CURRENT TOPICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CI, Issue 11885, 8 May 1899, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

Though the world has nofc - V been horrified of late by i. reports of further.atrocities

TURKISH MISDEEDS.

• by those pets of the German - Emperor, the Turks, it must not be supposed that those interesting barbarians have amended their ways. Letters recently received by the Duke of Westminster, confirmed by despatches from the British Ambassador at Constantinople, reveal a frightful slate of affairs in Armenia. The Duke has lately summarised his correspondence for a London newspaper. “ Great distress,” he wrote, “ prevails throughout Asia Minor. Deaths fi'om starvation have already occurred, and the price of food is already double what it was in the winter of 1897. His Excellency points out that if the villagers are compelled to subsist upon their seed corn the distress must last indefinitely. Trade and commerce are at a standstill. Since 1895 seventeen orphanages have been opened for friendless Armenian children, victims of the massacres of 1893-96. They are mainly supported -by Protestant congregations in Great Britain and Ireland, the United States, Canada, Germany, Switzerland and Sweden. At Palu Diarbdrir, Zeitoun and Chinkusb the orphanages have actually been closed, and others are threatened with suppression on various pretexts," e.g.j proselytism, harbouring ‘seditious persons,’ supported by ‘revolutionary committees,’ and the like. It is of the utmost importance that international action should be. taken to stop these barbarous proceedings.” The sufferings of the miserable Armenians have been accentuated by the heartless action of the Russian authorities, to whom . they had turned for protection. “ The Russian Government,” the Duke continued, “ is now mercilessly enforcing an edict, issued in 1898, requiring all Ottoman subjects of Armenian extraction to quit the provinces of Baku, Kutais, Tiflis, Erivan and Kars before May. Several thousands of refugees _ are understood to be affected. The sufferings of old and young of both sexes, who had sought an asylum in Russia from persecution, are stated to be heartrending. The ■ former homesteads of the refugees have been ' .. burnt or seized by Kurds. It is no esaggeration to state that nob less than 80,00$ •

Armenian men and women and children are partially or "entirely dependent upon charit- ' able gifts from benevolent societies in ■Europe and America. A sum of £20,000 is now required for the purchase of seed corn, and a similar amount required for the annual maintenance of the orphanages. It is to be hoped that the money will be forthcoming, for it seems useless to expect that the socalled Christian governments of Europe will ever put a stop to the atrocious state of affairs which has made its expenditure necesjaiy;

' MCNIGEPAI. UNDER- . taxings in ' ENGLAND.

A little while ago an official return was published at Home, showing . the results of the management of reproductive undertakings gy municipal corporations' in

England. It was a remarkable document, and, as a progressive newspaper remarked, a splendid testimony to the business-like management of municipal corporations. It waa 'confined to water and gas supplies, electric lighting, tramways, markets, baths, cemeteries; working-class dwellings, piers, and quays. • The undertakings represent a capital expenditure of £88,152,595, and the following is the financial result averaged for the last five years:

... 8,898,376 "Working expenses .... 5,819,397 Net profit .3,618,668 Out of the profit came interest and sinkingfund, charges amounting to £3,127,271. Besides this, about. £BO,OOO was sot aside for depreciation. It has been pertinently pointed out that were these undertakings managed by companies, most of the £3,600,000 profit would be divided among shareholders in dividends, and a great deal ■ more, as the public would have to pay more ’ for their water' gas, and electricity-. The undertakings which are carried on with the greatest' profit are waterworks-and gasworks, trashways,' and- electric lighting, and markets. It is not quite-fair to include baths or cemeteries, in a list of reproductive, undertakings. 1 It is' rarely that 1 baths and washhouses -pay their way, and, as they are intended as a contribution to public health, it is hot in the interest of the-- community that they should be • conducted for profit. The same applies-to cemeteries. The return does not include slaughter-houses or harbours, which are generally managed without loss, nor Glasgow, Edinburgh, or other Scottish' towns where municipal industries ore highly developed. In some cases there are deficiencies, caused no doubt by the desire to supply water, baths, washhouses, and cemeteries at the lowest possible rates in the interest of. the public health. Despite this last fact,, the return is one that should encourage the friends of the extension of municipal enterprise in the colonies as well as in the Old Country.

A GERMAN , APPRECIATION OF BRITISH , ENTERPRISE.,,

Major Dickhuth, a member of the general staff of the f German Army, and an instructor at' the celebrated Prussian War Academy, recently delivered a lecture, on

“The Present Conditions of the Soudan,” before the Berlin Military Society. The lecture, which was given in the presence of the Emperor, ’was in effect an elaborate' eulogy of the achievements of Great Britain in the Yallev of- r the Nile. Major Dickhuth profeg&tfhimaelf a warm admirer of the tactics

employed by the Sirdar, and the tenacity

shown by the British soldiers in overcoming ’ the obstacles which stood in their way. He described the Sirdar’s plan of action, and

the brilliant execution of the campaign as “a very grand and incomparable accomplishment,” and considered that “ war was very seldom, if ever, waged with proportionately so «na.ll a force against a strong enemy un-

der natural conditions so unfavourable as was

the three years’ campaign against the Dervishes.” In Major Dickhuth’s opinion. Lord Kitchener is endowed with two qualities indispensable to a strategist, and very seldom combined in one general. They are patience in' waiting,' and prompt action at. the right moment. The Sirdar’s solution of the Fa;shoda difficulty receives his'critic’s unqualified approbation, “But,” continues Major Dickhuth, “ the great question of the Nile was solved before the French .evacuated

What Nelson’a guns began at Aboukir Bay, Kitchener’s Maxims com- ' pjetecj at Omdurman. Egypt is and will to- * main in English, hands.” But, while concerning Great Britain’s right to her conquests Major' Dickhuth speaks with no uncertain sound, his forecast of the Soudan’s future is less assuring. Although he agrees ’ with the majority of people who have given the subject consideration, that the power of the Khalifa is finally shattered, he is inclined to think that Great Britain is by no .means at the end of her troubltes. His opinion is that “eternal peace will never • teign in the Soudan,” Another rising like that excited by Mahdism need not, of course, be’anticipated, but many wars are, likely to break out among the Arabs and faegroes of the western districts. Nevertheless, the Major perceives that 1 the British occupation will encourage law arid order, and that so long as there is a certain amount of peace and quietude British influence is bound to be strengthened. It does not appear that Major Dickhuth tojjd his audience much that would have been news to English ears; but his acknowledgment of the success of our enterprise, coming as it does from an emir nent foreign authority, is significant, and gratifying.