Notes and Comments.

Feilding Star, Volume XI, Issue 2732, 31 May 1915, Page 2

Notes and Comments.

To-day's Annivcrsar.es. Alexander Cruden, author of the Concordance, born, 1701. Haydn died, 1809. Canton taken by British, 1841. . Peace signed at Pretoria by Britons" and Boers, 1902., Marriage of King Alfonso and Princess- Ena, 1900.

Yesterday's History. Joan of Arc was burnt by the English on May 30, 1431. Rubens,'the painter, who was also a diplomat, died on May 30, IG4O. Voltaire, whose philosophic teaching had something (and a large something) to do with tho making of the French Revolution, died on May 30, 1778. He knew Pope (the English poet), was at one time a friend of Frederick the Great, and, besides being a philosopher, was an excellent man of business. Alexander Pope (the friend of Voltaire), poet, whose easy superficial poetry expresses so completely the essential spirit of the 18th century., also died on May 30, 1744. Where is H. M. A.S. Australia? We cannot easily forget the ship that .saved us. Her movements have been as mysterious as those of the Kaiser. Where is he:' Where the Russians may yet capture him. Where is the Australia ? Germany is boasting that our warships were sunk m the Gulf of Saros and in the Dardanelles by a submarine that voyaged all tho way from the North Sea through" the Meediterraneau. In our opinion the Kaiser's next surprise will be to learn that H.M.A.S. Australia has voyaged all the way from the South Seas to the North Sea to help give Admiral Tirpitz his knock-out-blow. G6ttiny Back Their.Own. Amongst the oabled items which we publish to-day is one which tells how the Italian army occupied Gradiska and the island of Grado. These are both in Austrian territory, but being in the region of Istria they indicate that Italians are here, as on the opposite side (the Trentino) invading regions that are essentially Italian-. As the Germans appropriated Alsace and Lorraine from France, so the Austrians appropriated the big provinces of Trentino on the north-west and Istria Cm which Trieste is situated) on the east. Italy down through the years has,mourned over those two regions in a manner as sincere and as bitterly as France over her two lost provinces. It is a happy coincidence that Frenchmen and Italians to-day havo at long last both feet planted aggressively in the regions beyond that are now likely to be onc'o more permanently attached to their motherlands. Playing the War Gamo. The case for America is rather well put by A. Sheppard in a penny pamphlet published in Mclbourno and now circulating in Feilding. The writer points out that -n supplying £100,----000,000 worth of munitions of war during past months U.S.A. has been worth a million mon to the Allies. Indeed, he argues that equipmont has been more important than recruits. (In this argument he would find New Zealand's Defence Minister in perfect agreement with him). Mr Sheppardpleads that Australians and New Zealanders are condemnng Americans hastily and without a knowledge of the facts, and points out that U.S.A. was not a signatory to the treaty which held Belgium inviolate. He quotes English papers which have expressed satisfaction in U.S.A. maintaining her neutrality, and hoping she would continue to do so. After pointing out that the press of America is practically all for tho Allies, Mr Shevmard holds a brief for President Wilson, who is the very strong man for tho critical moment in America. And yet —and yet—and yet—read to-day's cable news.