TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 48, 26 February 1908, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Two of tho least enviable tasks to which the British GovprnA Thorny ment is committed durQuestion. ing tha present session are represented by the Education Bill, which has just been introduced, and the Licensing Bill, which has not yet seen the light. According to the original forecasts, which seemed to bo confirmed by the arrangement in the King's Speech, +ho Licensing Bill was to take precedence ; but now that education has como first, tho other thorny question may have a long time to wait. In introducing the Education Bill, the president of the Board of Edncation made an appeal which reminds one of Mr. Seddon's usual exordium on the introduction of a Licensing Bill guaranteed to please all parties. Mr. M'Kenna appealed for "sympathy and the abandonment of partisanship," and the success of his plea is already obvious. The Nationalists ore Haiti to be "strenuously non-committal" — a praiseworthy but difficult attitude which is probably inspired by their hones and foars for their own University Bill, and cannot be indefinitely prolonged. From the ISl ouconf ornnblts, *i h-Ik>a»> ihstancu the Bill has been introduced, it is receiving but a lukewarm reception ; and while Mr. Perks on their behalf "suggests tho reconsideration of the urban clauses," Mr. Balfour ;s; s satisfied that the real hardship falls ipon parents in country areas. Mr. Balfour is also convinced that the Bill will not bring peace, and probably he is right. H« may certainly be relied on to prevent ! any peaceful Mjlatiju oi. the> lines idopted by the Government, though his own role as peacemaker with the Act of 1902 was the causo of nearly all the trouble. Let the trouble continue long enough, and peace will be found in the hecidar solution which so far tho Labour party alone dares to advocate.

Our cable message snys that, wishing to prove that th© NoviTurkey and bazar railway concession Macedonia, does not interfere with reforms, Germany has induced tho Sultan to agree to a renewal of tho authority given to foreign officials who are supposed to be improving administration in unlucky Macedonia. It is added that, because the Ambassadors of the Powers cannot agree on details, the Sultan has rejected the proposad. Of all which- Apella the Jew and his descendants mny believe as much as they phase. All that Turkey wants to restore order is permission to send fifty thousand troops into the miserable provinco. These would make short work of tho Greek banditti and the Bulgarian bandilti who are busy cutting each other's throats and those of tho Macedonian incidentally. But because these banditti are nominally Christians of the Creek Church and itu •offshoot, Christian Powors will not allow the Sultan to govern his own province in his own Mussulman way. And some of the Otvistian Powers do not want Macedonian peace at any price. What >is obviously needed is a strong hand to turn pillngers and marauders out of tho provinco and restore order. But "whose strong hand? If not Turkey's, then Austria's is plainly called fo>\ Austria, with Germany at h?r back, svarits to extend her Bosnian protectorate over Macedonia, and thus roach tho Mediterranean — which means trade and a naval bass. Russia is willing, if she is allowed in return a free road to Constantinople, not otherwise. Italy, France, and Biitain aro in a quandary. They wil l not agree to the extension of Austro-German power or Russian power. They do not wish to agree to restore unrestricted Mussulman domination in a Christian province. They do not wish Macedonia to remain a land of rapine and murder ; since that stato of things, existing without the interposition of tho Powers, exists to some extent by their authority. So there is a deadlock. Macedonia continues to be robbed and murdered with tho connivance of Germany and Austria, and possibly of Russia ; and the Sultan is blamed for what he is not allowed to . alter.

