NEWS AND NOTES

Evening Post, Volume XCI, Issue 84, 8 April 1916, Page 10

NEWS AND NOTES

; " Some day, when this war .is won, it may be realised that it has been won ■because there is a great deal more water than land upon the world, and because the British fleet commands the use of all the watei', and the enemy the use of only a tiny fraction of all tho land."— Mr. Arthur Pollen.

German firms, in order to keep their export trade, are abusing letter-post facilities. Here is an instance. A German firm sent by; registered post to a.firm in Brazil 600 violin strings, the value of the whole being about £25. The postage cost amounted to over £3 10s. The strings were all addressed to one firm, labelled " Samples,-without value."

" Is the old system of work in Government Departments still pursuing its normal and cumbersome course?" asks The Times. "Business firms, railways, private individuals,; have all had to revise and adjust their methods. Not so the Public Service, where the mere suggestion of reorganisation of branches in order to save men is received by heads of Departments as though it wore something profane!"

" Nearly a year after Mr. Belloc had satisfactorily shot off a half of the total German effectives, spruce Mr. Tennant shatters our illusions by estimating the total German lo.«= - .-it 2£ millions— which,-of oourse, is i. ii.'y correct." —The English Eeview.

" The world is now filled with sadness and privation, yet we go oa almost heedless of the great moral and economic lessons taught by this terrific war," says Sir' W. F. Barrett, in the Spectator. "As a nation we need more chastisement before we can hope to win victory or attain a lasting peace. A nurse at one of our large military hospitals writes : ' Our Christmas was clouded by so many of the men getting drunk.'"

" The Navy should be not the controller of policy, but the all-powerful executant of the policy of blockade," says the Spectator. " The system should be authorised by the Government as a. whole, and not by the Foreign Office acting as a single department-. The Na,vy is crowded with practical diplomatists who will reduce delay and friction to a minimum: The only danger will be that some genial sailors will be too indulgent here and there in doubtful eases. We have, no fear whatever that the great tradition of the sea would permit the Navy to be tyrannical or unfair to neutral, traders."

"The appointment of Lord Chelmsford as Viceroy of India caused general surprise," says the Nation. "His past gives no such promise of greatness. . A good University record, some rather modest service on the uondon County Council, and a reputation for tact and popularity as the Governor of two Australian States—a path so quiet seldom leads direct to Simla. There are times when 'India may look to her head. No one objects to this choice, and one can only say of it that it must justify itself by the event."

The Engineer tells of the adaptability of woman mechanics:—ln a certain screwing . operation.it was customary, before the employment of '- women, to rough the thread out with the tool and then to finish it off with taps. Some trouble having arisen owing to the wearing of the taps, the women of their own initiative did away with the second operation and are now accurately chasing the threads to gauge with the tool alone. This is work of which any mechanic might •feel proud. . . In fact it may be stated with absolute truth that women have shown themselves perfectly capable of performing operations which hitherto have been "exclusively carried out by men.

"In justice to Lord Northcliffe, we must say that if he has forced the note, many of his assailants have done the same,"-says the Spectator. "It is most unfair to" represent him as unpatriotic in intention because he has acted in heat and without judgment. We beliove him to be anxious to do the best ho can for the country, even when we think his methods deplorable. What we want to see is The Times taking once more a steady, consistent, and national attitude, and affording an example of the judicial spirit in journalism to the press as a whole."

"Tho British Conscription Bill (writea the Argonaut) seems to bo conscription in name rather than in fact. Actually it compels no one except a, few shirkers who were loft still ungarnered by the Derby scheme. The Bill exempts' Ireland. Unmarried' men who can show any sort df-caußo ;f6r exemption will be dealt,.\yitli'.tend.e"ly... There is_ still' to be ■Opportunity for 'voluntary enlistment before compulsion is applied. As a matter of fact- the new law is not likely to affect more than a few thousand- men. Mr. Balfour ■ said in regard to. it: 'In truth this Bill is a tribute .to voluntaryism, for we have raised 6,000,000 volunteers, - and now this Bill merely bririga in those few shirkers,who1 havo failed "to respond to the voluntary system.' "• - :■■■

Speaking of the Navy, and its'work, Mr. Lloyd George said,:, "If ws overthrow German, militarism now it is because our command of the sea has given us time to organise, and so make good our unpreparedness. You have only to imagine, what would have happened if the command of the sea had not been ours, or if it had been wrested from us. We could have been overrun as easily i>b the Balkan Peninsula."

"Mesopotamia—the valleys of the Eu pi'iraies and the Tigris—may well beone of the great prizes of the great war," says the Sow Republic. "There lies the fabled Garden of Eden, the cradle of the race, tho storc-houso of the ancient world ; there lip still the ruins of Babylon on the Euphrates, due south of Bagdad on. the Tigris; there rise still the miarets of Bagdad, the city of Haroun al Baschid; further down the Tigris, the British fought at Ctesiphon, for many hundred years the capital of Persia the dwelling place of tho Great King; Further north, near Mosul, itself a seat of Saracen empire, the ruins of Ninoveh still exiat."

"There can bo little doubt that the experience gained of women's industrial efficiency during the war will have tho effect o£ putting an end to their exclusion from tho skilled»trades. This in itself will give a great lift to the industrial status of women. The practical problem will bo to raise this without' lowering the industrial status of men."—Mrs. JL G. Fowcett in the Quarterly Review.

"The building expert who was sent to East Prussia to report on the damage to house property there estimates at 300,000,000 marks (£15,000,000) the sum necessax'y to re-erect the buildings of all descriptions which have been destroyed," says the Morning Post's Berno correspondont. "The- German Government proEoses to reconstruct the working class omes so that, if possible, only two families, and never more, than lour, shall live in one honEe.,''