SPECTATOR SUMMARY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 83, 8 April 1911, Page 12

SPECTATOR SUMMARY.

(For 'Week Ending 18th February.) GERMAN NAVAL ESTIMATES DEBATE. Herr Ledebour, speaking for the Socialists, said that Herr yon Tirpitz's. wellmeant words (that the navy had never been intended for aggressive purposes) had no value ; all Governments uttered such sentiments; the fact remained that all the talk of war between Germany and Great Britain was the creation of the Tirpitz era. Herr Erzberger said that all nations envied the German navy law, under which ships had been constructed so cheaply that in the last twelve years Germany had spent £100,000,000 less than America, and had produced only 66,000 less tonnage. The debate was con. tinned on Tuesday, when Admiral yon Tirpitz said that It was an astonishing mistake in England to suppose that German construction had been "accelerated outside the Navy Law. This denial, of course, does not meet the objection that the Navy Law is a very elastic" instrument, and that it is so variously interpreted in Germany that even now it is not certain how many ships are required under it. GOVERNMENT IN PERSIA. On Thursday the Mejliss nnanimously gave the (new) Regent the required assurances (as to the Government being supported by a stable majority, and that the Mejliss would refrain from interfering captiously in foreign policy). It has been announced from St. Petersburg that the Russian troops at Kazvis will be withdrawn shortly, but the Persian Foreign Office does not appear to have received so far any official communication on the subject. We trust that the Russian intention will be acted on speedily. The Persian Government will then be relieved of what it rightly or wrongly alleges to be an obstacle to efficient rule. The great need in Persia is a Government that commands respect, and all friends of the Persians should encourage them by every possible means to establish such a Government. This is the one way of preserving the integrity of the country. HOME RULE FOR IRELAND. Every question of importance has ita financial side, and in Ireland almost all finance is concerned with the Imperial Exchequer owing to the system of grants in aid. In truth you cannot cat the administrative and legislative painter without cutting the financial one. But that is exactly what the Nationalist members are determined we shall not do. "You shall pay the piper and we shall call the tune" is their modest demand to the British people. Almost as pertinent as anything in Lord Hugh's (Lord Hugh Cecil), was the demand he interjected in the course of Mr. Redmond's speech, asking whether the Irish leader wae willing to submit Home Rule to a reference under a Referendum. To this Mr. Redmond could only make 'the very lame reply that the noble lord's question was not practical politics. Mr. Redmond is singularly mistaken. He will soon find that, hate and fear it as he may, the Poll of the People is very practical politics indeed. MR ASQUITH IN REPLY. Wheni asked what was meant by "the supremacy of Parliament," his answer was solvitur ambulando. His definition of Home Rule was the "creating in Ireland an Irish Parliament and an Irish Executive responsible to^ that Parliament to deal with purely Irish affairs," but subject to the supremacy of the Imperial Parliament being maintained. This definition would, of course, in theory and law, fit perfectly a purely Colonial eys-' tern of government. la the case of the great Dominions, "the indefeasible supremacy" of the Imperial Parliament is j theoretically fully maintained. What the country wants to know are the details which Mr. Asquith so airily declared would be solved ambulando — a phrase which Lord Hugh Cecil wittily interpreted as "walking through the Lobbies.'' As to how the finance problem k to be treated, 36 to whether Mr. Asquith really proposes that the Irish members are. to interfere in our purely English and Scotch -affairs while we are to have no power to interfere in theirsf whether there to be an "in and out" clause, and, again, under what principle of right and justice the Nationalists can claim local autonomy for themselves and yet deny it to the Pirotestants of the North, Mr. Asquith gave no information. THE RIGHT TO 'WORK BILL. The workman's ideal of two jobs looking for one man is a perfectly sound economic ideal, and it is one which we long to see accomplished. But remember it can only be accomplished by the accumulation of wealth. If the workers would only undei'stand that every accumulation of capital tended to put capital more at their mercy in the matter of hiring, they would become the most ardent desirers of such accumulations. Let them only be persuaded to spend a little less on unnecessary things, to save a little more, and to put a little more energy into their work, and the quest-ion of unemployment would very soon solve itself. But this is, of course, in the end a question of character, and unfortunately we are for ever, as a State, destroying rathei than building up character and independence in the workers. In the day we weave the web in education, and at night undo it by pauperising and character-wrecking legislation. When we put premiums broadcast on slackness, thriftlessness, and economic folly, how can we expect not to find a large and flourishing crop of these qualities? ' SNOBBISHNESS IN SCHOOLS. We find from the severe test of life that no one comes out better than the public-school boy. He is the heart and soul of our administration in India and Egypt, and no class of men in the ( world surpasses him for a high average of character and responsibility. The sense in which we believe there is no snobbishness at all in schools is the social sense. Most public-school men who look back upon their school days will admit they wero scarcely conscious of the origins of any of their fellows. -The son of a tradesman had an equal chance of bein-g popular with the son of an ancient family. Most J boys have not reached the refinement of distinguishing stocks by their names ; transformed Jewish names and Norj man and Saxon names are all one to them. Tom Hughes was un-emng in his judgment when he gave his schoolboy hero tho quite essentially simple name of Tom Brown. - THE CAMBRIDGE POLL. The poll of Cambridge University, [ concluded on Thursday, resulted in the return of Sir Joseph Larmor, the official Unionist candidate. The figures were — .Larmor 2308, Cox 1954, Page 332. Though we do not doubt that Sir Joseph Larmor will worthily represent his University, the result must bo declared to be unsatisfactory from the party point of view. Mr. Cox would have proved a most efficient — nay, deadly — critic of the general policy of the Ministry— a veritable thorn in their side. It is impossible to say that of the victor. Mr. Page made a plucky fight, but it was clear from the beginning that the real, straggle was between the other two can-<. didat-ee.