NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18964, 11 March 1925, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

THE OXFORD TITLE. J Commenting on Mr. Asquith's selection of the title of Oxford, the London Times 'says the real interest and significance of ! the revival of the Oxford earldom in Mr. j Asquith is the parallel case of Mr. Harley, | another notable statesman for whom it was also revived in the reign of Queen Anne and restarted on a course which only terminated within living memory. Robert Harley, like Mr. Asquith, played hi his time the parts of barrister, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Secretary of State, First Lord of the Treasury, and Prime Minister in! a Coalition Government. Nothing is lacking, even in less essential details, to make the precedent complete—except, indeed, that Mr. Asquith has far better ! justification than Harley could ever lx>asl |to the ancient title which appealed at once to both of them. His claim, indeed, lis more substantial than most of its kind, | if account be taken of a life-long devotion |to his old university, following on an academic career which was the foundation of bis fortunes, of a perpetual contact J with Oxford which culminated in his Chairmanship of the last Universities Commission, and of the establishment in its immediate neighbourhood of the home of his later years. THE ROMANS IN BRITAIN. Antiquarian research has brought more vividly to the mind the reflection that Britain was once a Roman colony, in which the Roman law was administered by Roman Governors, and,which was garrisoned by the Roman legions, says the Morning Post. The island was what would now be called an outpost of civilisation. During some centuries Britain was an appanage of Italy, her cities were built, in the classic mode, the classic tongue was spoken, the classic literature was studied, and many a family, dwelling from generation to generation in its cen-tral-heated villa upon a great estate tilled by Britons, never saw the Imperial city. The Roman occupation and its ending make one, of the strongest and perhaps one of the most obscure episodes in history. Until recent years historians have been content to pass very lightly over an epoch concerning which documentary information was so meagre. It was generally assumed that the Romans had come, had j conquered and departed, and that anarchy j and successive barbarian invasions had j obliterated nearly all traces of the Roman ; power. To-day it is coming to be under- | stood that, although the legions retreated and the island was left defenceless, the j Roman never really went awav. There must have been intermarriage with the i Britons, and the descendants of the ; colonists must have remained in the i island. Why is it that the sculptured j heads of the Roman Emperors in the Brit- ! ish Museum are exactly like Englishmen ? Certain it, is, at least, that the Roman tradition (if law, of literature, of the arts, although submerged by waves of barbarism, did not perish, but survived. English law is founded on Roman h;w, the, Gothic architecture of the Middle Ages was a development of classic forms, and the medieval songs and tales are all made up of the classic stories intermingled with Welsh, Scandinavian and German folk-lore. INTER-ALLIED DEBTS. "There is really only one practical and possible solution of the problem of interallied debts, and to that solution the nations concerned must ultimately come," says Mr. Philip Sriowden, who was Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government, writing in The World Today. "To that Great Britain has already in effect agreed. That is an all-round cancellation of the debts. The time will come when economic interests will force cancellation. . . . But if the time is not ripe for this ideal solution of the problem, some other temporary settlement, must be reached very soon. The patience of the British Parliament and the British taxpayer is near exhaustion. We cannot go on paying America and receiving nothing from our debtors. They must come to an arrangement by which we shall receive from them and from German reparations combined the sum we pay to America. But we cannot agree that, the payments we receive shall be dependent upon German reparations. Our debtors must guarantee the payment, of our American obligations, but. will be given relief to the extent of our receipts from Germany. This is the irreducible minimum of our demands. An end must come to the long moratorium we have granted our allied debtors. - It is useless for tlieni to talk about, their inability to meet this obligation. If they will mobilise their economic resources they can do it. It. will need a great effort on their part ; but it is time the French people got lid of their inherited repugnance to paying taxes. That failing has brought French national finance to the very brink of bankiuplcy, and it, would be doing France a great ser vie to compel her to introduce and to enforce a sound policy of national finance. M. Clemenlel has suggested a Dawes plan for the treatment of Allied debts. Tim crux of the Dawes scheme is financial control by the ciedifois. If France v. ishes to avoid that unpleasant, and humiliating experieiue, she must, secuie the objects of the Dawes scheme by her own effective control of her great resources,"