THE WAR OF WARS.

North Otago Times, Volume CIII, Issue 13651, 19 August 1916, Page 5

THE WAR OF WARS.

INDIAN PRESS ACT. '" ' CURBING MAS BESANT. (Auslraliau and N.Z. Cnlilc Association.) LONDON, August 10. In tk House of Commons, Mr Austen Chamberlain, Secretary for India, said Atrs Annie Besant, president of the Thcosophicnl Society, had been required by the Indian Government to give security for her newspaper "New India," owing to the disaffective nature if.her articles. [To judge by the outcry raised in the columns of tlie Indian-edited press never were the inhabitants of any country subjected to .greater restrictions as regards liberty of discussion than are the unfortunate educated classes of India to-day, says the Pioneer (Allahabad) of July Ist. The cause 'of all the trouble was the demanding by the Madras authorities, under the provisions of the Press Act, of security amounting to 2000 dupces from Mrs Annie Besant's paper New India. We must confess to complet.: ignorance both of' the literary merits and political views of that journal. But we have some little acquaintance with the activities of Mrs Annie Besant, and while we havcuo doubt'that- that lady has her earnest convictions, we should hesitate to say that her zeal has never been known to outrun her discretion, It is to' be presumed the Madras authorities had their reason for exacting the security demanded, but of course, whatever the reasons''were ■the friends and supporters;•'of ;M!rs Annie;Besant would inevitably consider them insufficient, Gi'eat'pfay has'nalubilly'b'eeii"iriii'de on the platform and-. in the press with (nidations from Sir Lawrence Jenkins's not particularly happy judgment in the Comrade case, and we arc solemnly askl'd to believe that the. Press Act has been, so tyrannically employed as to leave the Indian journalist nowadays practically- no option between silence aTwl punishment. •The best answer to this Hood of protest is to-be

found in the remarkable freedom of criticism in which the victims of the tyranuy are daily allowed to indulge. Even the payer whose sad case is tho theme of so many lamentations and objurgations, has apparently been permitted to publish a full account of one at least of the indignation meetings held on its behalf. And the intervention of the Madras censor has not prevented certain messages of sympathy addressed to that journal finding their way into the press, It is a piquant situation, indeed, when matter treated .as objectionable is .subsequently allowed' the widest possible publicity, but there is nothing surely in such a situation to suggest the resort to tyrannical' • .methods of -.administering the law,] ',. THE ALMIGHTY DOLLAR. AMERICA'S WAR PROFITS. (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) NEW. YORK,. August 17.. Tlic New York World says: Since the beginning of 1915, the United Statos has sold abroad -2,872,000,000 dollars' .worth of merchandise. "The war profits have reduced the National Debt to less • than half the pre-war ligui'c. WAR LOAN FOB RUSSIA, IN FAVOUR IN AMERICA. (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) NEW YORK, August 17. New York bankers will issue a new loan for Russia shortly. The New York Herald considers the loan should lind immediate favour with investors. FRENCH OUTPUT OF MUNITIONS, BEWILDERING INCREASES. . ("The Times" Service,) Received August 18. at 11,50 p.m. LONDON, August 18. . The French shell output has increased eighty times since the beginning of the war; rilles 290 times, machine guns 1510 times, ''and guns !)0 limes.