NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18356, 23 March 1923, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

NEXT WAR IN THE AIR. . " In the next war large fleets of aeroplanes, carrying bombs far more terrible than any yet known, will travel perfectly silently through the night, and, directed by electricity, will carry death to any town on which they descend." This Jrophecy was made by Sir William oynson-Hicks at th© air conference at the Guildhall, London, recently. Admiral Mark Kerr, pointing out that the other day Britain spent sixteen millions on two ships which would probably never go into action, said: " Ten millions of that money would have put us safe in the )j sir. Frighten the people of this couutry," he added, " and let them frighten the Government. Teach them that the speediest and longest-ranged weapon is the aeroplane. Pray that the rare gift of imagination be given to the Government and that the rare gift of courage be given to the people, who will thrash the Government till they get what they want.

AUSTRALIAN POST OFFICE. A complete overhaul of the policy and methods of the services conducted by the Commonwealth Post Office has been undertaken by the new Federal Government. It has appointed an advisory board to assist and co-operate with the Postmaster General in a comprehensive overhaul of the department's activities and services, with a view to securing the maximum efficiency through the application of business methods. The board will comprise the Minister, as Chairman, Mr. H. P. Brown, an engineer of the London G.P.O. (who is on loan from the British Government) and Mr. W. H. Swanton, a shipping merchant, of Melbourne, and a former president of the Melbourne Chamber of Commerce. Mr Swanton will give his services to the loard in an honorary, capacity. The board will _he charged with reviewing all the activities of the department — telephonic and telegraphic a limited period, during which revision of charges will, be considered in the light of all available evidence, and lines of future policy anc. working laid down. The sim is to enable the department to overtake arrears of works and place all services upon a basis representing the maximum of efficiency and smooth working. ,

THE EMPIRE'S POPULATION; The decline of Britain's trade, including the decline in her share of imports into the Dominions, was discussed recently by Sir William Joynson Hicks, Parliamentary Secretary of the Department of Overseas Trade. "In my opinion there is only one means of getting rid of the cancer of unemployment, and that is by increased trade, and that increased trade is to be found chiefly in trade between ourselves and other parts of our great Empire," he said. It is quite clear that most other nations of the world either cannot or do not want to trade with us to any great extent, and I have come to the conclusion that they afford no possible ground for hope of any large and immediate development of trade. For some years, at all events, I rule them out as a "means of restoring and making up that £300 millions of export trade which is our deficiency this year. If we could get back that £300 millions of export trade, of which we are short to-day as compared with 1913-14, we should absorb well over 90 per cent, of the present unemployment which we are trying to alleviate by doles and in various other ways. Now, what are we going to do? Here we have theso enormous dominions with an inadequate population. Therein, in my opinion, lies the greatest chance for the development of our trade. America has built up a marvellous prosperity through the increase of her population, and has now become a manufacturing country with which it is difficult for any one to compete on equal term?. Efforts have been made with the concurrence of the Dominions to remedy the trouble from which we are suffering— overplus of populations. What we have to offer to these Dominions is —men, not refuse. It is no use asking them to take the scum of our population,, for they will only take the best. It is no use either suggesting that we should land men on their shores with nothing in their pockets. We must land the men with enough money to establish themselves in whatever sphere vof life they are best fitted for."

THE NAVAL HOLIDAY. The two battleships, now being built for the British Navy, will be completed in 1926;, and except feplricemients no new construction will be permissible under the Washington Treaty, until 1931. The journal of the Navy League has pointed out that the cassation of aJJ big armoured shipbuilding will mean idleness for five years of enormous quantities of valuable plant and machinery that cannot, be adapted to purposes other than the manufacture of armour, guns, and fighting . ship equipment generally. It is not to be doubted that the British naval experts at. Washington were perfectly well aware that they were supporting a measure that might involve in 1932 or 1933 very grave and dangerous consequence* for Britain. It is, equally, not to be doubted that they considered there was » Tieans of averting part if not all of that dancer. The journal quotes frorp an article in Brassey's Annual, in which Sir leorge Thurston says —"The small naval programme of the next ten years offers o inducement whatever to large armament firms to maintain costly plants and staff over that period, and one is bound to inquire how the country will stand if within that period war on a large scale should again have to be faced, when the war time installations and equipments »f such firms will have been depleted nnd their staffs of requisite experience have been dispersed. From the point ol view of prerent-day economy the policy •nay be all right. From the point of view of the Empire it is a dangerous exIt is for those who, in the interests of economy and peace, have sliggested and agreed to such arrangements also to provide a way whereby, notwithstanding these, "the life and security of !,i o Empire is assured." To this the editors Of B-assev's add:—"Can these firms bo permitted in the interests of naval defence, to destroy the vast organisations which they have built up. the non-existence of which, at a moment of sudden emergency, might mean the loss of our sea supremacy upon which th«» British Empire depends for its exisi sneer*

THE PRESIDENT OF MEXICO. General Obregon is, to my thinking, the most attractive figure on <he world scene to-day, says Dr. E. J. Dillon, in his book on the President of Mexico. As a soldier who headed a revolution against revolutions and waged war against war, h© was the hero of many thrilling episodes. As a popular leader he gave proof of that rare, magical quality which wins the sympathies and arouses the enthusiasm of men. As a Mexican statesman h© stands out as the great reality or his country and his race ; he has, at any rate for the time being, rescued the former from th© danger that threatened its political existence and the latter from a most perilous precedent. A successful general, he is a convinced pacificist, who denies the right of any people to tike up arms except to defend their country from foreign invasion or to rescue it from internal anarchy. And as a world-reformer, he is the only one who, having fallen .r» with the pressing needs of the ne v epoch, possesses the will, and, f<> some t:\teiii', the power, to satisfy them both within the confines of an independent State. Of all contemporary statesmen he alone stands for the aspirations of that growing section of the human race who (eel and know that regeneration cannot proceed from laws, edicts or institutions, but only from a wholly new moral and cultural orientation. He is now proceeding wi'li an unprecedented experiment.; the substitution of plain dealing for tortious diplomacy, of justice for privilege and ot morality for war. Having come into close j contact with the seamy side of burn-in -ire at its worst, instead of turning .ical and sour, he has maintained his faith in humanity intact.