NOTES ON THE CABLES

Evening Star, Issue 15064, 21 December 1912, Page 2

NOTES ON THE CABLES

Thebe is, perhaps, nothing that so strik- • ingly emphasises the startWh° are tne hng transformation beGenerals. tween the warfare of today and that of 100 years ago as the absence of one or two great commanding personalities. The Napoleonic wars, as the name implies, were wars between, not so much England and Trance, as between Napoleon and Wellington. When one thinks of the battles one has m mind the leaders; when one talks of victories and defeats one does not say that Franco was defeated, but that Napoleon was defeated; and the names of those two men, and all that is connected with ars still of supremo fascination to millions of human beings whose fathers were uoo born when these generals dominated the interest of mankind. But how many to-day know the names of the organisers of victory in the Balkans? There have been fought within the past few weeks battles that the future historian must regard as epoch-making. Yet who conceived, executed, and carried them tluougli? M e may as weli at once confess our abysmal ignorance, and say that we do not know. Thus ‘The Times’:—

The name of the Bulgarian organiser of victory, General Savoff, remains almost unknown in the market-place. When he declared last year in the Sobranje that tho Bulgarian armv were perfectly ready for war, and able''at any time to defeat the Turks, no one heeded him. As has so often happened in histofy, his frank warning was regarded as a boast. Yet General Savoff has been for 15 years steadfastly preparing for this month of months. Fortune favored his ■ daring. ... But luck would have availed General Savoff little without those years of strenuous preparation.

To-day the few who have discovered General Savoff are comparing him with Napoleon. Possibly; but we do not know enough about him to endorse such a verdiet. In addition to the prediction with which ‘The Times’ credits him, there- is another reported saying of his, “ Speed is trumps,” which is certainly Napoleonic. * * * The diplomats — those great men who try to look as wise as they In Memory of are said lo be—have “ Status Quo.” had a terribly humiliating fall over the Balkan business, and, like Humpty Dumptv, they are not likely to be put together again for a season. All their predictions, assertions, veiled throats, self-satisfied admonitions disappeared as the news from Kumanoyo, Kirk Kilisse, Lule Burgas, and Salonica came pouring into their council chambers, while the “ status quo ” —that fine, rotund, heart-satisfying term, which, like Mesopotamia, held both comfort and finality—was buried without hell, book, or candle, silently and furtively, amid the laughter of mankind, who had for long wished to prick the bladder of its arrogant complacency. A certain French wit, Clement Vautel, in the Paris ‘Matin,’ has celebrated the funeral obsequies in the following lines ; You are requested to assist at the funeral service and burial of Monsieur Status Quo, Diplomat, deceased Oct. 30th, 1912, in Macedonia, at the age of 459 years, which will take place one of the nest days in the Christian Church of Saint Sophia, Constantinople. “ Believe in Allah and his prophet, and thou shalt receive in Paradise the eternal caresses of the celestial houris.”—Koran xxv. Mourners arc to meet on the mortuary ground. On behalf Of Turkov, his widow, Of Austria, his mother. Of England, his mother-in-law, Of Bulgaria, of Serna, of Greece, his daughters, Of Montenegro, his grandson, Of Germany, of France, of Italy, etc., bis cousins and second cousins. The burial will take place in Asia Minor. * * * The Salvation Army are making arrange- . inputs to give effect The White Slave at borne and abroad Act, to the provisions of . Hie White Slave Act. Strictly speaking, there is no such Act.What the Government and Parliament have done is to amend the criminal law; Hie correct designation,- therefore, is the Criminal Law Amendment Act. But the popular tiHe will remain, and there is reason to believe (which is better still) that the measure, as it mow stands, will meet the more glaringly infamous cases. A man known to the police, when seen talking to an unsophisticated girl at a railway station or elsewhere, may b© arrested instantly. He can no longer insolently leer m the face of the law, ; and sneak off to ply lus horrible trade in the next street. Hen, too, the procurer, at the option of the Magistrate or Judge, may be flogged. Wo regard this as tho most inspiring amendment of all. The retention of the flogging clause was carried by 297 votes to 44. W© blush for the 44 and thei? arguments. “How brutal!” said one. “How degrading!” said another, and . How sickening!” said a third; and “It is not a deterrent!” said they all. “No; but it is a punishment!” roared the 29?’ “ and _ that is what we want.” And this’ we think, is what every man wants. ’ * * * During the course of tho debate the Home Secretary (Mr For and Against. M'Kenna) said: “He . ’ vvas acting on expert advice given bun by the police, who assured Jum that there were in Loudon a number of young men almost entirely of foreign origin who were receiving from £ls to £2O a week from five or six riels every one of whom had been ruined by the men themselves, with the deliberate intention of securing them for this trade.” Colonel Lockwood said ho had charmed his opinions on this subject, and ho would like to inliicb the punishment of flogging on all persons convicted of offences amunstwomen and children. (Opposition cheers.) Mr Leif Jones (Liberal) said flogging was no deterrent. He wondered how many men in the House would like to take tho “cat” in their hands arid administer it Lockwood ; “ I would.” (Laugh-

Mi Mill Giooks (who will h© remembered by many in Dunedin) replied that there was a lot of maudlin sentiment about hurting man s skin. He was glad these scoundrels had a skin that could be tanned (Cheers.) They need not got the rat urn less they liked. (Laughter.) If they committed this offence for a second time they were asking for it, and who was to deny them? (Loud laughter and cheers.) Sir W. Byles (Liberal) was sickened at Hie lumber ot voices which had been raised in favor of this brutal form of punishment. They would not flog a do" in this way, and a dog 3iad fur on its Sack to prevent it. (Loud laughter.) lo which Colonel Burn made answer‘lf these men were deported, ho would like them aLo Lo have the haJI-mark of some British muscle on their backs.” (Loud cheens and laughter.) Majority' for flogging, 253. * * *

The smaller fry of th© Every-country-but- . . „ „ yonr-own party have been Lord Roberts, flinging mud at Hi© Grand , . , r v , Old Army Veteran over his Manchester speech, but none of it has stuck. The man who at 67 years of age lettered the courage of the moaning pessimist© in the Old Laud cannot be sullied at 80 by the assaults of th© Manchester Guardian, tho ‘Daily Mail,’ and Mr Maasingham. His Manchester doctrine ■was eminently sail© and eminently worthy of practical attention. Summed up it simply said : “Be ye also ready, for y© know not what a day or an hour mav bring forth.” The Field-Marshal is, with due respect to so high an authority as Mr Massingham, the reverse of a fool. He not .only preaches “prepare,” but he practises what he preaches. “My lord,” he wrote to Lord Lansdowne, in reply to Hie invitation that ho should go out to -South Africa after the “ Black Week ” disasters m 1899, “ for 19 years I have led an abstemious life -in the hope of this day,” and wha-t Lord Roberts then did ho has been doing all his life. He has prepared and is preparing. All h© asks is that his countrymen shall do the same.