NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 11533, 19 November 1900, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Tire Fortnightly Review for October contains an article on " Our Military Prestige in Europe," founded on the reports of military attaches after the Boer war, and written in a perfectly dispassionate spirit by Captain J. W. Gambier. It is grim reading, but if we are to bo saved from illusions and disillusions, it ought (says the Westminster Gazette) to be read and pondered, ouO acted upon. According to Captain Gnmbier, ; «.hc suggestion that the Pekin relief force ,< should be commanded by an Englishman "very nearly shipwrecked tne joint action of the Powers, and more nearly broke up the entente than any international jealousy of commerce or desire to gruo land.' The reason, he roundly asserts, wa« that after the spectacle of unpreparedness which we had presented to Europe in the Boer war, and the numerous "regrettaDle incidents" which had followed, the Allies would "under no consideration consent to be led by an English general." A danger ous quarrel might, he caustically suggests, have arisen over this except that our War Office and military authorities did not disappoint us." For "when all the other armies were ready to start < on the punitive expedition', we were naturally all adrift, and everyone had to wait while we were filling up the necessary Departmental forms. This really saved the Empire—it was so palpable an argument of our unfitness to command others that we had not a leg to l stand on." This is not an agreeable kind of sarcasm for Englishmen to read. But what follows is by no means more to our j taste. For Captain Gambier proceeds to quote freely from the Italian report on the Boer war, prepared by General Count Luchino dal Yerme, which, if any, might be expected to be friendly to ourselves. There are happily in it many pages describing the valour of our troops and the heroism of our young officers, but the report of the genera., management, political and military, of the earlier stages of the campaign and of the general condition of the British army is exceedingly mortifying. The transport, he declares, was an utter muddle. When the supplies arrived at Capetown and Durban " weeks were required to put them in order, and months passed before the service began to work properly at the arduous task of supplying an army in the field." Hence the various armies were tied to the railways, and the enemy had only to wait in well-chosen fortified positions to inflict their blows. Again, in Natal, hundreds of lives were lost because the soldiers "would not entrench," and their officers did not see the necessity of it. "The men had no tools, for the pools are loaded in cart-s, which remain in the rear, and never leave the roads." And so on, and so on. Captain Gambier cites Austrian, French, German, and Russian c-ritic3 who speak with the same severity. But we shall be told that the arrival of Lord Roberts and the raising of the army of 220,000 men changed all chat. We hope, indeed, that full justice will be done by foreign military critics to Lord Roberts, but it would be another delusion to suppose that the despatch of this immense army has caused us to be " feared" in Europe. Europe, according to Captain Gambier, asks why were all these men necessary for conquering the Boers, and answer* the question in a manner which, as firmly believe, doei us a grave injustice, but which in the circumstances cannot be dismissed without pretext.

The London Times, referring to '-he farewell banquet at Edinburgh to Lord Hopatoun — which, by the way,' Lord Rosebery mads a capital speechdescribed it as s final and emphatic expression of the universal confidence with which his countrymen re gard his assumption of the duties of first Governor- of the Commonwealth (s< Australia. It is a post (says the Times) of unsurpassed dignity and responsibility, and one calling for the exercise of high qualities of statesmanship. That there is, nowhere the whisper of a doubt concerning the ability o; Lord Hopetoun to discharge the duties of such a position is a striking testimony to the favourable estimate of his powers, formed alike by the public at Home and by the people of the new Commonwealth. Io will doubtless be to him a great advantage that he has already become intimately known to a large portion of the Australian people, and has had the opportunity to understand and appreciate the colonial point of view. It is not less an advantage to the Commonwealth that its first Governor-General is a man with actual colonial experience, whose tact, urbanity, and judgment are matter of knowledge and not of speculation. Though Lord Hopetoun modestly described himself as a man going out to stand by while the carefully-constructed machinery of the new ship of State is started by its builders, everyone will understand that he can be no mere spectator. Within constitutional lines, which we may be sure he will scrupulously respect, he will be in a position to bring a very real guiding influence to bea' - upon the working of the new Constitution. He is the representative of that Crown which forms the connecting link between the different portions of the Empire, and it will be his part to emulate the prudent but unsleeping vigilance by which His Royal Mistress has won the hearts of her subjects all over the globe. He will carry with him the heartiest good wishes of the people of this country, and he can confidently count upon the hearty welcome and cordial cooperation of our Australian brethren. To adopt, the imagery of Mr. Kipling's poem, he will be equally in the confidence of the young Queen and of the old, of the Commonwealth which has just acquired her crown and of the Mother Country which adds another great confederation to the vast fabric of Empire. We can wish foi him nothing better than Mr. Kipling's boon— the people's love, tempered, august, abiding.

