NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 14300, 21 February 1910, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

LORD KITCHENER AND INDIA. Of late our cable messages have mentioned Lord Kitchener's name in; connection with the Vice-Royalty of India. We doubt, however, whether these rumours have any real : foundation, but assuming them to be true, we should regret if Lord Kitchener were induced %to abandon his ", military career in order to assume a civil role, however lofty, and •• distinguished. j That career marks 7 him as the ablest sol- { dier in the Empire for the responsible j post of Commander-in-Chief of the British Army, and it is in. such a position that j his great abilities as a military 'organiser'J would be likely to have the amplest scope and to be of ; most service to the Empire. Though the painful impression caused by the"Revelations army chaos at the time; of the South African" war.'t ha«.; become• dimmed .by distance, there are .still good reasons for believing ; that( no radical improvement has taken place, and that there is room for drastic reforms. ; By universal consent Lord Kitchener i* regarded as the one, man in the whole army (who is fitted by his strength of character, his • excep- . tional gifts, his wide : training and experience, for the task of setting the British military house in order. ;('Jt would be a thousand pities, therefore, and, incleed, a national misfortune, if Sis; services were hot to be availed of. For the high office of Viceroy of India there are;many men in the employment of the ; State who possess superior qualifications. . Lord. Kitchener's particular genius does not fit him for a position v requiring a , happy ■■ \ and unique combination of profound states- ! manship and accomplished, diplomacy. He has no taste for the ceremonial pomp and circumstance of a vice-regal \ court. lie ; lacks the grace of a Chesterfield and the eloquence of a Curzon. ('; He is a: soldier, probably the greatest soldier of lie; age,■'; but it is only in that capacity that he is supreme., As such he is of incalculable value to the Empire, and the highest wisdom surely is to"make the most use of him in purely military matters. There is only one thing that, in our opinion, would justify his appointment as Viceroy of India,, and that is the imminence of another mutiny. ;■■ ■'..-.,. ■■■■-.'■■■■ C: ■■ THE MIGRATION OF STARS. According to some : curious \ astronomical .researches recently- made and recorded in the Fortnightly Review by Professor Tur- ; ner, many,.if not all, of our stars are migrating through space, and have been do- , ing so since time began. It has lately been realised that there are flocks oil stars , travelling in just the same manner as birds, and the evidence (for this \ statement contrasts curiously with that. considered in the case of birds. Instead (of; the beginning and end of the journey, being best; known while the flight must, be imagined, it is how the steadyflightwhich is observed, while on the whence, .: and the whither, and especially on (the (why, - we can only speculate. Nevertheless, the contemplation of associated (flocks of stars steadily journeying past us,, . the consequent suggestion distant clusters may have passed 7 near us in the long ago, or may be approaching to within hail of us in the remote : future, the possibility that our own sun may form one of such a cluster, and the identification of his com-panions-—all these facts and possibilities necessarily appeal strongly to our imaginations. " ■(('■'" '(';'■.:-'■ / ;'-...-