NEWS AND NOTES

Evening Post, Volume XCI, Issue 107, 6 May 1916, Page 10

NEWS AND NOTES

"In war the only test is success, and no Government can be popular which does not win victories."—Mr^ Bonar Law., M.P

" I return to the subject of the 17-inch German naval gun, because I am sure that the public will want some much more precise reassurance than Mr. Balfour's statement conveyed," says "Wayfarer," in the Nation. "I see that at the luncheon,to Sir Hedley Le Bas, Lord Northcliffe ■; stated that he knew of the existence of this gun, and named the ship—the Hindenburg—which had been built; to..carry it. Is there not such a ship and such a gun? And was not the Admiralty prepared to meet the challenge they conveyed-—and go beyond it both in ship-power arid gun-power? "

"In this war, which was most certainly provoked by the Germans, we see the last attempt made by a jingle people to secure for itself a universal hegemony."—M.. Take Jonesco, Rumanian statesman.

The French General Staff says that when every possible allowance has been made for wounded and sick returned to tho colours and for' men up to forty-five at least enrolled in the German ranks, thero cannot be more than 900,000 men left in Germany to make ' up for the wastage of her. arm if-. -.:', the front, which has averaged pretty ■.-;•: .'diiy 250,000 a month since the war jiegau-

"By embracing compulsory service-the Prime Minister disarmed the intriguers for a Lloyd George-Guni-Unionist Cabinet of their principal weapon against him," says-the New Statesman. "But they have a full arsonal, and their Ministry of Munitions has not been long in selecting a substitute. The choice has fallen on a 'Feeding Germany' cry directed at the Foreign Office for its alleged ' emasculation 'of the' blockade. This cry, though very much a second best after ' Compulsion for Single Shirkers,' has advantages."

"Opinion did not bring' on this war, and American' opinion cannot. stay its progress. It was brought on by rulers, not by pec/piss, and I thank God there is no man .in America who has authority 'to bring war on without the-consent of the people. - --—President Wilson.

"Whatever friction the necessities of war may create between America and ourselves, let us never forgot that- by the 1911 Treaty both nations are pledged to compose every justiciable difference by diplomacy and arbitration," says the Daily News. "We may not need the reminder ourselves, but it is a satisfaction to realise, that Germany's ultimate hope of embroiling America with the Allies must be permanently disappointed." /

"The peace of the. world and the happiness of humanity are bound up with the friendship of England and Russia. And I believe that this friendship will be eternal."—M. Sazonoff (Russian. Foreign Minister).

"Free service is gone; free trade is going," says the Nation. "One figure after another disappears or is marked down for discredit; principle after principle falls into the Lethe into which men and parties cast the slighted idols of their hearts or their intellects."

"The Prime Minister oppressed," says the Nation, "as no statesman of our time has been oppressed, by the sense of a very imperfect loyalty inside his Cabinet and a highly strenuous Opposition without, reflects this dualism, and indeed regards himself as its interpreter. We are therefore in the region of perpetual compromise, and the resulting military and political decisions bear evidence, of their origin. There is ono obvious cure for this indecisiveness, so fatal to the conduct of a war. This is that we should return to the older and more familiar condition of a homogeneous Government."

"We are on the defensive in France, in Mesopotamia, at Salonica, and in the1 air," says the Daily Mail. "And at sea, since Lord Fisher resigned we are not atitacpting. Have Ministers forgotten that most famous of' Pitt's sayings: Defensive war'spells rum?" '

"Be prepared to find coming out of the war a different, world to the world which went into the war; and. be prepared, therefore, to search your hearts 'and your minds as to. the-steps which you desire your country-' to take when we rebuild what has been devastated by a. war into which we were forced." —E. S. Montague.

"There must be a very large number of men now in the Army awaiting discharge—men who will never be fit for .military life, but who could do excellent civilian work," says the British Weekly. "Some put the figuro at over 200,000. These men, for the most part, are at depots in various parts of the country, and their speedy discharge wouH do something to relieve the labour-situa-tion."

"With an adequate number of aeroplanes we should Ee able to carry Sie war into the enemy's camp and, to raid Cologne, Dusseldoif, FranMont,. Berlin, Essen, Mimich, and Kiel," says the Daily Mail. "An enemy who knew that for every bomb dropped in the "London district twp would- be dropped in a'German.., city"would think itwice •before-he made these- barbarous' attacks." ■ ! ,

Writes an English Civil servant in. the New Statesman: "If it was not .for the ■public spirit of many women and girls of university education -and high abilities, who prefer service under the Government at low rates of pay to work in bajiks and insurance offices at the full market value "of: their; services (in the absence of so many young men of military age), the Civil Service generally, and the offices primarily responsible for tho conduct of the war. in particular, would be staffed with the most incompetent women clerics in the -labour market." '■ ■

In Russia (writes an American- paper) the people have found It-he seeds of sunflowers a substitute for...olives in the making of oil.- The native Russian ejts sunflower seeds .as the American eaits peanuts, ikeeping*'a handful or bo in his' pocket and nibbling away at them, from time to time. -An acre of sunflowers yields about sixty bushels; of seeds,, and these, when pressed, produce about fifty gallons of oil. The Russians use sun-flower-seed oil almost exactly aa cottonseed oil is used m this country; Much of tho oil is also used for lighting- and making candles and soaps.

Akhlat, now in Russian hands, was a • town of great importance in ancientdays,- and it*-history may be.said to epitomise the vicissitudes of. Armenia, for it has,.been captured and recaptured by Saracens, Greeks, "Kurds,- Turks, Georgians, Kurds, and Turks :again. At one ?Ume" it- was - the residence of. independent Armenian: princes, and the i easfchr of -Akhlat, with its massive walls and towers, though now iu ruins, testines'to'its former strength. Excavators have found a rich hunting-ground at, iihlait, in tfrE wonderful rock chambers carved'from th« red sandstone, and «J«.JiusJy^dl&Cfirated;, ,