The American Consul at Annaberg gives' the "official statistics relating to German trade with the various pprts of South Afriu.. which show that, while trade in that region is increasing, the German share in it is increasing also. In 1891 Germany sent to the Transvaal goods of the value, approximately, of £60,000; in 1894, £265,000 i.i 1098, £450,000. To the British colonic* and the then Orange Free State, Germany sent goods to the value of £260,000 in 1891, £560,000 in 1894, and £710,000 in 1898. The German imports from South Africa were £325,000 iD 1891, and nearly £1,000,000 in '.898, and consisted mostly of Cape wool. "German manufacturers," says the Consul, "• art preparing to make the most of the renewed commercial activity which is expected to follow the war," and ho advises American manufacturers to turn then attention also to South Africa. As to German South-west Africa, the American Consular Agent at Eibenstock reports that the imports last year were nearly £300,000, and i fan exports £45,000. The port of Swakopinund, with Walfisch Bay, forms the finest larboui on the west coast of Africa, and the Government intends to increase its value oy providing docks. "It- is probably destined," says the Consular Agent, doubtless repeating what he has heard from sanguine Germans, "to outstrip Capetown iD time: for, with a railroad through to Pretoria, and steamship lines to Europe and America, Capetown will lose an immense amount o f traffic destined for the interior of Africa."

The recent elections in England afforded a writer in the London Spectator a text for a readable article on tne qualifications needful for succcss in political candidature ; and he thus described the qualities of the ideal modern candidate "To start with be should be a man of blameless character. He should be a man of independent means, to protect him from the charge of being a placehunter, yet not so richly endowed with this world's goods as to be a target for the shafts of the anti-capitalist. He should be peltinformed, industrious, accessible, and grodlooking. He should have a silver voice, an iron constitution, and a thick skin—even if it may not yet be necessary for him to hvre what the Irish member declared to be essential to a Chief Secretary, ' the heart of an iceberg and the hide of a rhinoceros.' He need not be a great orator, but lie shou' l be fluent, ready in retort, patient of interruption. He must be a patron of, if not actually proficient in, our two great national pastimes. And, above all, he must be a master of those minor dexterities of management for which opportunity is furnished in personal contact with the individual elector. He ought also, of course, by family, or residence, or calling, to be connected with the district he aspires to represent. But while it is easy to sketch the ideal candidate, few politicians are found who realise in i..ind and person the conjunction of qualities enumerated above, while many achieve success in spite of the lack of what might appe ir to be the most essential requirements. Wilkes was not handsome ; Sheil had a sque-kv voice, Lord Randolph Churchill lacked equanimity, and Mr. Chamberlain, as he has often confessed, has never taken any interest in athletic exercises. And while these limitations do not preclude success, great and solid endowments are often no guarantee of recognition by the electorate. The late Mr. Walter Bagehot, a man of extraordinary all-round capacity as well as the highest integrity, was a complete failure as a plieal candidate. Indeed, a most curious record might 'be made of the ineffectual descents of genius into the political arena. The failure of the intellectual candidate is best accounted for by the phrase applied by one of the most distinguished literary politicians of the day to the case of Robespierre' the unhappy doctrinaire immersed in the intricacy of practice.' A man who has led the vita umbra tilis, the cloistered life of the student, is ill at ease when he exchanges his seclusion for the cockpit, of contending factions, no is like the bookish boy plunged into the rough-and-tumble of the school playground. Confidence in his own ability does not mend matters, for while constituencies are tolerant of many things, they seldom endure consciousness of mental ability unless it is reinforced by achievement in the world of action. Even in an academic constituency the academic candidate is at a disadvantage."