The privileged oldest-born of England's numerous colonial An Old Fishing family, Newfound- • Trouble. land, ha 3, not infrequently, been treated with a marked degree of kindly indulgence by the Mother-country's statesmen. Established as a colony in the old hardy Elizabethan days, this lonely outpost in the blustering Atlantic has been a favourite pawn in the game of diplomacy. For a century or so there has been a 'triangular duol in diplomacy between England, France, and the United States over fishing rights in New foundland's wateis. The French were the first to appreciate the potential wealth of the vast fishing grounds of tho Banks, that submerged pieco of North America that stretches for 300 miles into the Atlantic. This is the habitat of tho cod, and hero follow the hardy fisher folk told of by Kipling in his "Captains Courageous." Tho French still possess two tiny islands off tho coast to remind them of their once splendid possessions in America. But in addition they hay? certain treaty rights, and, as with the United States, the disputes havo been interminable. To-day's cable informs us that Canada has agreed to submit her claims, along ■ with those of Britain, Newfoundland, and the United States, to the Hague Conference. This is progress. Many, worthy people wax impatient at tho slow adoption of the principle of arbitration in international disputes. Its advantages being so manifest to their minds, they would call into existence an international police to compel reference |to the Hague tribunal. This intricate and tangled old Treaty of 1818 will give the international jurists something to unravel. The value and wisdom of arbitration is being recognised more and more as a sane method of settling disputes. This appears to be a case, to use a colloquialism, of "try it on tho dog," and tho better the dog — i.e., the smaller State — behaves under the treatment, the the better for the cause of arbitration.

Germany is tho enemy, or the other enemy ; but not GerTho German mans, in the AustralaSottler. sian aspect. For the Germans mako here, as in America, some of our best colonists ; and their children, or at least their grandchildren, aro apt to become as good Britons as anybody. Tho Kaiser does not want to lose his surplus population in that way, by merging their productive capacity in the wealth of another nation; and he holds his citizens everywhere liable to return for military service when called upon. That little difficulty can bo got over by letters of naturalisation; and for German peasants, intelligent agriculturists, it seems as if at present we could not have too warm a welcome. Tho town-bred Germans aro another class, much less desirable : we want tillers and toilers, not waiters and traders. It was the peasant class that Premier Kidston, of Queensland, had in mind wh«n welcoming the | officers of a German cruiser in Brisbane yesterday. His remarks were, perhaps, not exactly appropriate to the occasion; for the Kaiser's cruisers sail to carry out the Kaiser's policy — which, as snid, is directly opposed to any loss of good Germans to the flagof their own Empire. Still, 'Mr, Kidston's kindly protestations possibly did no harm, even if addressed to the wrong audience to favour the further immigra- ' tion which he suggested. German settlers in Queensland have indeed been smonjst th© best. Quiet-living and hardworking, they have put their shoulders to ttio wheel of real progress; and, as Mr. Kidston. »aict, tht more of such men wo gain the better. But th? Kaiser will hear that with mingled feelings ; and, of course, the cruiser will report to the Kaiser. It is a part of the German naval machine-, and one day we may have to ask ourselves what kind of naval machine we have ready to oppose it. Mr. Pa/ul Kennedy, an American gentleman who is at present Conference on visiting New Zealand Tuberculosis, with the primary ob ject of studying our social and industrial problems, contributed an interesting statement to our columns yesterday on tho subject of the International Conference on Tuberculosis which is to meet at Washington on the 21st September next. With his usual munificence. Brother Jonathan is prepared to do all the financing himself, mainly, it seems, from private sources. Mr. Kennedy, therefore, does not come to us, cap in hand, for subscriptions, but he does ask that the colony should contrihuts. to the common fund of knowledge and experience which the promoters of the conferencci aro organising against one of the deadliest scourees of civilisation. I Ho hopes that New Zealand may either send a representative to Washington or ■arrange, to have a stitemert of the efforts being made here to combat the Whits Plague being puf. before tho mcoting. It j seems to us that the former of the?e 1 alternatives would bo too costly, both in the direct outlay and in the indirect loss arising^ thTouqh the withdrawal of scmo specialist from the fiahting-line here. But an official statement of the Trod* that New Zealand is doing, and hoping to do, in this warfare would be of interest and value to the conference, and obviously Dr. Mason is the man to prepare it. "In the United States," says Air. Kennedy, "we tell consumptives not to spit. Hero you believe in giving a man a good square meal !" The conference will have a fine wide scope if it i& to deal with the ways and means of the lattrr problem, and ns to the former, Dr. ..ojon rreed not tell the conference that tho Wellington City Council tells consumptives and others no\ to spifc on tho pavements, but takes no pains to see that its word is obeyed.