and that is seeing to lit sexecution. Unless ample provision i 3 made for such .execution, it is b 'tter j not to give the order at all. Every ' disregarded or imperfectly obeyed order is a j-erions danger and source of weakness to thoso who give the order. It , toachos men to think thnt it is safe j and easy to disobey. If, then, ,Mr. ! Roosevelt can teach his feliow-country- ' men thpt they must ghe up the national habit of passing laws and thon forgetting to carry them out, he will h-.ive coiiKmt d on them an incalculable benefit. Tho man who is for a law but agaimt its enforcement is a national disgrace and a national danger. Those who lo'erato and are nmuscd by su< h an attitndo can expect nothing bnt scandal heaped on scandal, and the gradual i 1 gradation of every social aud political institution. Sir Edward Fry's proposal, at the Hague Conference, that an exchange of information should take place annually betwe-cn the Powers a3 to their respective programmes of construction for new vessels of war and the expenditure entailed by those programmes appeals to the Nation as "a practical offer which in a not distant future may embody large benefits to hninanity and civilisation." If this declaration (it pays) be sincerely translated into diplomacy it may open " tho way to the creation of a detinit© and "powerful League of Peace. But wo are bound in honesty to set out tho difficulties. We. have perfoit laith in tha intentions of tho Prime Minister, who has thus, in part at least, redeemed his pledge to progressive Europe. But ps to tho great spending departments there is no assured hope that 1 hoy will act of their own free wjll. . They ini^ht even act with a certain hostile bias. For example, the Admiralty might prepare estimates on n gencious scale, on the rhaneo that they might be "reduced by mutual agreement." We do not «iy that our statesmen would be guilty of deliberate hypocrisy: but the fact that wo still threnlen Germany with tiro destruction of hf>r commercial marine in time of Avar, while- we ask her to reduce her Ilei4, shows th.it theie is as yet no thoroughly determined and thought-out, policy of p?aoe. Assuminc, however, that the Government ir.paii3 | business, and tint it will take stops to | bring its departments and oilie-ials into loyal co-operatinn with its will, there is no reason why skilful diplomacy shoulel not induce other Governments to act with us.

For tliiity-fonr years jmst the accounts of (lie n;n.al pott of Toi'lon lefused to balamv. Then; was Is 2^d too much in the cash books, and ever since 1573 this Is 2id has piu/.lcd the nfUcial ncLOuntants. Some time 1 a»o ordeis wrru sent from Paris that tlijs state of affaiis must cease. Seven special accountants i\to ' set to woik, and after seven months' hard labour ihp Oordian knot has been untid. ■Admiril Galiibot — a former Minister for Marine, who was thirty-four ye:ns i«s;e> one of tlw oflieeis ot Toulon Ar.-ennl, but who for many yciirfj hits bron li\hi!i m I'.uis on Ins ueiision — li;is j just received ijflickil notice "asking Him to call at tlir Ministry of Finance .md ' ■draw the sum of Is 2Ad. Tfo was underpaid hv this iiinuunl when he. l:ft Toulon la 1575.