NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 17776, 9 May 1921, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

NOVEL STRIKE BREAKING. A sudden strike among the employees at the electricity station in a British town interrupted the supply of current to the "local factories, nnd thus brought them to a standstill. Help came, however, from an unexpected quarter. One of the factories was engaged on the mass production of tractors for agricultural and other purposes, and within a few hours a number of tractors were employed to supply the necessary power in this factor}-. Twelve tractors were belted up to a shaft, from which several motors were driven as dynamos, this novel installation giving an average output of 200 horse-power. Other tractors were used to drive machines directly. When the news of this got about, demands for the tractors came from other factories, and the emergency service so provided greatly discounted the effect of the strike.

THE CHRISTCHURCH ELECTION. The election of the Christchurch City Council by the proportional representation system of preferential voting involved 331 counts. The result of all the counting is that of the 16 candidates highest on the first count, 14 have been elected, while two nominees of the Citizens' Association who were fourteenth and sixteenth on the first count were displaced by two Labour candidates who were seventeenth and twentieth. The council consists of seven of the nominees of the Citizens' Association, six Labourites, and three Independents. If the strength of any party can be measured by the total of the first preferences given to all the candidates of the party, then the final result reproduces in the council the proportionate tsrength of the parties among the electors. But one of the striking features of the election is that of those who voted for Mr. D. G. Sullivan, M.P., placing him at the top of the poll, one-fourth gave second preferences to other than Labour candidates, so that, says the Christchurch Press, no dependence can be placed upon the rough-and-ready method usually employed to ascertain the voting strength of any party.

HOW FRANCE HAS SUFFERED. There was a matter-of-fact but nevertheless very striking passage in the speech in which Mr. Lloyd George informed the German delegates tha* the Allies proposed to occupy the principal ports for the water-borne coal of the Ruhr region. After expressing the opinion that the German public had not yet grasped the terrible devastation wrought in Northern France, he gave some particulars. Nearly 21,000 factories have been destroyed. The mines in the North of France have been destroyed; it will take 10 years or more to re-establish them. The whole of the metallurgical, electrical and mechanical factories in the devastated area have been lost. Four thousand textile factories, 4000 alimentary factories, have been destroyed or stripped of their equrpment, which was either taken away to Germany or destroyed on the spot. One thousand six hundred and fifty-nine communes or townships have been completely destroyed ; of 707 townships, threequarters'have been destroyed; of 1656, at least 50 per cent, have been destroyed; 319,269 houses have been completely destroyed, and 313.675 houses partially destroyed—that is 630,000 houses either completely destroyed or partially destroyed. Twenty thousand six hundred and three factories have been destroyed ; 5000 miles of railway, nearly 5000 bridges, 32,5000 miles of roads, 9,000.000 acres of soil which must be restored to condition, of which 4,350,000 acres is cultivated soil. There is a reduction of 50 per cent, of the total coal production of France—2l,ooo,ooo tons instead of 42,000,000 tons—and these figures are the minimum. " I have passed through this devastated area pretty well from one end to the other," continued Mr. Lloyd George, "and it is perfectly appalling. The very soil is churned up and destroyed. A good deal of this devastation was wrought through bombardments and movements of war. But an incredible amount of damage was done deliberately with a view to destroying essential means of production. This" is true both of France and of Belgium."

THE NAVY LEAGUE'S ROLE. There has been considerable criticism in England recently of the "apathy" of the Navy League. Admiral Sir E. Fremantle has bluntly declared that "we might, never build another ship for all the league at present seems to care," and on the ground of "dissatisfaction with the league's manifest lack of a definite policy on Britain's naval future" has resigned from the executive committee. Four other members—Mr. Arnold White, Mr. Archibald Hurd, Colonel J. Gretton, and the Rev. J. A. Forrest, have adopted the same course. Commenting on their resignations, the Naval and Military Record says friends and well-wishers of the Navy League have observed with astonishment and regret its attitude of complete detachment from the questions of naval policy which are now occupying thoughtful minds. During the past 12 months the organ of the league has barely alluded to these questions, and readers have searched in vain for any indication of its policy toward present and future naval requirements. At a moment when the Navy is in danger of being thrust into the background and Britain's position on the sea hangs in the balance, it might be thought that the educational machinery of the league would be working at'maximum pressure. _ On the contrary, little or nothing is being done in this direction. It is of immediate importance to keep before the British people the intimate relationship between sea power and national security, not merely in the past, but in the future as well. Neither tradition nor sentiment can take the place of the sufficient and efficient Navy which is indispensable if we are to retain our standing among the Powers and keep the Empire together. r

A VISION THAT FADED. " When America entered the war t&is country had a great vision of the two countries marching hand in hand toward the dawn, said Lord Robert Cecil, at the American Luncheon Club. "No foreigner had ever been received as Mr. Wilson was in the streets of London. That reception was not for himself, not even for hi s country, but because he symbolised to the British people the great hope that was in their hearts. He appeared to them as the great 'harbinger of peace There was nothing in the world the English people desired so much as peace. They hated war profoundly. It was because they loathed war and saw in Mr. Wilson the embodiment of their hope that they received him as they did . We thought a, new chapter had been opened in AngloAmerican relations, that our two countries, with all there is in common between us, could head a great movement toward peace, peace between the nations and peace in the nations, a new era in which co-operation should be the dominating note, and competition should be relegated to its true position. Well, that was 1918. I am afraid that most of u s feel that the two years of peace have brought greater disappointments than all the four years of war. What we looked forward to so anxiously, so passionatelv, is not produced. Undoubtedly there has been a cooling in the relations between our two countries—that is putting it with moderation. There are questions which, im told, are much felt on the other side of the Atlantic, questions about the Navy, about oil, about cables. It seems pitiful that these questions, all of them surely a-ljiistable by friendly conversation, should hinder the'relations between two great countries. T will never indulge in recriminations against the other country —indeed, I am not sure that either of us could do so with anything approaching justice, for when history comes to be written I doubt very much whether either of us will come out with clean hands. What I say is this: Leave aside the past amf let us fix our eyes on the future We had a great vision, cannot be revive it again f