CURRENT TOPICS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 9856, 25 July 1914, Page 3

CURRENT TOPICS.

The debiit* oa : tyil fi<6fcng Amendment Bill was brief but significant. What may be todJW the quality or Mm of the discussion and tins would teem to j^a^ individual wpugejpes /haw iulier and freer pliy than ffiey have at time*! Mr rferdmairts tjpsech was" admirable at every point, Mr Wilford was terse and effective. Both Mr Massey and Sir, Joseph Wajd spoke from purely political standpoint* and did not discusi the principle* affected by the Bill. In the end the second reading wis agreed toby a majority of two. I had rather hoped that the small majority would have been on the other aide. In any case, the. Bill it a* killed.- Certain subsidiary clause*. aa to barmaid* and so forth will stand; but the crucial clause wilt go, or will be amended so at to be quite useless to the extremists.

THE REDS.

We do not hear much of the Red Federation at thie moment, aa I W«e remarking a few days ago; but if you think the Red Federation is dead, you don't yet know the "I Won't Worker*." Every Labour member in the House is more or lea* solidly pledged to that body, and instead of scorning that body, one party in our politic* is making common cause with it and crawling in the dust aa its apologist. The only hope for New Zealand lie* in the over-throw of the trouble-makers. The thing moat commendable in the whole behaviour and attitude of the Mnesey party i* that it will have no deal. ings with the devil in this particular. The Liberal remnant hopes >to win in December, not despite the Red Federation, but with the Red Federation's assistance. If in such circumstances I admit that the Liberal remnant makes, me sick, you cannot accuse me of inconsistency. I never have pretended-to see in the extreme Labour-Socialist and Syndicalists anything but a present offence and a lurking menace. I cannot for the life of me understand how any politician with the interests of New Zealand at heart can have any truck with such malcontent*.

CAILLAUX.

The proceedings in Pari* at the trial of Madame Caillaux for the abominable murder of Calmetto the journalist are characteristically French, and the murderess is already being represented and accepted as a creature worthy of the public sympathy. The facts, on the other hand, are simple. Calmette was an eminent journalist who conducted a crusade against Caillaux, a corrupt politician. Certain information in the hand* of Calmette affected the wife of Caillaux, and this woman, fearing for her own position, took a revolver, went to call ou Calmette, and deliberately shot him. It was a hideout and inexcusable murder, whatever frills of sentiment you choose to put about it. But Madame Caillaux is made the leading woman of a trial eifectively stage-managed s uy the great barrister Labori. She k referred to as a striking and pathetic figure. Sho speaks for tixty-fiv.e minutes to a court dissolved in tears.. She will either get off scot-free or escape Wjth » nominal punishment. In France, justice falters whenever it is faced by a pretty woman with influence. If you want to realize the atmosphere of a French court of justice, refresh your imagination by re-reading George VL Steevens's account of the Dreyfus trial:

"To the English eye it'all looked like! what it was —a, public meeting rather than a oourt of law. An English court is almost ostentatiously grim and businesslike. The room is small and none too light; the walk bare, unless a plan should be hung on them to illustrate an argument. The judge sits on the bench—a nose, mouth, and chin appearing out of his white wig—like a silent sphinx. Lawyer* drone and- mumble.. 1 Witnesses.atuifcbhv oyer monosyllables. The "impressioa»i» one of hush and dimness—man suppressed; but the awfinVmsjesty ©Hfca-Jaw JStebdmg over aH*/>But this ««trfcm*rtia# Hall of Lycee was utterly di<fei*«t > TH room was large enough orohcstral concert, which is exactly what; it is used for. With two rows of large! windows at each side—Square in the lower | tier, circular in the upper—it is almoist aa light as tho day outside, The walls were coloured a cheerful* buff; round tho cornice were emblazoned tho names of Chateau Briand, Lamennais, Renan, arid the intellectuals of Brittany. At the top of the room was a etage; hanging on its back wall tho white Christ on a black cross proclaimed the place a court of justice—only instead of the solemn sphin* m black, there sat at a table seven officers in full uniform In the centre was the president, Colonel Jouauet, a little old gentleman' with dark hair, eye-glasses, and a huge white moustache that seemed part of the same stuff as the tall white aigrette in his kepi on the tablo before him. .... In the middle of it shone tho silks and feathers of the reporters of the "Fronde, the women's paper of Paris, which does not employ a single man. Sprinkled everywhere were tho blue and whit© uniforms of gendarmes with sword and revolver; along the back of the hall twinkled the red and blue and steel of an infantry force with fixed bayonets. You might have taken rt for a political meeting, or an assault at arms, or a fancy ball—for anything except a trial." That will do for a suggestion of atmosphere. This trial of Madame Caillaux is not a court-martial, but the general atmosphere is about the same, all fuss and frill. Let us glance now at Labori, who was a great figure at that court-martial, as he is a great figure at this trial, many years later. f, Nearest/to tho audience of i»»« four robed figures on the counsel's bench was a young man of great stature Mid sue. As he sat loosely on his chair, hitched bis gown on to his shoulders, leaned forward to listen or heaved himself back.to mu, CTtry motion had a vast sweep, embodied easy power. When he stood, he was a clear head above most Frenchmen in Court. His keen eye looked out from under bushy brows as a gun looks out of its port. A light hrown beard, neither very trim nor shapeless and light brown hair just beginning to nod over hm brow, tempered brute strength with a look of bluff kindkness. If Merrier was an inquisitor, this sunny-faced giant was a viking It was Labori, the great crow examiner. Since he defend ad Zola be lias given himself heart and soul to the cause of Dreyfus. Perhaps his skill in eliciting reluctint truths xas piqued at the persistence of a mysterv unfathomed; perhaps his righting spirit was roused by contumely to resolute hostility. When first te ro»» to cross-ex-amine, his voice was agreeable, yet seem ed too *oft and liquid for the man. But the moment he approached » point, a dis tinctin, an admission, it hardened and rang like steel. In anger you knew he could roar out of that great chest like a bull. It any champion could plunge into the black ahades, choke lies and errors and ignorance, and pluck out the truth, it was surely Labori. "Therefore, this being 1 the most tangled riddfe of the century, a French journalist galloped into Court at naif-past six on the third morning with the screech, "Labori is"shot!" And Labori was lying on the canal bank with his head in his wife's lap and a bullet in his back. He had been shot from behind; letters, including a threatening missive received tho day before, had been taken from his pocket; it was said that a man had tried to wrest from him the portfolio that held his notes for the imminent cfbss-examination of Merrier. Certain it was that the assailant got sway and remained uncaught for days; which, as he must want food, and the whole countryside Knew of him, spell sympathy and friends. Plot or no plot, Rennet went mad. Jews wept. Newspaper-sellers volleyed "Long live the Army," or "Down with the tonsure!" and hundreds cams out into the streets to watch them do it. At every street corner somebody was calling somebody on the other side an assassin. When we returned from Court tfrat morning, Jewish ladies' were waiting at the doors of the hotel to make sure that no one had assassinated their husbands. They told each other with shaking lips that the lower quarters, inflamed by cider far weaker than St. Loqis beer, were contemplating a massacre of Jews. They remembered, and went pale, that it was" leas than a week to tho St. Bartholomew. An eminent novelist went up to an eminent anti-Semite and remarked, "Assassin! your face displeases me. Assassin! I give you five minutes to leave* this hotel. Assassin!" The anti-Semite, who happens to be a Jew, went to the prefect .aria asked for protection." : This is the Labori who is defending Madame Caillaux, and these people of France

of Labori the champion of Dreyfus rather (ban of Labori the- chajnpum -of murder. • We at* jerffoft weaker just than WeTlpigton w. On dull days it is grim, on w«t day* it is dismal, <* fife day* jnV it «xquisit*. It is exquisite i<fta« frow. ffie («>t mart? of them, *3togetfcer) '■ aro loiAuj* th<Hr freshest and greenest, we gardens-"aw commencing to pur on *e* jpofy of fpringY Even- member* of Eariiunent are facing the mid in lightauits. with ffifeeri in their buttonholes. Mr Mat- «#, rjsgdnafve to weatherKthat remind* him of home, positively pn'tfk* these .day* £ rink " meant, but n?gp# r . .'* «& Mr Fisher* looks in hi* form. Mr Fraser beams, Sir ioea down lobbiea hum. nwa* a aong. Mr Witford becomes the HSt •l Tt^ em * B t m paraffin thai e*er Wk «£* P so **- °? <W> Oimtral, looks aft* like Mr Pickwick every day. Mr Hhie ha* been caught smiling three times RW«| •.&«*• Mr &>sworthy friaks hke a limb, Jh6 Bollards Are gravely suspected of having a book of tender lvrics in hand. Mr Alien'* moustache become* every day more dashing and aleak. Great 'weather.