OUR LONDON LETTER

Evening Star, Issue 15515, 10 June 1914, Page 8

OUR LONDON LETTER

, [By W. L. Geobge.] May 1. The festivities of the Entente Cordiaie are now over, the King has been to fans to celebrate the tenth year o; the Entente, and has had the usual triumphant, dull, more or less meaningless reception that is given to crowned heads; the usual sort of thing — opera, troops, and dinners. We are asaed to be.ieve that this means sometning, and pernaps it does. 1 know irom personal experience that Anglo-French feeling has greatly improved. Thai is not to be wondered at. Why, it could not be very much worse than when I knew it round about 1800. But this would not be worth notice if continual suggestions were not being made in the Press that the Entente is being turned into an affiance. The weli-known Trench professor Mr Lavisse seems to be a prime mover in this. He looks upon the Entente as inadequate, and asks how England would feel if Germany were to seize; Antwerp, Amsterdam, Dunkirk, Havre, Bordeaux, Marseille:-, Oran, Algiers, and Tunis. The answer to that is that England wou.d be very much annoyed, and that she would see to it tuat it wouid not happen. A second answer is that Germany does not at present seem to be taking the necessary steps. Such hysterical nonsense as this is sometimes - talked by university protessors, and it should be said to F ranee s credit that her own professors break out in this way less often than do the American ones; and I am mentioning it merely to give you an idea of the balderdash we have to tolerate in Europe, and to laugh at, so as not to let it become too dangerous. Yet there is a case for an alliance as opposed to an entente. Germany, Russia, and France have greatly increased their military and naval rorces, while we have attended to the navy only. In a way we are beginning to lack weight, and if we must go on with this armaments race it might not be at all unhealthy for us to-be a little more closely linked with the two friendly nations which stand by our side confronting the Triple Alliance. Standing detached as we do, we are certainly freer; we need not go to war if France and Russia are entangled, and that is good. But, on the other hand, if we go to war alone, France and Russia need not help us, which is not so good. I think I am stating the case fairly—so fairly at least as I can as a supporter of conscription. But I see no sign that an alliance will shortly eventuate; certainly the condition of our internal politics does not justify us at present in commuting ourselves to anything complicated in the way of foreign policy. Mr Allen's speech at Milton has created quite a sensation in this country. On the whole, it has been read to mean that New Zealand is not satisfied with the naval arrangements of the Imperial Government. There is some reason for this. The Dominion Government, when consenting to the transfer of the New Zealand to home waters, underestood that a Dreadnought was to be sent to the East Indies station, and it is quite certain that the old ship Defence, which was sent to the China station, is not adequate, while the Swiftsure, the Minotaur, and the Hampshire do not seem equal to two battle cruisers. It is true we have an agreement with Japan, who is supposed to take charge of the Pacific on our behalf, but I remain a little supicious of Japan, who might very well feel inclined to take charge of the Pacific on her own behalf. And then where would New- Zealand be? I have not given up the view that separate navies are bad things, and stiil think it would be regrettable to have a Pacific Admiralty, but there certainly seems to be a case for the Dominion Government for, say, six modern cruisers and two battleships to be stationed in New Zealatjd and Australian waters. The Dominions could pay for them if they are "so generous, but in any case I think they should have them.

You will be interested to hear that the new French battleships are to be of a still more advanced pattern. They wifi probably eclipse the Japanese ship Kongo. They will have three turrets, each carrying four 134 gams, and will be able to discharge 20 tons of metal a minute. Each will have six tubes for the discharge of IBin torpedoes. The speed will be 21 knots, and the price £3.000,000. There is no comment to make. In another year or so some other Power will design a yet more formidable ship, and so on. It is getting rather <3ull. Among the recent conferences the only one of particular interest is that of the Independent Labor parly. It was a melancholy affair, for the treasurer stated that there was not a penny in hand for the political fund, and as a General Election may come at any moment the position of the party is very serious. The seats will be fought all the same, but with Labor party money, and as tho Labor party is not Socialist, but mainly trade unionist, the Independent Labor party, which is a Socialist party, may find its power almost extinct. And the I.L.P. has also to find £30,000 to £IO,OOO to keep the newspaper the ‘Daily Citizen’ alive. It has decided to obtain a shilling per member, altogether £1.500, by voluntary levy. I do not think it will get the money, for previous levies were never successful. If we take these facts in conjunction with another—namely, that the Amalgamated Socie.ty of Engineers have voted against any political fund—we must conclude either that the Labor party are receding from their purely political position towards the old attitude of industrial action, or that the Labor moverr ent is slackening altogether. I do not suppose that the latter is the case, so must conclude that Labor is tired of its politicians. That is hardly to be wondered at, for, as I have suggested to you before, the Labor party have not cut' in Parliament a very creditable figure. They have been far too subservient, to the Liberal party, and I suspect that if the I.L.P. are now being kept short of money it is because the members resent their attitude. They are not being quite reasonable, as, after all, only three or four Labor members out of the whole party are being supported by the 1.L.P.; but as they are the most active and the most classconscious section of the party their grievances must be seriously considered. Intelligence in their ease counts much more than numbers. We shall be interested to sec whether this hint has any effect noon the government of tho party during the next rear or two.