NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18168, 14 August 1922, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

GERMANY AND THE LEAGUE. A diplomatic correspondent of the Londou Daily Telegraph discusses the question of the admission of Germany to the League of Nations. "At the last session of the Assembly,says the writer, "the British delegation made it quite plain that while in deference to France they would not support Germany's hypothetical can. didatur© on this occasion, thpy would bo prepared to consider it sympathetically if presented at the next session. Doubtless this intention was and still is conditioned by Germany's strict observance of her obligations within tho limits of her capacity to make reparation. Moreover, Germany has not so far submitted her candidature, and, unless and until she submitted, her case could not be dealt with at all. It is possible that her can didaturo to membership of the League Assembly would meet with the requisite two-thirds majority. But were she to demand a seai on the Council it could not be predicted with any certainty that tho necessary amendment to the Covenant would be passed, or that she would be elected to oaie of the four non-permanent seats. In the naval, military, and aerial sense her admission to the League would be« of interest, inasmuch as she would have to comply with the standards laid down by the Special Armaments Subcommittee. These standards, it is true, would in all likelihood be those stipulated by the Treaty of Versailles. But the League would ispo facto assume a measure of responsibility for seeing that they were properly carried out." CANADA'S FOREIGN RELATIONS. The appointment of a Canadian Minister at Washington is still undecided. During tho last, session of Parliament for the third time provision wa s made in the estimates for the establishment of Canadian diplomatic offices in tho American capital, but, as in former years, no-further step is being taken to put tho plan in operation. Tho Prime Minister's visit to Washington last month directed anew attention to tho issue, and significance was attached to the fact that the visit was made during the absence of Sir Auckland Geddes, the British Ambassador. In public Sir Auckland has been discreetly silent on the subject, but in private, both during his visit to Canada and in interviews with Canadians in Washington, he has made no attempt to conceal his unequivocal opposition. There is little doubt that he has directed all his influence toward the deflection of Canadian opinion from the project. It has also been suggested that Mr. King's visit to Washington wap due chiefly to a desire to reopen the reciprocity issue. Tho Toronto Mai! and Empire develops the idea that Mr. King is playing up to Washington with the idea of placating and pleasing 1h« Farmers' Party, looking to a possible coalition with them and separation from the Gouin protectionist faction. Ira other circles it. is not believed that the Canadian Government is making or will make any further move toward reciprocity, uo matter how much it may desire to forward that cause.

THE ASCENT OF EVEREST. Addressing the Royal Geographical Society, Sir Francis Younghusband, the retiring president, defined in a few words what is, to his mind, " incomparably " the most valuable result of the Mount Everest Expedition. By it, he tald the members of the society, " the standard of human achievement has been sensibly raised. Many another climber, he went on to say,' many another traveller, and many another atruggler upward in every walk of life and in every country will be braced and heartened in remembering what has been accomplished on Mount Everest this year by Finch and Mallory, Somervell, Norton, and Bruce. That presents the object of the attempt to climb the world's highest mountain in its right perspective, says the London Times. Quietly and effectively it answers those who may be disposed to question the practical utility of the expedition. The crowning success of reaching the ton has been onco again deferred, but what has been done has sensibly raised the standard of. human achievement. For Englishmen, the greatest race of explorers and travellers and climbers of all mankind. that should be enough. The expedition. both last year and this, set out with no hones of any material gain. There was no idea, for instance, of finding gold or coal or diamonds on the slopes of Everest. Even the scientific results to be attained, though not without a definite value, were not likely to prove of revolutionary importance. The real aim was something far higher. This is a practical and a material generation, far too apt to ask of any projected enterprise, Will it pay? and "to look unon " Excelsior! " as a " strange device," unless it implies a political or social or commercial purpose. What the men of the Mount Everest Expedition have dared and endured was worth the doing, precisely because it had none of these ends in view. They have tried to do ii thing so difficult that it has never before been attempted, for the sheer joy ( f the effort, without counting either the cost or the gain.

BRITISH TELEPHONE SERVICE. The British Post Office became responsible for all the telephones in the country in January, 1912; previously 80 per cent, were under the control of the National Telephone Company. In the first seven years of full Government control attention was directed chiefly to the improvement of the existing service, and it was not until the beginning of 1919 that the development of the system was undertaken. In three years the Government has spent nearly £16,000,000 on new capital work, and a programme has been outlined for the next five years of £35,700,000, of which the House of Commons recently sanctioned the expenditure of £15,000,000. The Postmaster-General stated that the main object was that all the trunk lines should be no longer in the air but underground, the advantage of which would be enormous. Not only did it mean a great saving in maintenance, but it would remove the danger of an interruption in communication such as was experienced during one of the most important periods of the war when all the overhead lines were swept by a great storm which ranged over something lifCe 100 miles wide across the country. There were also included in this year's programme new underground cables to complete the main routes affording underground communication between London, the North of England, and Scotland, and betweep Birmingham, Bristol, and South Wales. After outlining the plans for additional exchanges, Mr. Kelleway said the five years' programme was based on an estimated cumulative growth of 8i per cent, per annum. On April lof this year there were 975,000 telephones in the country. That was a most disappointing figure, having regard to the number in the United States. An 8i per cent, yearly extension would give 1,466,000 in April, 1927. Though that was a miserable figure, compared with the United States, the telephone system in Britain had improved, was improving, and should get very much better. The demand was steadily increasing. The number of new subscribers connected during the year ending March 31 was -71,500, and the number of new instruments connected, including extensions of existing installations, was 134,000. Two years ago they had 35,000 outstanding applications for telephones which could not be met. Last year that number was reduced. to 28,500, and it waa now below 5000.