SPECTATOR SUMMARY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 41, 18 February 1911, Page 12

SPECTATOR SUMMARY.

• (For week ending 31st December, 1910.) , - THE REFERENDUM. The Referendum as a general policy 1 and the Referendum as a solvent of : Unionist internal difficulties has come • to stay. In six months' time we veni ture to say that there will not be a sec- ■ retary of any Unionist association i throughout the country who will not • report that things have been much bet- > ter for Mr. Balfour's pledge, and that - it would be a disaster to revoke it. At the same time, Lord Ridley and his friends will begin to understand that ■ Unionist Free-traders are perfectly con- ■ tent to leave the decision with the people, and that no attempt whatever will be made to interfere with the Tariff propaganda. The Tariff Reformer re1 mains as free as ever he was to convert ■ the people to his policy; but there is now bo need for Unionist Free-traders to fight him by helping th© Liberals or by abstention. Now that the one point that we differ upon is to be left to tho ■ country, all Unionists can work loyally together on the ninety-nine points upon which they are in full accord. ULSTER AND HOME RULE. . Let us> say once more that separate treatment for Ulster would no doubt produce a. great deal of confusion and difficulty, and would be a thoroughly bad arrangement as compared with the maintenance of the Union. It would however, be a great deal better than the only alternative — the forcing of Ulster under a Dublin Parliament. # We admit, of course, that if Ulster could prevent ■ the passage of the Home Rule Bill' by refusing to demand separate treatment she would be »-igh.t to refuse; but as she could not, and as there is a very good chance that by asking, for separate treatment she might prove to the people of England and Scotland the folly of the whole thing, and so smash the Home Rule Bill, she ought to use this weapon. If it smashed the Bill, sne would have achieved ncr aim, and would have saved the Union. Tf, however, her argumentative demand did not destroy the Bill, but were accepted, she would at any rate have made the scheme so unworkable that it would be not only possible but absolutely necessary to lepeal it in a very few years. If, on the other hand, because Ulster refused to ask for separate treatment, even as a pis-aller, the Bil passed and Ulster was forced under a Dublin Parliament, there would be a danger of English people misconceiving the whole position. ARAB GUN-RUNNERS. Gun-running is a profitable industry along the "Pirate Coast," as it is called, and the tribes on the North-West Frontier of India and the Afghans are too liberally supplied with weapons from this quarter. The Sultan of Muscat is friendly with the Indian Government, but probably has little control over the gunrunners. Last November the Proserpine was engaged with gun-runners not far from the frontier of Baluchistan. It is most important that gun-running should be kept within the strictest possible bounds; the better the tribes are armed the more menacing they become. We can look for little assistance from other countries, though the interest of some in suppressing the trade is if indirect. In the past our action has been perhaps too spasmodic. We are now helped by "wireless telegraphy, which is a particular annoyance to tno gun-run-ners. THE TRIPLE ENTENTE. The true strength of the Triple Entente is to be found in the fact that it came into existence and is maintained in order Lo secure tho pepce of the world. 1 The Powers that form it are not only not jealous of each other, but are not jealous of other Powers, and have not the slightest wish to alter the status quo ia any (respect. The proof that this desire for peace rests upon, the rock of reality, and not upon rhetoric, is easy. No member of the Entente grows angry or suspicious when friendly advances are made by any other of its members towards a member of the group witn which it is confronted — the Triple Alliance. The statesmen of France and Britain, ko far from being alarmed by any talk of an improvement in the relations between Germany and Russia^ find satisfaction in the prospect. The less likelihood there is of a quarrel between Russia and Germany, and of the German Emperor feeling himself forced to put on his "shining armour" and to cut Russia over the head once again with his shining sabre, the more we are pleased, for what we want is peace^ not, as German newspapers and statesmen are too apt to pretend, the "hemming in" oi Germany. • . . THE FIVE HUNDRED PEERS. If the now Second Chamber, the creation of which would thus be ensured, were to be a purely elected body, and therefore a body necessarily possessing powers co-ordinate with those of the Hcuse of Commons, the five hundred might no doubt sink the Peerage for good and all. But it is humanly certain that the Commons would not allow the establishment of a purely elected House. We may feel sure that a considerable portion of the new House would be chosen., from the existing House of Lords. Hitherto one of the difficulties in regaTd to proposals of this kind has been the fact that the "House of Lords contains such a vast majority of Unionist Peers. If, however, five hundred Liberal Peers were created, this difficulty will no longer exist. The thousand Peers would be a body from which it would be very easy to choose, by a system of minority voting, some two hundred elected Peers. This constituent body would not only represent both political parties' vdl-y fairly, bub would contain a great many valuable elements which are not now t» be found in the House of Lords, if we assume — 'and we are sure we may assume — that the Cabinet would be leasonably careful in their selection. THE ALIEN QUESTION. It may, be said that we purchase immunity for ourselves at the expense of foreign countries by offering an asylum to Anarchists. The charge is one of cynicism, unneighbourliness, selfishness, and, as it were, of levying blackmail on assassins. We can only say in answer that our ancient practice of opening cur doors to all v/ho have, not definitely disproved their fitness to enter is in accordance with our national genius. We must not be frightened out of a temperate policy because unwise inquisition and severity elsewhere make us appear apathetic by comparison. There are some kinds of competition into which we may justly refuse to enter. Let us by all means huat cut the criminal and the inciter to violence with aIL the energy and all the expedients we can possibly command, but let us not in a panic adopt measures liieiiective to prevent crime, but only too likely to produce it.

I ■ypWIIWIIWMIIITtnTI^ NEW FRENCH SUBMARINE. The French Navy lias now a new type of submarine, tho Charles Brun, built at Toulon, which has a special peculiarity. It is fitted -with an aecmntilator invented by M. Mawncc, a, French naval engineer, which enables the vebsol not only to steam ahead on the surlace, but also after plunging, and a much fir-tor speed is obtained than ia pob&ible by the electric accumulator uhargoa on other dubranrinci. Tho trials kftXt &££&£> BO&t gy&oeje.