NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16020, 11 September 1915, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

THE RUSSIAN SUCCESSES.. ! Taskopol, the scene of the recent Ens-1 sian victory in Galicia, is linked up with } a great railway system. iremhovla, where further successes have been achieved, is a few miles to the south-east, and is also connected • with the railway. Tarnopol is directly connected by rail -with Odessa, on the Black Sea. A network >oi lines also connects- it with all the important centres in Austria-Hungary. Numerous branch lines run northwards to Lemberg, to the north-west,., and thence to Warsaw. Other railways run eastward into the heart of Russia, all linking up Tarnopol with important strategic points: The town consists of about 40.000 inhabitants. It was formerly a fortress and rendered valuable services to the Polish kings, who in their turn conferred : upon it important privileges. ' i HAMPERING MUNITION SUPPLY. As reported in to-day's Herald, Mr. Lloyd George protested to the British Trades Union Congress against restriction of output of material vitally needed, giving a specific instance which the delegates present did not defend. The English Review, dealing with the same question, says that in one case a deputation protested against the alteration in position of certain lathes, which had been removed to a new position to constitute a shell department, on the ground that the shifting of such lathes " inconvenienced" certain men. A stoppage was threatened, and only the promise that after the war these lathes would be returned to their original position prevented matters being carried to extremes. Trouble was abo threatened if men other than turner* should be employed on shell work, although an overwhelming percentage of I shell is turned by unskilled labour. Per- ! sonal appeals to men to work overtime | on specially urgent . contracts were met ! by repeated refusals, - although the officials of the societies had instructed overtime i to he worked. Many, cases of deliberate j interference with new men to restrict their j output occurred, and in one case where, | by the importation of improved automatic ! machinery, Government work was being i done quicker and better, the matter was actually carried to an Employers' Asso- j ciation to endeavour to compel the firm to revert to the older and less efficient method of manufacture. The most flagrant case, however, happens to bo one i which has achieved the greatest publicity, j A young clergyman learning of the shortness of men for shell manufacture, offered his services. The firm engaged him, as i it would any other unskilled worker, and j put him to a lathe adapted to perform one j simple operation in shell-turning. Be- I fore he had been at the work a couple of j days, a deputation of the men waited on . the - firm and asked for his withdrawal from the machine on the score that it was a lathe, which should he operated by a j skilled man, irrespective of the simplicity j of the operation to be performed. The position of the society was intimated officially to the firm in question as follows :' — That as this man is operating a i lathe which is regarded as a skilled j turner's job, and as he is still employed j as a minister of the Gospel and draw- 1 ing his stipend for filling that position, i the Glasgow District Committee, in de- i .fence .of their trade rights and in opposition to "any one man filling two jobs, re-

1 quest you to remove him from the lathe, I j failine which our members will be withij drawn., from your employment.!.* ~ « ■ j - _i BRITISH EXAMPLE. ' " j Following the example of the British! Government, the American Navy Department has decided to create a Bureau of Invention and Development, over ..which | Mr. Edison, the world-famed inventor, j will preside. The new department will consist of an Advisory Board of civilian inventors and engineers. Machinery will be created by which it will be possible for naval officers and civilians to act conjointly, and to mobilise for the benefit of the Navy the best engineering genius which exists in the American nation. Speaking generally, the Admiralty at "Washington proposes to take the country into its confidence for the purpose of investigating new ideas and adopting them if they are practical. According to the New York correspondent of The Daily j Telegraph,' Mr. Edison considers the plan ' of the utmost importance. He looks especially to young men for inventions, upon the feasibility of which an expert board of mature experience will pass judgment. Mr. Edison claims teat hundreds of ideas, a few of which are of supreme importance, are buried annually, simply because inventors lack funds to exploit them, and, so far, have lacked departmental encouragement. The various bureaux of the American Navy are already everworked, and the necessity for a new bureau- has become obvious as the war progresses and new lessons are taught. Mr. Daniels (Secretary of the Navy}, writing to Mr. Edison to thank him for his patriotic acceptance of the offer to preside over the new board, has spoken of various new devices which the present war has shown to be necessary. Incidentally he has declared : "We are confronted with a new and terrible engine of warfare in the submarine, and I feel sure that, with the practical knowledge of the officers ot the Navy, with a department composed of the keenest and most inventive minds that wo can gather together, and with your own wonderful brain to aid us, the United States will be able, as in the past, to meet, the new danger with new devices that will assure peace to our country by their effectiveness." GERMAN "NEWS" FOR THE FRENCH The Germans are . accustomed to take. every possible advantage of opportunities, and it-is only natural, therefore, thatthsv should publish a newspaper for circulation in the parte of France that, they are occupying. The Gazette des Ardennes is the title of their "Journal des Pays oecupes," published with the object- of influencing in their favour the French-speaking inhabitants left. in the country seized by their armies. The Gazette des Ardennes for July 1 contains a leading article headed, in very large letters.- "Who is to | blame?" The article begins ss follows: "The miserable glory of having caused the European war is ascribed by all the enemy newspapers, including -"neutral* newspapers . of the type of the Telegraaf (Holland) and i of the Journal de Geneve, to the leading I spirits of the 'German military party.' Although these newspapers . cannot • but know that that assertion is an unheard-*.! lie, and that it has been refuted thousands of times, they repeat it every day. although they are well aware of what the effect of such- a method must- be. Voices have been heard recently, however— especially in England, where the right to express an opinion has not yet been utterly abolishedwhich strike a different . note, namely, that of the truth." The < Gazette refers to attacks made by English politicians on the policy of the British Government, and contends that it :s obvious that these, attacks are justified, for "Grey has already disappeared, though Asquith is still. in power, and continues to abuse his. power."-