NEWS AND NOTES

Evening Post, Volume XCIII, Issue 89, 14 April 1917, Page 10

NEWS AND NOTES

"In every word from his pen or from his tongue," writes T. P. O'Connor, in Lloyd's, of President Wilson, " I have ever read I find the same note of passionate love of justice, of liberty, of democracy; and how could such a man take any side but that of democracy against militarism? He has had to steer his barque through tempestuous seas, with hidden rocks, dangerous ehallows, menacing currents all around; but no- ( ' body could ever doubt whether his' barque was steadily being steered. We knew, or ought to have known, the. captain and his compass; and if we had known we could never have doubted."

" It is <far belter to volunteer," said Mr. John Hodge, English Minister for Labour, "than to be forced, because— make no bones about it—if this voluntary system is not' a success you are going to be taken willy nilly. We desire to avoid industrial conscription in this country if we,can. It is in your hands. If you fail the guilt will be upon your own heads." The Duke of Portland added that'with a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull air together we, should win in the end, but unless all classes of the community united in the effort he feared that 'vfe should not be able to obtain that complete victory which was of such vital.importance to the nation.

Signor Bissolati, the Italian Minister of' Stats, clad in the uniform of a sergeant of Alpini, has been decorated with the French Croix de Guerre by President Poincare. The ceremony took place at the front of the eastern region. Ife was in line with four British officers and a French officer that Signor Bissolati received his decoration, and when President Poincare, pinning the cross on his breast, called him a " heroic Italian soldier," the Minister replied, much moved, " No., not Italian, nor French, but a eoldier.of the Entente."

Mr. H. G. Wells, the novelist, has been driven to a close study of the religious outlook, and! provocative articles on that subject appearing in the New Republic, of New York, will excite much discussion. "I think Christianity 1 is a declining force in the world," says Mr. Wells in the Christian^ Commonwealth. "The world is finding its way to God in spite of the intervention of the Christian Churches. Men are becoming more merciful, / honest, faithful, cleaner in their personal lives, socially more conscious of the claims of others, and eager to find a way of living on terms of equality, fraternity, and fellowship with all mankind, quite independently of the Christian Churches."

"If we try to shuffle off the responsibility of careful and far-seeing, judgment we shall soon cease to be the rational servants of God, though the phases of religion may still linger upon our lips," says the Inquirer. "For ourselves we' can only say that we believe without a tremor of misgiving that we shall serve the cause of love and goodness best.by taking our part in the' campaign for victory. There is here no lust of conquest, no hatred of our enemies. It is the most careful judgment which we can form upon the moral facts of the situation. "-

. Live fish have been. fonnd in the bottom of a Transvaal gold mine, in a vertical shaft, 3800 ft deep. ' They were barbel, from 6in to 12in long and up to three-quarters of a pound in weight, and must have been merely spawn when, they fell. In exceptionally dry weather small bull-frogs have been- seen to distend themselves and deliberately jump down the shaft, aparently in search of water; How they ever reached the bottom alive is a mystery.

Something about the appearance or weight of a; newspaper addressed to a man in a well-known German town must have teught the attention of some wideawake Dutch official, for it was opened. To the surprise of the official the newspaper was found to contain several rashers of raw bacon, cut very thin, and "interleaved" with folds of newspaper. Each rasher was enclosed in a sheet of waterproof paper.

"It was a characteristic German touch that when the order, was issued for the. young Belgians to assemble at the railroad station for deportation to Germany they were notified itovbringwith them any portable musical instruments on ■which they had played," says the New York Independent. "Just so the slave-drivers when they cent their negroes down' the river saw to it' that they went with a banjo on the knee. We may assume) that • the Belgians at forced labour by the Elbe or the Rhine will find the 137 th Psalm their favourite chapter. ' For there they that earned us away captive required of xm a song, and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying '.' Sing us one of the songs of Zion." How. shall we sing the Lord's song.in a strange land?'"

The Earl of Galloway, who is 80 years of age, appeared before a Scotch Military Service Appeal Court, and asked that exemption shduld be given- to his factor. He stated that his estate extern^ to 60..000 acres, and to forty miles in length. He hjmself took part in two of the greatest wars of the last century, and one/tof his sons was killed in the present war and another was a prisoner of war. It would be' a tremendous loss to the State and the country if his factor were taken. It appeared that the earl had dismissed the assistantfactor, who, the military representative suggested, coald carry on the work of. the factor. Captain M'Donald said he had refused to treat the Earl of Galloway differently from others. The Court dismissed the earl's appeal.

Mr. John Masefield, the poet, in a plea for a better understanding of America's position in the war, remarks: # "It is sometimes said, especially by Americans in the belligerent countries, that America, should have entered the war upon the side of the Allies. But this course, though it may seem natural to many here, now in the fever of the,war, must seem less obvious four, five, or even six thousand miles away, across an ocean and a continent. At those great distances from any part of the watr the mind of a nation, as a whole, cannot grasp the war, and the passion of a nation, as a whole, cannot be roused by it. _ Besides this, the tradition of 'th« nation, always a stTong thing in a yonng community, is against all entanglement in European affairs."

Switzerland was the first European country to adopt universal military service. The original founders of the Swiss Confederation enacted that whoever shirked military training, which began at the age of 15, wns declared "devoid of honour and perjured," and his house was vowed to destruction. Should a man summoned to take part in a military expedition prove unable to respond, owing to illness <t* some other valid reason, he had to furnish a capable substitute at his own expense. From the earliest days of ■ the Confederation, too, the military authorities made special, provision for tendirtg the wounded. In this respect they seem to-hav6._.been--in-adyance-,of thain +.T*mM- ' ">