NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Feilding Star, Volume XV, Issue 3778, 2 May 1919, Page 2

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

What Might Have Been

"What is your soundest judgment -•your first thought, or your second To know this i.s to loam tho way ol wisdom. "I am retiring voluntarily from the chair," said tho .Mayor ol Christchurch (Mr H. Holland) a few nights ago. "Rut I do- not know whether 1 would have done so if I had known as much as I do now." Christchurch has exchanged a Thacker for a Holland. It might havo done worse—chosen a McCombs, for instance.

/-"iddling into Disaster

Nero fiddled whilst Rome burned, and Fritz is fiddling whilst his Path orla id is c the brink of Jis-'slei. Ihe leaders of Germany—apparently still of the Junker class—still use bluff, bluster, and- boasting as weapons of propaganda, under the impression that the Allies do not sco the obvious; but back in Germany the •o.editions aro of that quality of Denmark in the Tiistoric phrase of Hamlet. In evidence thereof, here is an •xtract from a recent editorial ur-, tide in the Abend Zeitung: "It is istonisliiug that our workers and sol diers do not see the imminent dangei wo are running of a general enemy* occupation of Germany. Tho fool. l imagine that the present witches' sabbath, with its cinemas, its dances. its idleness, and its reckless waste ot money, will last for eternity, and apparently forget that finally they will have to start work agan_ whether they choose or not. It is really heartbreaking Jto sco that, instead if taking up arms in defence of the homeland against tho enemies on east md west, tho German proletariat is exhausting its energies in dcmonstni' tious, strikes, and excesses. flow truly it has been said about tlieni: ' Insupportable in victory, pitiful in defeat!"'

Problems of Preference. The Tariff Unionist leaven in Lloyd George's Cabinet das worked to souk effect, as will bo seen in our cabled news to-day announcing that Ihe Cab met has adopted a policy of Imperial i'reference. It is but fitting that Austen Chamberlain should have been rho statesman to make this declaration, for lie is the sou of the man (the late Joseph Chamberlain) who ■ reated tho Preferential Movement that has split tho Little Englandcr party into small splinters. That John Hull and- Sons should go on fighting >ach other on tariffs is the most unbusinesslike thing imiigimiblo. There ■•s need for every part "of the Rritish Empire to conic together in the matter of trade, for il will now have sonic drenuoiis trade rivals to contend villi. If has certainly lost the insidious German and >• Austrian trader for a while, but there is the capable •Japanese 10-contend with, and the Vmerican business man is already getting busy to capture some of the world's trade. There is a difference. however, between these two rivals— Japan, like Germany of old, has the ■idvantago of a teeming population, ■heap labor, aid subsidised shipping. Ihe American manufacturer has to pay flic highest price in tb«-world for !n's labour and for tho running of iiis Jiips. As l.tritain is cssenliallv a manufacturing cnuiilrv. we. iimv cxneet that John Bull and Co. will d.. something practical lo meet the rivalry of outsiders, even though the latter have had a good start."