NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16201, 11 April 1916, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

NEED FOR MILITARY VICTORY. To the Paris newspaper Le Journal, M. Aulard, tho famous historian of the revolution, contributes an interesting article, in which he upholds the contention that tho war can only bo ended by some decisive victory, and not by mere economic exhaustion of either sido alone. M. Aulard declares that the delusion that) the allies only require to hold out to win has caused much damage since the battle of the Marne, and, if persisted in, may ruin the allied cause. Germany may be tired, but she is not exhausted. M. Aulard supposes that a hermetical blockade were made, and that Germany was actually reduced to absolute starvation and obliged to sue for peace. " I say that this would be the worst peril, and the certainty of the most terrible disaster for us in a very short time. Tho only peace that we could impose on an enemy whoso armies occupy French and Russian territory, and the whole of Servia and Montenegro, with almost the wholo of Belgium, would be one that would perhaps restore Alsace-Lorraine to us, and the other occupied countries, but would leave intact, in all its strength and glory, Prussian militarism." He can hear the Kaiser proclaiming, "We have not been beaten; nono of our foes has been able to invade us. It is hunger and the blockade that have forced us to lay down our arms. With our military honour safe, our prestige and our future are as bright as ever." M. Aulard proceeds :—" If we cannot break the military power of Germany by arms, we cannot do it by a treaty. The Prussianised Empire of Germany would subsist as before, an eternal threat against us. Prolific Germany would make up its losses in men more quickly than France. Our sterile victory would soon divide us allies, and it would not be long before united Germany would fall upon us piecemeal, to destroy us finally." Tho conclusion he draws is that the allies can only gain the victory out of which a solid and lasting peace can bo founded, and militarism can be destroyed, by beating the German Army.

IMMIGRATION AFTER THE WAR.

Interesting views concerning the prospect of immigration to Australia after the war, have been pur forward by Mr. H. S. Gullett, the Australian war correspondent. " Those people who are inclined to look down upon the British immigrant," said Mr. Gullett, "should remember that ho is from tho same stock as our men who made their name at Gallipoli. I do wish the Australian people as a whole, and the workers in particular, would bear in mind that the British immigrants, to whom they are inclined to be hostile in policy and personal attitude, are of tlio same class as that noble race, the English regular soldier, which has been entirely wiped out in this fighting under terriblo conditions, while tho rest of the Empire made ready to carry through. There has been some criticism over the relative fighting at Gallipoli," proceeded the war correspondent, "and that makes me desire specially to emphasise this point here today. If any policy of immigration is to bo successful, the attitude of Australians towards tho British immigrant must be one of extreme and great generosity. It must bo remembered that he has been brought up under entirely different conditions. They are of the same stock from which we all came, and if they are given a few months under the grand conditions here they will become one with us." Regarding the probability of a rush of immigrants from tho United Kingdom to the Dominions after the war, Mr. Gullett was not at all sanguine. "Tho United Kingdom lias already suffered terrible casualties in this war," ho said, "and those casualties have been among the very best and fittest of her working people. I am afraid that before the war is over the United Kingdom will have lost, in killed and incapacitated, at least a million men. This terrible wastage of life will have to be taken into consideration in the question of immigration. Whilo we must expect a great deal of industrial stagnation immediately following the cessation of the war industries, I think the United Kingdom will probably be able to absorb the greater part of her available men. I believo the policy of the Government there will be to hold its young population."

SHIPBUILDING RESOURCES. The First Lord of the Admiralty, Mr. A. J. Balfour, recently stated that every dockyard, public and private, in Britain and in the Mediterranean, is being used to its utmost capacity either fur new construction or for repairs required by Britain or by her allies. \he First Lord's statement leaves room for speculation. The resources of Britain for building and arming men-of-war are immense. They were illustrated in 1909, when eight battleships ol the la. <est size, six protected cruisen, 20 <Ht-. ,-ers, .. n.oiber of sub-ir.ari-iQS, at.d so.ne auxd -tr- shij.s wen. \m in hand. jlu. j,.ogran m. did not exhaust tho ca; acity of the cc jury. Britain had in hand a number if vessels building for foreign Powers, including the Sao Paulo at Barrow, the Rio de Jcneiro at Elswicfc, besides two scout cruisers, 10 destroyed, and three submarines, all to the order of Brazil. Work was also in hand for Chili, China, and Portugal. The resources to-day ,ir<s infinitely greater than they were in 190.