NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, 29 June 1914, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

THE LUNATIC FRINGE. The responsible American view of suffragette outrages is given by (lie Outlook in an article on what it calls the " lunatic fringe " .of the suffragist movement. "To assassinate a work of .art is to destroy a public possession. It is to diminish the resources of society; it is to kill whilo evading the responsibilities of murder. The militants havo succeeded in closing many of tho most interesting buildings and treasures of art in England. They will probably now succeed in closing tho exhibitions. So far as possible they are diminishing the resources of life. It has been asked why the British Government does not end this form of ruthless guerrilla fighting by granting what tho militants claim- But no concession would end this conflict. This method of agitation would not bo ended with tho achievement of tliOv ballot for women. It is a tempor which will bo revealed whenever women of this type want things in tho future which the majority is not disposed to give them To recognise this kind of agitation as legitimate would bo to encourage a form of outrage which would make society impossible. Women who are willing to destroy works of ait and burn the property of private persons will not be satisfied with the ballot. They will never be satisfied unless what they want is instantly conceded to them. If they have the ballot, they will use tho same methods to secure whatever legislation they think ought to be passed. It is an issue which society must meet. The agitation for suffrage is an entirely different matter; it is with tho 1 ' lunatic fringe ' of the suffragist movement that the British Government is dealing."

ITALIANS AND SLAVS. Trieste, the greatest port of Austria, and one of tho most important in Europe, lias once more given rise to an acute Austro-Italian controversy. Its population of 230,000 is to the extent of 75 per ccnt. Italian, but the entiro hinterland is overwhelmingly Slovene. Both races insist on their supremacy and claim, each for itself, paramountry. It- is the eternal problem right through the Dual Monarchy. The Vienna Government, which elsewhere disputes tho rights of tho Slavs to " selfdetermination," hero at Trieste supports the Slavs against the Italians- It was in this spirit that the Statthalter, Prince Holienlohe, issued in November last the famous decrees expelling all Italians who 'were subjects of the kingdom from tho municipal offices., and it was in the samo spirit that the Slovenes were permitted on May 1 to parade the streets in ft big crowd, shouting: " Long live tbo Slav Trieste." Hence the imbroglio. The Slovene demonstration was quickly re-' sponded to by a similar demonstration on the part of the Italians crying: " Long live the Italian Trieste!" and tho two crowds soon came to blows. The rival bands attacked each other with their instruments, revolvers and even rifles were soon produced and went off by themselves, and from all windows heavy missies, including pieces of furniture, began to bo thrown upon the heads of the Slovene demonstrators by the gentle but unfriendly hands of the Italian women. Altogether it was a sight as disgraceful as that which Trieste witnessed last September when a formal battle took place in the streets between tho two rival elements under the auspices of the benevolent police. In the present case, too, the police did not intervene seriously until things began to look too ugly, and then about a hundred men wero dragged to tho hospitals, and a couple of hundred militants wero arrested. Tho sequel took place both at the Trieste City Council and in various cities in Italy. At tho council each party accused tho other of provocation, and when a Slovene councillor began addressing the Italians in his native tonguo a general fight onsued.

THE NAVAL CONTROVERSY. " The reply of Mr. Millen, Minister for Defence to the Commonwealth, to Mr. Churchill'? speech on naval policy makes it clear that Australians will accept neither his view of strategic necessities nor his version of the relations between the Admiralty and the Dominions," remarks the United Empire, the journal of the Royal Colonial Institute. "Leaving on one side, however, the more controversial points, it may be safely said that naval experts in England fully Tealise the problem of Pacific defence, and only rogard it as covered for a time by the Anglo-Japanese alliance. Their view is that a strong Imperial navy, based on the stratcgio points which give our Empire to great an advantage over some of our rivals, will enable us, in these days of wireless control and fast steaming, to ensure our supremacy in all oceans without maintaining a superiority of numbers in each. The great fleets which are now j I building have this peculiarity, that four of them have their base in Europe— many, Austria, Italy and France— this fact makes the retention of a majority of our ships in home waters inevitable. This condition is not likely to change, and as two other great fleets will have homo waters in tho Pacific it is very difficult for Australians to believe that, the supremacy of that ocean can bo secured without the growth of a British fleet with similar advantages. The principle of 'contribution' has been definitely and finally abandoned by Australia, and is not likely to bo adopted by the other Dominions."

THE SICILIAN EARTHQUAKE. Professor Rabot gives an interesting explanation to the Temps why a part of Sicily is subject to earthquakes- He says that it is quite an erroneous idea that it is duo to yolcanio explosions in the bowels of the earth, which when they occur aro generally of small importance. A large proportion aro caused by the movements of the earth's surface. A superficial observation is sufficient to show that the rocky basis forming, so to speak, the epidermis is not homogeneous, and that the outer skin of the earth is composed of various compartments thrown together like a huge puzzle. Imagine a jig-saw puzzle completed, but some of the piecos not fitting perfectly. • If you press upon these they will produce a general movement which is the same as an earthquake. All tho north-west coast of Sicily and West Calabria has a tendency to sink towards the Lipari Islands, he"nce the terrible shocks of 1693 and 1908. On the other hand, in what is considered a recent epoch of geological chronology an enormous gulf occupied tho position now held by Mount Etna. The edges of this great upheaval aro still working, aud, according to all probability, tho last shock, which has just ruined tho smiling fields of Cataiw and Acireale, must be set down to the sLinking or expansion of the mountains surrounding Etna, in an endeavour to iib4;» their puzzle smooth.