TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Evening Star, Issue 12884, 6 August 1906, Page 1

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

[Peom Oue Special Coseespohdent.]

LONDON, June 30. GERMAN JOURNALISTS IN LONDON. Fifty German editors, representing the leading journals of tho Fatherland, have just concluded a week's visit to England as the guests of a number of well-wishers on this side of ilic water. The visit was promoted bv Mr W. T. Stead, of the ' Review of Reviews,' and was backed by members of the Government and many leading public men. The visitors made an excellent impression, not only as men of high intellect and wide culture, but also as. good fellows. They were .entertained royally during their brief stay in England, and an enormous amount of sight-seeing and banqueting was crowded into one brief week. The programme included a visit to Strat-ford-on-Avon, where the Germans laid a laurel wreath on Shakespeare's tomb, while one of them delivered' an eloquent panegyric upon the world's greatest poet. They also laid a wreath on the grave of Queen Victoria at Windsor, a tribute which the King acknowledged in a gracious message. The keynote of the innumerable speeches delivered during the visit was the hope that this friendly intercourse would make for that better knowledge which is the surest foundation of all friendship. The foreign editors were profuse in their thanks for the great hospitality accorded them, and vied with one another in their expressions of good-will towards England ana the English people. Dr Barth, one of the most eminent members of the party, appealed to the Press of both nations to work for the maintenance of peace and friendship. If, said he, there should ever be a war—he would never believe it possible—between England and Germany, what would be the end of it? There was not a penny in the £ in such an enterprise. The end of it would be tho abdication of Europe in favor of the United States, of America. Such a war would be a crime. Herr Ernest Posse, editor of the 'Cologne Gazette;' one of the leading journals of Germany, expressed the belief that the impression engendered by all this hospitality of the sincere desire to cultivate good relations between England and Germany would prepare the platform on which in future the debates on political matters can take place. "The German journalists who are of this party will certainly," he said, "prepare this platform in Germany, and so I hope that tho trip of the German editors to England will be largely successful in promoting peaceful intercourse and peaceful rivalry between the two nations." Herr Runge, editor-in-chief of the semi-political ' Norddeutsche Allgemaine Zeitung,' noted numerous evidences of good feeling towards Germany in private conversations and in the spontaneous welcome accorded to the visitors by the public when driving through the streets. "As similar sentiments exist in wide circles in Germany, there is," said he, " a broad basis for a mutual understanding between the two nations, which can only be strengthened by unprejudiced communication with one another. We all know how often in the past misunderstanding and strained relations have arisen from false represeutations of aims and intentions—representations to which ' Much Ado About Nothing' is applicable. Many in England are, perhaps, inclined to see in the efforts towards the advancement of our people endeavors which are not reconcilable with the welfare of England. But this also is a misunderstanding. The truth is that our need for expansion has. since 1871, been entirely of a peaceful nature, and we only want in peaceful competition to win the renefits necessary for the economic development of our sixty million people. As regards our visit here, we regard its aim and purpose only in the light of a friendly rapprochement," which is directed against no other nation whatsoever." To judge from all these friendly, not to say flowery, sentiments, the editorial tour has amply justified its inception. If it is going to have the extremely beneficial results that are claimed for it, why not enlarge the scope of the -idea, and have a series of such visits? The one that is moss badly, needed is a visit of the London edinrs to the colonies. It is a pity someone ies not send a party, of them for a tour und the British Empire. THE SUFFRAGETTES.

The Gflbertian comedy of the suSragettea . —the ladies who are agitating at street corners for the"female, franchise—proceeds apace. Last week Miss TeTesa BiOington, Commandant of Suffragettes, earned "a ' happy martyrdom by being sentenced to two months' hard labor ior riotous behaviour and ;an asaaalt upon a constable in front of Mr Asquith's house in Cavendish "square. Sher "was offered the alternative of ia £lO fine, but scornfully declined, to pay, and refused to. allow the fine to be paid by her friends oh hsr behalf. She insisted upon going to gaol, and so to gaol she

was short-lived. A day or two afterwards she Avas informed that half of her sentence Had been* remitted by the Home Secretary, and she would only be allowed to stay in prison lor a month. It was a. cruel blow, and nearly reduced the Commandant cf buffragettes to tears. Judge, then, of her emotion when on the sixth day of her imprisonment she was informed that some unknown lady sympathiser had paid her nne for her, and that she was therefore a prisoner- no longer. Miss Billington was furious. To remove her from her prison cell was, she declared, "an unwarrantable outrage upon her private liberty!" She resisted desperately every attempt to make her change her prison garments for her own, and get her away from Holloway Gaol. Matron and wardresses, doctor and de-puty-governor, implored, cajoled, and pleaded with the defiant little prisoner for two hours and a-half. At last, after a great struggle, She was dressed in her own clothes, put into a hansom cab, and driven to the suffragettes' headquarters at Cholsea._ She was too upset with sorrow and indignation to talk. But her comrades, as usual, talked freely enough to the inevitable reported. Tliey, too, were furious at this unexpected and unwarrantable seizure of the martyr's crown. Miss Parkhurst said that Miss Billington regarded the unknown admirer as her worst enemy, and her friendly act in paying the fine as " the cruellest possible outrage." "Well, never mind," added the suffragette, "she'll soon get tired of paying our fines. It is a mean trick. We won't say what we will do next, but we have a" complete plan, and' we mean to carry it out, whether we go to prison or death. I would rather have been in prison for twelve years than that this should have happened. Why should anyone interfere with Miss Billington? If she wants to stop in prison, why shouldn't she? It is cruel and wicked and unmanly to make her come out."

