LONDON CHAT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 12202, 16 November 1901, Page 8

LONDON CHAT.

I (Fitoit Our. Owx Courkpoxdkxt.) j ! ■ October 12. ' Although tlie " amazing speech" of Sir Kcdvers Bailor and its cxtraowltnary, admissions have almost swamped everything eKo [ in the way of London eiiat this wwk, sevp- \ ral matters have occurred which, in other ' circumstances, would have constituted fertile topioa of talk. I In tho first place, the investigation touching that terrible disaster to HJU.H. Destroyer, . Cobra, has brought out wry clearly that dip j mishap was due to a simple collapse of the i tou-flimsily-lmiir and overloaded vessel in j a heavy sea. with which she was utterly tin- , fit to contend, It is now quite clear that I she struck nothing: that =he was on her ; proper course; that her commander, Li«u- . tenant Bqsworth-Smith, who calmly reI maineil on boaTd his ship and deliberately I sank with her when he could easily have ac- , copied rescue, was in no respect blatnable; and that the disaster was due to the vessel's i weakness of construction/ Everything had I been sacrificed for the sake of extreme speed j —35 knots an hour. She was built with j ridiculously thin plates and brans, and was J crammed with huge am! enormously-power-ful engines and machinery. She got t " bridged " across two big waves, and consej quently_ snapped in two as would a ihin . stick laid across two supports if you pressed ' on its middle. Even her own weight to : I sufficient to do that when there was no midway support. And so she just crumpled ' up—down went her middle and up went both ends, so that the top apertures of the forward and after funnels actually faced each other! It is a lamentable affair, especially in the terrible sacrifice of noble and valuable lives that was involved. Anil with the loss of tho Viper and Cobra, Great j Britain loses all that she possessed of war } vessels swifter than those of other Powers. . This, too. is u serrauf calamity. One member of the Ministry, ilr Brodrick, has been " drawn " at last, and in a letter to Sir Howard Vincent, M.P.. tho Secretary for War says:—"l am in daily corresiv.mdence by telegraph with Lord Kitchciio. and (hero is no single demand which > he has made on us which has j not been promptly met. We have, ' roughly speaking, * 200,000 men, with ' 150 guns, in .South Africa, and over, 100,000 men under (ruming at homo. We have, therefore, no difficulty in keeping up j the field army to its requisite strength by j drafts, and, if a further call be made oil j us we are in a position to meet it with the j utmost promptitude. Notwithstanding this, ! there seems to be an impression abroad that I the close of the war is being in tome wjy i retarded by a scarcity of troops, or want j of mobility in our columns. Our last re- ! turns from South Africa show that, besides . providing supplies from hero for 314,000 j persons directly or indirectly connected with j the war, we arc feeding 248,000 hones and i muics in that country, and we maintain in j South Africa a reserve 1 of 'four months' food supply for men and animals. There are nt ' present in the field 69 mobile column , ! per- j fnctly equipped for service with picked com- i mundci's, and we deliver at South African ports a monthly supply of nearly 10,000 re- ! mounts, so that 3»i'rt from horses taken j from tho enemy, we continue in advance of " Lord Kitchener's requirements." ! Mr Brodrick nost deals with the report that the Imperial liovi-rnmrnt has ha;n- j pored Lord Kitchener's action. Ht> says: — '"The Home Government have never in any way interfered with the military dispositions of Lord Kitchener, in whose vigorous pvosecu- ■ tion of the war they have entire confidence. They have neither ipared moti nor money to assist him in his difficult task of chasing small boilies of thv enemy over an area the " size of France and Spain, and defendir.K thousands of miles of railways against attack. