NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18046, 22 March 1922, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

GERMANY'S ATTITUDE IN 1914. Tho possibility that war might have been averted if Germany had agreed to a conference was discussed in a speech recently by Viscount Grey. "If the trouble between Austria and Serbia had been submitted to a conference in 1914 it might have been settled in all but a week," he said. "We proposed a conference. The Germans refused. I think that Germany was perfectly entitled to say she could not accept a conference unconditionally. I do not think she was entitled to turn it down unconditionallyas she did, but I think she was perfectly entitled to say that she was more ready for war than France and Russia, and that she could not agree to a conference unleßS there were guarantees that there would not be mobilisation or preparations for war during the conference. If you had the situation over again it is very likely that the nation most ready for war would 6ay 'I cannot have a conference without guarantees that while it is taking place thero are no military preparations which are tto my disadvantage.' That is one of the reasons why I want a League of Nations. The real guarantee that competition in armament* will not, increase again is the growth in strength of thf League of Nations. It is not going to he worth while for any nation to pile up great armaments, as Germany did before 1914, if the end of it is they are going to find the world organised against them/' FAMOUS ART TREASURES. The demand by Belgium, under the Treaty of St. Gennains, for the restoration by Austria of the treasure of the Golden Fleece and the Rubens picture, known as " The Tryptych of St. Idlephonse," has been rejected by the Reparations Commission, and the treasure and the picture will, therefore, remain with Austria. When the treasure of the Golden Fleece started on its long journey from Brussels to Vienna in 1794, on the occasion of the French invasion, the gold, the silver, the reliquaries, the robes, and the tapestries are said to have filled 90 carts. But there was much leakage on the way, and to-day there is a good deal of difference of opinion as to what the treasure actually does comprise. This delicate question will not, however, have to be decided now, inasmuch as whatever there is left of it is in Austria, and will stay there. Briefly, the Belgian claim was that tho Order of tho Golden Fleece was i political institution attached to the soil of the Low Countries, and that the treasure consequently formed part of the property of the State. This argument the commission was unable to admit, and, after detailed study, gave their verdict in favour of the Austrian thesis, that the Golden Fleece was purely an order of chivalry, bound up with the succession of the Dukes of Burgundy, and attached, therefore, not to a country, but to the residence of the Sovereign. Therefore, it was decided that when the Hapsburg of the day received the treasure in Vienna, in 1794, he was exerting his normal rights. As to "The Tryptych of St. Idlephonse," bought by Maria Theresa, who incidentally outbid the Lord Granby of tho day for it, and transferred from Brussels to Vienna in 1777, the legal experts havo found that she had a perfect right to dispose of the resources of the Low Countries as she liked, and that the picture, having been purchased " for her Majesty," forms an integral part of the private property of the Hapsburgs. The Belgian argument was that the Tryptych had been bought for the Public Domain of tho Low Countries. PILFERING OF CARGO. Remarkable facts concerning pilferage and theft of goods at the ports of the world are given in a report of the Pilferage Committee of the Chamber of Shipping of the. United Kingdom. The committee remarks on the fact that 12 months after the armistice pilferage claims were paid by shipowners at a scale commonly 20 times as large as that which obtained before the war, and in many cases considerably greater. A group of owners in a particular trade invoked the assistance of the committee to deal with a system amounting to "nothing less than armed robbery" which prevailed in a Mediterranean poH; and "it is notorious," the committee states, "as regards some countries, that no assistance could be obtained from the police in pilforage matters, and even when men are caught red-handed it is practically impossible to secure conviction." In Brazil, for instance, "the officials of customs benefit so largely from a share in fines inflicted that it is impossible to dissociate from that fact the very large and outrageous olaims for pilferage which occur." In a further schedule on the practices of various ports, the committee states that "conditions at Alexandria are unsatisfactory and ample opportunities are afforded for pilferage." At Calcutta the port commissioners' system of tallying is "not only unsatisfactory, but also untrustworthy," and a system prevails which is "discreditable to the port." The conditions at Brazil and River Plate are "indescribably bad. It seems hopeless to expect any improvement until the Governments concerned insist upon the port and oustoms authorities giving an honest tally." With regard to Australia, the committee states that "without the full and whole-hearted co-operation of the unions concerned in dealing with cargoes on the ships and wharves, thieving of cargo there will remain for ever as a standing disgrace to the good name of the nation. Even the children of the waterside workers must know that it i» carried on; and what kind of »n. ednciitioa is it for ftemt^ 1