NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15645, 26 June 1914, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

MANY SECOND BALLOTS. A feature of the recent* French elections was the almost unprecedented number of seats loft to be filled at the second ballots i —no less than "253 out of a total of 602. | Only once before has this number been .exceededat the famous election held j under sera tin de liflte in 1825, whi.o each ! department formed <; magic- constitueacy ' i etarning several mmnberb. The average ! number of candidates for each seat, exj eluding those not contested, exceeded five, ; and, apart from " Independents " (mostly . reactionaries), there were no less than | eight political groups, counting as a single group the various adversaries of the Parliamentary Republic. Broadly, however, putting aside these reactionaries and the various Independents, the contest was between four groups on one side. and three on the other, though many Radical end Radical Socialist candidates failed to make any clear declaration of their views either on the three years' team of military service or on tho degree of stringency in an income-tax which they would be prepared to approve. Proportional representation, which was another issue, has won—on paper; its supporters claim that 5,429,000 votes have been recorded in its favour and only 2,803,000 against it; but there is reason to believe that the mass of voters were not much interested either way. The Temps thus sorts out the votes as to the maintenance of three years' service: For, 4,644,286; for, with no definitions, 612,767; against, 2,936.041; doubtful, 133,712.

AMERICAN SAILORS' BURIAL. ! Ceremonial tributes and memorial ser- > vices were held at New York for the 17 i i young sailors and marines who died in [ | Vera Cruz, and for the two who died after the warships bringing their comrades left ' | Mexico. The occasion lacked nothing of | improssiveness, solemnity, and dignity. ■ Tens of thousands of men stood in the i streets with bared heads as the artillery , caissons bearing the bodies of these bravo ladsfor almost all of them were quite ' young men—rolled heavily over the streets, i Flags drooped at half-mast on every l-dld- • ing and on every vessel in the harbour, , from the great Imperator to the smallest i tugboat gun salutes reverberated asna\al rulo prescribes; schoolchildren in hundreds sang; the Mayor of New York placed a ■ wreath of orchids on the casket of ono of ■ the three New York sailors and spoke feel- . I ingly of the inspiration drawn from the loyalty and sacrifice of these men " who ' I gave their lives not to war, but for the I | extension 'of peace;" at all points of the : j procession and in all parts of the cere- ,! mony honour and gratitude and respect for . ! the men who had fallen while doing their duty to their country were manifested sin--1 , cerely. President Wilson's address was free i, from rhetorical excess; it rang true; bei: vond question it was heartfelt. Its purport is well represented by the two following paragraphs" Tho feeling that is 1 '■ uppermost is one of profound grief that l these lads should have had to go to their 1 ' death, and yet there is mixed with that . ' grief a profound pride that they should have gone as they did, and, if 1 may say it out of my heart, a touch of envy of 1 those who were permitted so quietly, so , j nobly, to do their duty. . . ." "Duty . I is not an uncommon thing, gentlemen. ( Men aro performing it in the ordinary ; walks of life all around us all the time, ' ! and they aro making great sacrifices to ', perforin it. What gives men like these ; peculiar distinction is not merely that they did their duty, but that their duty had ■ nothing to do with them or their own personal and peculiar interests." A vivid impression was mado when Mr. Wilson noted ' tho fact that tho names of tho dead sugi gested several races in blood, yet all, no . matter whence they sprang, were Americans who " thought and wished and did the things that were American, and the flag under which they served was a flag • in which all tho blood of mankind is united i to make a free nation." I

LABOUR COMBINE.

Labcir leaders recently met in London to discuss the project of forming a powerful " Labour Trust " by combining three great unions with an aggregate membership of 1,350,000 into one separate organisation of aggression. Fifty-seven specially appointed delegates attended the conference, the numerical representation of the executive committees of the three trade unions concerned being as follow.? Miners' Federate-, of Great Britain Hi; Notional Union of Railway Workers 24; Nati Jiial Transport Workers' Federation 14. The result of the deliberations may be summarised in the following resolutions, which were passed unanimously" That, in the opinion of this conference, a working agreement or scheme between the three bodies represented here is desirable," " That a special committee equally representative of the three bodies be appointed for tho purpose of drawing up and submitting a schome to a future conference for consideration." "That joint secretaries be appointed, and be instructed to securo from the societies represented all the information necessary to enable this committee to draft a scheme." It is stated that the ambition of the joint committee is to persuade or coerce other trade unions into joining the new " trust," which will thereby secure a vast consolidated "fighting fund," and an absolute control over millions of working men in Great Britain. The aggressive forco of the trade union movement has been greatly weakened in tho past by internecine disputes among the various bodies themselves. The new Labour programme is to have one singly operative union, which will be sufficiently powerful to compel all workmen in the various trades to join it; and to be able to declare a strike which shall be instantaneously "general" 'in every section of labour, and not marred by the individual disobedience of independent unions as in the past. By this general fusion of forces also, tho Labour leaders and Syndicalist agiatators hope to reach a position where they operate a campaign of direct attack, and not only demand but dictate to capital and the public at large.