NEWS AND NOTES

Evening Post, Volume XCI, Issue 78, 1 April 1916, Page 10

NEWS AND NOTES

;,Somfi'Crecent. writers on , Russia.-and Turkey issve 'been contending:,.. contrary to Western ideasj that -the Russian and tbe Turk enjoy great liberties: On -which tlie San • Erancisco .Argonaut comments': fit is .true^ enoughs that, th-e ballot is nearly unheard ofy in Russia .and in Turkey, but thenJ we ourselves are recovering -froni ; tbe ipeculiar-;mental infirmity thai-finds any connection between votes and- freedom. .Voting- is one of those soporific, devices .intended.to beguile us tinto • serfdom."

"Our extravagant isbits are'still helping, the enemy>" says Air.-Arnold-Bennett in; tbe Daily: News. "We -'ha-ve. up to now .done- practically•-■ nothing' towards chastening ourselves .except what; circumetances have.. compeUed. us. individually to do. We are wondrous over economy in education, museums, and the provision of free meals for poor school children. But the, West: End' of London? remains a marvellous spectacle of luxury."

.".Japan,"-- writes ■ Captain Lomis in the New York Nation] "has seven Dreadnoughts and sixteen..battleships and a force of 42,407 , men,, not.-counting-re-serves. ' The" United ■ States has ten Dreadnoughts and- twenty-two battleships, and a force-of 85,965 men, or more-than. double.., the-, naval -. force" of Japan." Dismissing. the-,idea of Japan-ese-aggression, he. adds': '.To^conduct an aggressive war against a nation' with about; double the 'population1 ,' ■ with -;twelve times .the financial strength-, - possessing a. more:l powerful navy,, and1 a* a distance of; from ■■■ 4800 to ;600f>' miles 'from its.: base^ is a, project -that •no ■ sane personr.would, consider.' . Hawaii' is ;too; well fortified, to. be' taken by any; such 'force ■ as. Japani-couid- send, and is- 390& nuTes distant from Japan and 2400- from .San EranciEco."

. "Is there ■ one" of .the war-mqkers- in. Germany-: who, if ;ho . had'- the1, chance, would- not gladly put back1 thecjock to 4th August,-; 1914 V asks- the' -Westmini ster > Gazette. *•' 'Our Prussian war-lords have-now to-learn that, whereas one can make lwar,; it-takes two or,more to make peace. These lessons, burnt in-by grim-experience, are jthe.only- cure' for Prussian militarism."

"No,.American1 of impartial mind- and withont: previous- race' prejudice*-- when: b'rought,into,close contact with' this' War) has failed to become- a..pro-iAlly"K-James Davenport -Whelpley

- The ilatest;sample ofrkultur iessupplied by.Dr ;PMlipp...Lenardi jErofessor' of Physics at Heidelberg,, .whoc.makesL. the following.savage^butburst-: "Downi.thenj with all. considerations* fon England's so--called culture. ■, The-icentralf nestv and supreme academy for. aflhygocrisyria ihe world, .which is. on the Thames,' must, oe destroyed if .. ther. work is ■ to,-be/done thoroughly. > ;. 2s To..respect-.for the t-omb-etones of, ShakespeareJ .N«wtonj, and Faraday!"

In war;,.truth- is at. a.-disopun^ and falsehood.at<a preminm.-r-Jinies Douglas^

; Prmcipal~,W ; 8., Selbie,, of Mansfield 'College, writes : inj the Christian World on. the.alleged decline, in Congregationalism, its membership, and,'Sunday,schooL scholars. • "But,■ the <... most. . serious: of these-defects are.not those.) iwhich,'jump most readily, to the-eye. .'.Chief,'•. among them I would , put ,the neglect} or abandonment of our.' distinctive as Congregationalists, -of-that .higb'.Churoh-manshipr-which -has.! been■> our. strength and.-pride. To. me it'is,, significant of much $m& we shotdd.be serioußly, asked to give up that .witaess .in rfavonr of a featureless.. undenominationaJisin. L. am all,for unity,..but I have a^healtKy and hereditary' dread of uniformity,, and I still, believe ; ,in ' the ; Congregational Church' ideal, as something worth fighting for, or even, as;.Dr'..Dale .used to say,, dying- for. " The soul "of Congregationalism is in the individual church:"

• The ..Belgian Government has completed .its reply to the .German White Book, wherein, it was, sought to prove German charges regarding,the attitude of the • Belgian people' towards the Kaiser's; troops. , ,The reply,; it, is,, said, establishes irrefutably, that the'evidence given fey German;'officers was invented for.; the needs'• of.' .the cause.

. It'is on the anvil of t4al by the.blows of sacrifice, and of sprrow tihat the life of man is, shaped to1, its nob-Jest form.— Archbishop of' York.

.''There, is only, one. thing jvhicK I sometimes fear,'', says Lord Rosebery, "and it. is that, when, successes, hegin there, may be some, weak-minded cry in this, country for a pr.emature .peace. I hope that .no man of .you will lend -, any support to such a false.and .misleading policy. A premature peace means a short peace, and a war that will be even worse than-thisvto follow."

"The. exceptional men always crowd mankind .out of history., and; that is why we forget from generation to generation what war'is," says Rebecca; West-in the AtlanticI.Monthly* "We think of Napoleon' staining the; snows. of Europe- with, his victories/ arid.-, we; forget- the.: thousands rofi.- little i French towns,., their squares and market-places- penaivei, with bereavement, that waited till he might be replete with, triumph and return. We think-of a»' red-coated England ' charging on the .field/of .Waterloo,, and -we forget that a.raggedjEngland, was'sweatingi out its -life; and the 'freedomcof-, its. class.'in the-factories!, ;to make; the -..wealth; that pa-id oour'wayt.to0our'wayt.to victory."

■ Lord''-Morley • protests ■ against- the closing of'tK'tf Eondon- museums' diiring the ; war. "London," he ■ says- in • the Times, ■" has a- host of colonial 'visitors just now, and experience'shows that the Natural History, Museum .is. one. of the places the best of-them most' desire to see." ■

Mr. Arnold .; Bennett writes : The Italian1 manager of a-'hotel-restauran't.'at which you have to-secure--seats, in advance/ as you take measures to secure seats--in pa-raidise.' said to me the other day,--in•; accents 'of sincere admiration : "You English are tremendous. There is nobody like, you. You . have the money, and.you .know you can keep the Germans, waiting. We are doing .better here than in .peace time. You order just what you • fee] like having. . Y.ou r don!t enquire, th& -prices. You don't, look at the-ibill. ' You gust pay. You are >tre-raendoiis-^-tre-mendous-'!" 'And' Mr.- Bennett • feelingly adds : "He thought he was-praising.,Uß. r-

Dr. Ishidzu. of the Tokio Hygenic I Laboratory, who ,has been., investigating the; hof 'mineral1-springs ,'of ■ Japan withl a 1 view of ascertaining , the- qu?m- ---: tity >of -radium contained- in them, ,sa,ys , that Japan: is the1 richest-i"ak}ivim-country in the -world. The cold mineral spring ; -which i'hitherto <has- been considered to ! o6rrtain:Hhe largest -qirantity of radinm. ■ isi Joaohiinshal,' in- Austria,- -w-hich issues I from a radium mms, and contains 2000 , macbes o£,TadiTiinx emanation. The doc- ■ tor's onvestigition.l has. revealed^ths fact■that ajOTHTiend spriagiiß Yamanashi prefecture is inupregßaftedi Tntlr .600(}-<tnachea' • of radiom-bearing. isnters