ON THE WATCH TOWER

Evening Star, Issue 16033, 9 February 1916, Page 2

ON THE WATCH TOWER

[By Ariel.] Tho * Daily Telegraph,’ dealing with the remarks of j\lr Andrew Fisher, the Commonwealth’s new High Commissioner, says: “The wonder^is what has been tho Mother .Country’s virtue, or her care for Dominions, which has now aroused their devotion.” As an old colonist, I venture to say that the Mother Country has won our devotion by letting us alone lo mind our own business and minding her own at the Same time. Had the dear old lady been seized with fits of anxiety about our welfare and with mistrust of our infantile inexperience, and had she made the most costly and elaborate arrangements to fence us in and attach us to her apron string, we would now have been taking advantage of her embarrassment to set up on our own account. Of old the Greek colonies did that; a hundred years ago the Spanish colonies followed suit ; and a little before that the British Colonies ot North America had declared their independence. In all these cases the trouble arose from the determination of the Mother Country to attach ’the. colonies to herself. The great discovery of Britain in the art of keeping her children together was simply that she could not do it, and had better not try. Strange as it may seem, that was the key to the whole business. It was simply a case of “let them alone, and they’ll come home.” It required much chastened resignation and self-denial on the part of the old lady to take on such a system. She must have done it with a sore heart, feeling that again she was about to lose her children. But it worked like a charm. She had slowly learned to let people’s opinions in religion alone, and then to let their trading alone as far as possible; and when she stumbled upon the idea of letting colonial Governments alone she found the bond of Empire! It seems absurdly simple, but depend upon it no other Government in the world will be able to make the same discovery even at second hand. •*** * * * * The difficulty of “ diluting ” the trade unions in Britain is the greatest obstacle that the Minister of Munitions finds in his way. A large part of the work of shell-making can be done by men who have had an hour’s instruction. Hence the proposal was to give every trained man about four untrained men to work under his direction, and so get a move on. This has been steadily objected to, even when the Government agreed to pay the inexpert men the same rtae as the most expert received. This was done so as not to cheapen any part of the work over which the unions had established their monopoly. Yet the vital interests of the nation have been held up by the unwillingness of these men to admit what was perfectly obvious: that they held a monopoly over what was not expert work, and by their fear that after the war they would in some wav suffer for their .concession. Many people will feel an easy and cheap indignation at the trade unions, who have never given a moment’s thought to the fact that we have such principles at work all around us |u the most respectable callings. What V- the chief question between the Pope '■nd tlie Anglicans, or the Anglicans and flie Methodists, for example? The real lore of the question in each case is one of irade unions and invasion of monopolies. Fhe other day Mr Lloyd George told the Labor people what a strict and jealous anion he belonged to himself, and how it had got itself fenced with privileges and monopolies. We are very frequently reminded of the existence of the B.M.A. the British Medical Association, or trade union. These people are always on strike against somebody or something; now the friendly societies, and now some hospital board, and now some popular blackleg will be. the object of the boycott. The Nurses’ Union are, of course, a branch of the B.M.A. In a period of great stress and stringency there was a proposal to “dilute” the nurses, just as Lloyd George wished to dilute the engineers, for fourfifths of the work could be done bv anybody. The local union were obstinate; so tho volunteers went to Egypt. Of course, a branch of the union was waiting for them there, and we are getting letters from members of it pitying the poor blacklegs, who were simple enough to imagine that they could get in if they only went to the House of Bondage. There is now some talk of the importation of American doctors duty free. You wait and see how the B.M.A. will perform. 1 ***«,»**

The German story that England is the sole cause of the continuance of the war may have a kind of indirect truth in it. t* that Germany has sounded both Russia and Franco with offers of a separate peace. I have little doubt that Germany would give either or both of our great Allies liberal terms to induce them to fall out of the Entente. I dare say France could get back all her territory, and possibly Alsace as well, if she would make peace. Russia, too, could get back all she has lost if she would desert her friends. Germany would dearly love to be allowed to devote the whole of her energies to England, the “only enemy.” But both Russia and France know that if once Britain were disposed of they would have to submit to & bullying domination, . a S ain .with no hope of success! England is a kind of shield that encourages the others to go through with the war and make life worth living in years to come. Both Russia and France feel that the day of salvation is while England is at their side in the day of battle. In that sense it is true that England is the cause . of prolongation of the war. It is also true that had England stood by and allowed Germany to conquer France and Russia the war would have been over long ago, and Germany would now have been getting ready for the final bout with Britain. In that sense, too. England prolongs the war. Outside of Germany, however. the guilt of her action will not be considered very dreadful when it is understood. ******* The boast of the Americans that thev are wealthy enough to outbuild any other navy after the war, and to enforce disarmament, the election talk of President Wilson, who wants to secure -the vote of those who favor war as well as that of the peace-at-any-price people, and toe hectoring tones ot Mr Roosevelt in his wooing of tho doctors, make a curious medley _ of parties and opinions. The compelling of peace by superior force is the reductio ad absurdutn of all peao© doctrines, besides being closely allied to Prussianism. ‘ They make a desolation and call it peace,’’ as the old Caledonian remarked. Mr Wilson, too, the head and front of the creed that the tiger should he soothed with polite words, is being forced to acknowledge that typewriters, in order to he effective, must ho mounted on gun carriages. Ho sees that logic and polished periods are only smiled at in RSrlmwhen not backed by adequate force, and he wishes to conciliate tho war party and at the same time to convert his own party to providing means of enforcing his Notes. Thus all peace doctrines, when . tried in grim times like these, fail as abjectly as did Mr Ford’s ship of fools. Xha Appam case is likely to make Mr Wilson's head ache tod. Whether the ' treaty of 1828 with the Kingdom of Prussia holds good for the totally new creation of tho German Empire, whether an ancient treaty between two parties ought to override a convention which all agree to at a subsequent date, and whether the ownership of the British ship Appam is , to bo determined by a treaty between the robber and the .receiver or by the general law of nations, are questions which Mr ‘ Wilson will find can be decided only-by guns, and not by typewriters. I hope his ■perplexities will bo increased by legal proof that the German raider was really fitted out in an American port, and that the Alabama claims have to bo paid the other way. * * « * * * « Mr Roosevelt, in criticising President Wilson, said that he was like Mr Micawber,' who "fancied that he settled everything by his notes and bills. The reference is a good one, and I beg to recall this feature in the glorious old optimist. When : be is in, gaol lor debt, and his wife has gawked the last scrap |p£rujntp, bo

borrows a shilling from little David for porter, and gives an (jsder.on Airs Micawber for the amount. Later on Micawber comes to Canterbury, where David is at school and stays with his family at a good bouse. On his departure he writes to David : I nave discharged the pecuniary Contracted at this establishrnerifc by giving a note of hand made payable fourteen days after date at my residence Pentonville, London.” Mrs Alicawber also had great faith in bills. When she laments that her family will not nnct the cash to set her spouse up in the brewing or even in the banking business, she proposes that he should raise a certam sum on a bill. “My opinion is that i , , o;m 'bei - should go into the city, should take that bill into the money market, and should dispose of it for what ho can get. If individuals in the money market oblige Mr Micawber to sustain a gieat sacrifice, that, is between themselves and their consciences.” The only outcome of it all was that poor Traddles backed a second bill. When about to enter the service of Uriah Heep Micawber If deep in the mud, and says: under the temporary pressure of pecuniary liabilities contracted with a view to their immediate liquidation, hut remaining unliquidated through a combination of circumstances, I have been under the necessity of assuming a garb from which my natural instincts recoil—l allude to spectacles—and possessing myself of a cognomen to which I can establish no legitimate pretensions.” He is not at tho end of his resources, however, for ho calls on David to add up tho two sums £25 4s 9J.d and £lB 6s 2d, and continued:

” F° leave this metropolis and my friend Air 'Thomas Traddles without acquitting myself of the pecuniary part of this obligation would weigh upon my mind to an unsupjiortable extent. I have therefore prepared for my friend Air Thomas traddles, and I now hold in my hand, a document which accomplishes the desired object. I beg to hand to my friend Air Fuomas Traddles my lOU for forty-one ten eleven and a-half, and I am happy to recover my moral dignity, and to know that I can once more walk erect before my fellow-man.” ******* The University almost did a bold and sensible thing in regard to the scrapping of Latin the other day; but at the last moment their courage failed. “ What would Mother Oxford and other ancient dames say ? Would they not cut us next time they met us?” These are very natural fears, and if the smile of the antique and the effete were the main thing to be studied, then the further delay of a movement already a centurv overdue would be justified. But it is the life of the nation that is the concern of those who think wisely about this solemn matter. We are beaten by superior efficiency and superior educational development while our ancient and wealthy shrines of learning are given over to a Chinese conservatism, and wo'imagine that their ridiculous defects are just grounds of pride. The only argument in favor of delay that I have met is this : “It is always easier to pull down than to build up”; which is characteristically original. Let me rejoin that it is easier still not to pull down at all, but to wait till the nation sends its rubbish carts to take you where you will at least not be in tho way. ******* Air F. G. Nelson, farmer, of Whakamaramara (may Ids tribe increase), has written to a Hastings paper to say that lie had passed the doctor as absolutely fit and was expecting to join the camp, when he was notified that he was rejected because he was born 18 months too soon. Under these painful circumstances he sent along a cheque for £250 to assist the brave _ boys who had been born later. That is the most sensible way of remedying a grievance that I have heard of yet. I believe that even the author of the Labor manifesto would .admit that this is a good, example of the “ conscription of wealth.” Indeed, it is the best explanation of that occult phrase that I have met. The misfortune of being born top soon is quite a common one, "and I wislp that all of its victims were in a position to take such revenge as Air Nelson has done. By way of contrast I have noted a case of a very opposite kind of misfortune. I do not refer to the boys who have stowed away in troopships from Australia, who, though only four feet nothing and hardlv in double figures as regards years, yet fancied that if they once got away they were safe to go to the front. Among the best behaved oi the men at Hanmer was a young soldier who had been some months in the trenches and was ordered back to Trentham. In passing through Christchurch ho had to interview the office. There it was discovered that he had been born too late, so ho was sent home to his parents as too young to bo a soldier! And yet they say they are short of men!

******* Mr John Payne, M.P., has made a venture in journalism, and has called the fledgling ‘The New Zealand Philistine.’ 1 suppose he had his reasons for adopting the title. The Philistines were the Huns of the ancient Isrnelitish world, destroyers without rhyme or reason. “ Abraham digged wells and the Philistines stopped them np”; “Isaac had flocks and the Philistines envied him,” for he was a wool king. "Thus, saith the Lord, because the Philistines have dealt by revenge, and have taken vengeance with despite of soul to destroy with perpetual enmity; therefore, behold I will stretch out mine_ hand upon the Philistines to destroy the remnant % nnd I will execute great vengeance upon them with furious rebukes.” As a plain matter of fact, the more destroyers and pullers down never can prosper, and the Philistines disappeared from history unwept, imhonored, and unsung. In this light on the meaning of the name of the new oracle one can judge of the value of the following brilliant passage from the lips of the high priest of the shrine :

I say that Parliament as a whole—piocedure. and the whole lock, stock, and bai’rel—is one of the trickiest, rottenest institutions ever devised to delude and deceive the free and independent electors of this or any other community.

A brother scribe after quoting the above oracle comments : “Sneak f6r yourself, John.