NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13070, 9 January 1906, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

BRAINS OF THE ARMY. The new policy which is to control the formation of the army's general staff was set out by Mr. H. O. Arnold-Forster, the Secretary for War in the Balfour Government, in an important minute addressed to the Chief of the General Staff. The main objects sought in forming such a staff are described in the minute as follows:—(1) To gather the ablest men in the. army together, and by some system of advancement and promotion to make sure that the fortunes of the army are always in their bands. (2) By means of these men to form a school of military thought which shall be abreast or ahead of that of any other army. " From this it follows," says the minute, •' that the officers of the general staff should be the ablest and most energetic officers of the army, and should be in the prime of life. Their duties may be defined as the duties of war and training for war. The following are the general lines on which the formation of the general staff will proceed : —Officers will be selected on their own individual qualification, and not on account of any appointment which they are holding, or for which they may be selected. The list of selected officers will at present be small. Appointments will be for four years. Subject to a first list, being drawn up and approved by the array council generally, all future selections for, and promotions in, the general staff will be recommended by the chief of the general staff alone, without the intervention of the selection board or of the army council. It is evident that the chief of the general staff must have absolute power over all the officers of the general staff. He will beas free as possible from ordinary office routine work, but must be the sole adviser of the Secretary of State on all matters of strategy or of military operations. He will, of course, remain a. member of the committee of Imperial defence. He will also be charged with the selection and personal supervision and training of the officers of the general staff. There is little doubt that ultimately the position of the chief of the general staff will become so important that. in order to secure continuity of action and ideas, it may be necessary' to extend his tenure of office beyond that laid down in the present regulations. The chief of the general staff ought to be able to prepare officers for special work months, it may be years, ahead. The reward for good service on the general staff will be accelerated promotion."

THEN AND NOW. A French journal publishes a curious document, recently unearthed from the national archives in Paris. This is a letter addressed, during the French Revolution, to the Committee of Public Safety, by the actor Talma. The tragedian therein calls the attention of the " ci toy ens representants " to the fact that he has been appointed to a commajid in the National Guard, but that the excessive cost of cloth " does not permit him to pay for his uniform. He therefore aisles- for an older authorising him to obtain six ells of blue cloth "at a moderate price" from the Government stores. ■•Talma," he says-, "would not make this demand were he not obliged to do so by the modesty of his fortune as an actor." * Apparently, however, the committee were not in a generous mood just, then, for at the bottom of the letter there is the signature of cue of their number under the words. "Granted three ells." Nothing, indeed, is more characteristic of the change which has come over the stage since those distant days than the difference between the salaries of dramatic "stare" then and now. One cannot easily imagine a distinguished member of the modern Oomedie Francaise appealing to the Government to help him to a new suit of clothes.

PRINCESS ROYAL AND HER DAUGHTERS. The title of Princess Floral does not a fleet the Duchess of Fife's precedence, which is, immediately after the Princess of Wales, as the Sovereign's eldest daughter. On her ; father's accession she became what she is now. the third lady in the land. Her daughters, however, have had a great difference made in their position, audi in future they will precede the children of Princess Christian and Princess Beatrice, and the Duchess .of "feck and her children. It is noteworthy that all the Sovereigns of Europe, excepting the King.* or .Sweden and Scrvia, a.nd the Princes of Montenegro and Monaco, can count among their ancestors more than one Scottish nobleman who married with Royalty. Princess Margaret of England, daughter of Henry VII.. ami wife and widow of James IV.. of Scotli'.'id. married, a.x Dowager Queen of laud, Archibald Don.'las. Kail of Ames. Her daughter by him. tin" Lady Margaret Dough's, was horn in Notthuinla-rlaud. and f-r ma.ny yeais stood near the Ktiglidi throne. She mariied Matthew Stuart, K.ir] of Lennox: and her eldest ton. Henry Lord Darnky. became the second husband of Mary Queen of Scots, and father of .lames- I. ol England and VI. of Scotland. Till the only surviving son of King Kdward VII. had children the Duke of Fife's daughters occupied an important place in the line of (succession, and the chance had to be considered that the Lady Alexandra., how a Princess, might eventually become Queen-Regnant of England. The retiring nature of their Roy,'.! mother has- hitherto kept these interesting girls in the background, but now that they have entered their teens and been accorded ail increase of rank a,s the King's granddaughters, they i .'in come more to (he front as members of England's First Family. Their advancement also brings them well within the provisions of the Rival Marriage Act.

FAMILY LIFE IX ENGLAND AND FRANCE. M. Paul Villars in a comparison recently drawn in the columns of the Standard between English and French home life, describes the Englishwoman as being "nearly always a politician or a social reformer.'" She: has. he says, views of her own on all political and social problems, knows all about the county and borough members, and can tell you offhwd who is candidate for Parliamentary or municipal honours. Public affairs interest) her. and she finds in them a welcome relief from her hum-hum household duties. With the Frenchwoman, on the other hand, family affairs hold the first. if not the only, place, and .she considers politics principally from the standpoint of the family interests. Her fintii'ici.il ability is above the average, and she shows a far mote active interest in her husband's business or profession than her English sister. Tradition is. on the whole, far more persistent in French than in English home life, and the reason is fairly obvious. Home life and parental influence are less continuous in England than in France. When once the children are educated, and able to take care of themselvesand English education is in the direction of early independence— the duties of the parents seem to be at an end, and their authority al-.0. With the marriage of each member of the family a new home is created different from, and wholly independent of, the old one. Each of the fresh homes thus formed has to shift for itself, none has authority, mora] or otherwise, over the others, and often there is little or no intercourse between them. In France the 'case is different. The "family" includes the whole group of blood-relations springing from a common stock, and the tie between thorn is closer and stronger than in England. Indications of this are to be seen in the conseil de famille that from time to time- asserts its right to determine some momentous ques-

tion in regard to one of its members. The differences between French and English

hoir.e life are not merely in matters immaterial : they go below the surface, and M. Villars sums them, up when he says,

In monarchic England the family is a most democratic institution: in Republican France it is almost a despotic one.''