NOTES AND COMMETNS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 17956, 5 December 1921, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMETNS.

\ </ THE GALUPOLI FAILURE. Further light is thrown on the Gallipoli operations by the second volume of the Official History of the War, in which Sir Julian Orrbett, although an advocate, of "amphibious'warfare" maintains that from the outset, owing to the violation of all the principles, the .Dardanelles venture was doomed to failure. The bombardment in November, 1914, and the purely naval bporationi in February-March, 1915, rendered the results of combined operations extremely problematical. , In I two short sentences-Sir'Julian reveals the main cause of failure,'' "Another meeting of the War Council* was held (February 24), at which an earnest effort was made to reconcile the conflicting views' of the Admiralty and the War Office." On May 14, he saya: " The War Council met. Thedifference of opinion • between the naval and military authorities proved as strong as ever." And this w a s when the combined expedition against the peninsula had actually been launched. From the facts, which for the first time Sir, Julian Corbett gives as to the Turkish defences and mines, it is clear that the naval attack never had any prospect of sUccesß. A line of 20 Turkish mines sank or damaged four Allied capital ships on March 18, 1915. Had an attempt to dash through been made:* J'Tho ships would have to run the gauntlet of five lines' of minea and to engage the forts in the Narrows. Only one of the fort guns had been permanently damaged.' Thoro were still five more lines of mines to pass before they reached Nagara where the defences end. The phances of getting through the unswep < t\ minefields, which in all contained nearly 350 mines, are calculated to have been 15 to is out of 16 ships only ono could have hoped to reach the Sea of Marmora."

'AVIATION IN AMERICA. Reviewing the conditions of civil aviation in tho United States, the journal of the National Bank of Commerce in New York states that Commercial transportation companies have received neither assistance nor encouragement, and in Consequence private enterprises of this nature have accomplished very little. On tho other hand, .the Government, in the Army, Navy, and Post Office Departments, has been active in experiments of great value to commercial aviation so that in the United .States the one distinctive example of successful aerial transportation on a large.scale is not strictly commercial but is merely civil, as distinct from military aviation. Commercial aviation is labouring under many difficulties, the greatest of which is tho continued lack, of public confidence in the safety and reliability of air transportation. The number of casualties, both in military and civil flying, has been alarming. The present situation in the United States is one of total absence of regulation, with the exception of a very few State laws and municipal ordinances. In most parts of tho country there is nothing to prevent [ any, pilot from operating any 'machine, without regard to his competency or its condition. It may well happen, and often does happen, that an irresponsible pilot will fly a machine unfit for use, with imminent danger to the life of himself, his passengers, and the safety of the community. In case of accident the entire aircraft industry puffers through tho injury to its most vital asset, its reputation with the public. Efforts to establish an American air law have encountered a fierce conflict in regard to the form of the supervising organisation, and as yet have been without tangible results. It is gradually being realised by all those concerned with the future of American commercial aviation that the need for an air law is so pressing that its method of . administration, is a secondary consideration^ THE LIMIT OF TAXATION. One of tho most interesting papers presented to the Edinburgh meeting of the British Association was the report of the committee which had been asked to Bay whether the taxable' capacity of Great Britain had been reached and passed. It presented a collective view deprecating any languag« which suggests that the taxable capacity of the nation is an absolute amount. Evidently there must bo some limit, but the committee could not do more than suggest symptoms which point to the conclusion that the taxable limit is being approached. Much depends on the purpose for which the Government imposes taxation and on whether the money is spent inside or outside the country. With regard to' the question. whether a war should bo paid for by loans or taxation, 1 the committee agreed that -consider'ably, higher taxation might have been inv rosed tit an earlier period of the war. Members of the committee were almost unanimous in saying, as Sir Edward Brabrook put it, that "There. ifl_ no necessary relation between direct and indirect taxation": Mr Bernard Shaw adding:—"lf men will revolt against a direct tax of 3d and will without protest pay Is for lid worth of tobacco, direct and indirect taxation muiit be balanced accordingly." The committee did not feel able to recommend either a capital levy or a forced loan, Mr Bernard Shaw writing: "A capital levy is utter nonsense economically. It is-the delusion of the practical business man, who thinks that because he can sell an income of. £5 a year for £100 down, the whole income of the world can be sold for 20 times its figure." The main thing to be aimed at was a reduction in expenditure rather than the discovery of new revenue resources.

ANIMALS AND'MAN. The relationship between human disease and the diseases of animals has always fascinated the lay public. Nor, in spite of some professional ajathy, has the lay public been so far wide of the mark. Women, for example, were proverbially afraid of rats and mice long before their fears were justified by bacteriologists and enforced by law. Medicine a few years ago opened its arms to the entomologist. He has become one of the guardians of human health. Fleas, lice, mosquitoes, and bugs are known now for the deadliest enemies of - our kind. But the world a branch of the' animal world. Already we know that we have many enemies and many friends among higner creatures. Their diseases are matters of vital moment to all of us. It is, therefore, says the medical correspodent otf the London Times, a matter of great satisfaction that the cause pleaded so eloquently for years by that grand old man of scientific medicine, Sir Clifford AUbutt, seems at last to be triumphing. In 1888 Sir Clifford Allbutt demanded that the medical profession and the veterinary profession should come into close touch and pursue a foiicy of cooperation. He has repeated this demand again and again. Now he enjoys the satisfaction of knowing that his ideas are beginning to bear fruit. At a quarterly meeting of the Mid-West and South Wales Veterinary Medical Association there was passed unanimously the following, resolution: "That this meeting is of opinion the time has arrived when practical means should be sought to ensure a closer cooferation of the two professions (medicine and veterinary riJedicine) in matters of common import, and that a copy of tnis resolution be forwarded to the .Royal College of Physicians, Royal College of Surgeons, and Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons." After the'resolution had been passed, the president read a letter from Sir Clifford Allbutt, in the course of which he said: — "In Cambridge vie desire not to make a clinical school of veterinary medicine, but a school of research ; in animal and plant pathology, and also to lay oursolves out to tench the preliminary sciences to serve alike our profession and yours."