TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 107, 2 November 1909, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

It is not necessarily a reflection on New <( Zealand that the Cadging" mail-bags, ' bulging from Carnegie, with "begging letters," consigned to that much-sought address, SJdbo Castle, the home of .Carnegie, contain entreaties irom individual inhabitants of this country, but it. is another story when the mendicant cap is in the hand of a coit poration. Many local bodies have asked the millionaire to send them money for public libraries. Some of the applicants hav.e received a dole, and others have been snubbed. Nearly ' every one ,has been obliged to put up with some trite but necessary advice which should have brought a -flush of indignation to the face of any stuidy burgess — not wrath against the shrewd Carnegie or his agents, but anger against" the local body which pleaded for the charity. The Parnell Borough Council is. the latest to receive a species of rebuff. This body prayed to Carnegie for £5000 for the erection of a free public library, and the magnate's answer is that half that sum should be necessaiy for that purpose. Will Parnell profit by the slap, or will the council further demean itself by modifying the plans and repeating its petition for foreign funds? The quality of "charity" may be unduly ' strained, and may bless neither him who gives nor him A\,ho takes. If Carnegie's benefactions have the effect of sapping selfreliance and sturdy independence, once much prized, ha will do far more, mischief in dispensing his millions than ever he did in amassing them. It is not a noble spectacle — this cap-in-hand posture of New Zealand communities seeking unearned "tips" from a distant millionaire. The Daily Chronicle, a representative London Liberal newsrohunga Stead paper of high stanßand _ ing, has amazed its the Chronicle, contemporaries and the public by an action which cannot but be lowering to the prestige both of the press and the party with which it is associated. According to our cable news to-day, it has sought from "Julia's Bureau/ through Mr. Stead, fuller elucidation of the views of the ghost of Mr. Gladstone than his recent (alleged) brief message of the postcard style conveyed, and the accommodating^ Julia has supplied "a special message," described as an extraordinary communication more than two columns in length. The political criticisms, as summarised, seem to be of the. most trite and commonplace sort ; but the Pall Mall Gazette is surely going too far when it characterises the communication as an " infamous and blasphemous concoction." It may quite legitimately be held (hat to endeavour to -communicate with the departed spirit pf a great man Wy be unlawful, irreverent, superstitious, of in bad taste, but by no legitimate use of language can such an act be described as blasphemy, while, if the communication itself were of such a character, it would stand self -condemned as fraudulent. The Chronicle seems to have begun to realise its mistake, for, we are lold° it "disavows responsibility." The plea will not stand. Upon whom can the responsibility be shifted ? On Mr. Stead, "Julia," or the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone? The deplorable aspect of the case is the indication it gives of the decline of some of the great traditions of British journalism. A Young Greece for a Young Turkey ! The young Greek offiAnother cers' recent attempt Eovolutionary at a coup was mainly Youth. melodramatic, superficially, but at one time there was a danger of a grave development towards tragedy. The Military League assisted in the suppression of the little revolution, because the shrewder heads of the league had their own plans " for securing the controlling voice in the country.* affairs. This disturbance, though quickly suppressed, outwardly emphasises the state of unrest which lias been noticeable in Greece for some months. Greece is in a stage of transition ; some of the more ardent spirits of the ancient country wish , to, lib a more important pawn in the game of European chess. The turmoil goes back fomc twelve months to the days when the valiant Cretans wished to throw off Turkish suzerainty and be definitely enrolled in the Grecian family. "If the secession of Crete," writes Mr.' E. J. Dillon, in the* September Contemporary, "had been accepted by King Gt-orge's Ministers last- October (1808), when the Cretan Parliament- declared the island incorporated in the Hellenic Kingdom, all would have boon well. But they hesitated first, and then drew back, affording a superfluous confirmation of the adage : 'In danger and stress the middle course brings rujn.' " Turkey, not anxious to have her neighbour strengthened, was determined ,to hold by Crete, and the Grecian Government was overawed. The Military Party chose to think that the Government had been unpardonably weak, and from that time onward there has been little peace. It is now argued that "the only soluI Uon will be for King George to invite tlie Military, League to form a Cnbi-

net," but so far the King has refused to have direct relations with the League. However, even when the internal administration becomes settled again, further trouble may scon arise. The elements for complications art- always present in "the mutual attraction between th£ Kingdom of Greece and the Turkish Sultan's Greek subjects throughout the Empire," in the opinion of experienced dipiomatislw. AnJ then there are the intrigues of Austria and other Powers to add additional spice to life in Greece. For the present, England, France, Eussia, and Italy are credited with giving an assurance that they will intervene if the Military League endeavours to overthrow the Greek Government or dynasty.