The suffragettes held an indignation meeting iu Hyde Park next day, and launched torrents of invective ai the heads of.those who persisted in preventing them from becoming martyrs to their cause. Incidentally the newspapers came in for a fair share of abuse, and especially the subeditors. Miss Billington said that reporter after reporter had come to her and explained that all the nice things he had written about her and her comrades had been cut out by the sub-editors. It was against the latter that their efforts must in future be directed. Sly dogs, those reporters! ON TRAMCARS' MISCHIEF. Accidents to electrically-propelled tramcars in the metropolis are few and far between, and until Saturday last London had been immune from anything in the nature of a real disaster in connection with its many services. The spell of freedom from fatal accidents was broken on that day, for a big double-decked car, weighing many tons, got.out of its driver's control, and, rushing down a somewhat steep incline at express train speed, carried devastation and death with it. Tho car was one of a service running on the overhead trolly system from the Aichway Tavern through Highgate and Finchley to Whetstone. The district traversed contains a good many stiffish gradients, one of the worst being near the Archway terminus. This is a very busy spot at all hours of the day, and the wonder is that the tale of killed. and injured should be only three and twenty respectively. Tho cause of the accident has not been definitely ascertained as, yet, but it is clear that ! something went radically wrong with all ■ three brakes with which the car was equipped, the hand brake, the magnetic brake, and the slipper brake being each applied by the driver without result. Tho i car had left Whetstone and travelled through Finchley with a fairly full comI plenient of passengers. It stopped near the top of Highgate Hill to allow a passenger to alight, and then proceeded on its way. It was soon seen that something was wrong, for the drivers are enjoined to come down the hill at a very moderate pace, and it was clear that the motorman had lost control. Pedestrians stood aghast at the ever-increasing speed, and it quickly became apparent that an accident was inevitable. The first obstruction encountered by tho runaway oar was. a funeral procession returning from Finchley Cemetery. Warned by the shouts of the cardriver and the screams of the onlookers, tho drivers of tho mourning coaches managed to get out of the way, but the hearse was struck squarely by the tram, and smashed like an eggshell, the driver being thrown unconscious to the ground and tie horses sent spinning. The impact did not check the car in the least, and a few seconds later it overtook a big furniture van which was just about to turn into a side street. Tho car, which was now tearing along at over thirty mues an hour, treated the furniture van as it had done tho hearse, and sent the ruins of it flying against a lamp standard, which promptly came down with a crash. The van horses were thrown to the.ground and badly cut about, but the two men on the vehicle escaped injury. One of them, hearing the warning cries of the horrified pedestrians, leaped from the van just as it was struck, whilst the driver fell back among the ruins of the vehicle, and sustained no worse injuries than a few scratches and bruises. Tho two collisions had naturally created a panic among the passengers in the car, and many of them jumped off. At the speed the tram was going it was impossible for them to keep their feet, and nearly all who jumped were injured, most of them lying stunned in the roadway till picked up. The collision with the furniture van did not check the car perceptibly, and at an ever-increasing speed it ran on until it overtook a Vanguard motor omnibus—a big, solidly-built vehicle on an iron chassis, weighing probably between three and four tons. So great was the momentum of the tramcar that when it struck tho bus it seemed to lift it bodilv, and literally threw it through the plate glass window of a shop near by. This impact did check the car momentarily, but, resuming its wild career, it again struck tho bus, the back part of which was not quite clear of the tramlines, and, slewing it round, threw the hind part of the ponderous vehicle against the window of a restaurant adjacent to the shop already wrecked. The omnibus had been fairly well filled, and many of the occupants were hurt-, as were some pedestrians on the pavement. The next vehicle struck was a cab, which was brushed aside as if it were a mere nothing, and then came the end. The tramcar left tho metals, and came into violent collision with another car waiting at the terminus. 'This tfcr was fairly well filled, and the shock was a heavy one. Slewing round at the impact, the runaway struck a large electric light standard on a. refuge in the middle of a crossing, and caried it away. The standard, however, brought tho mad career of the tramcar to an end, for, turning half round, it skidded across the road, .and finally stopped within a few feet of a large shop at the top of Holloway road, the back part of, it on the pavement and the front in.the roadway. Had not this "standard done its. work so effectually, tie car might have gone further down the hill, and in the crowded crossings opposite the Archway Tavern, full of vehicular and prdestrian traffic, the damage done must have been, appalling.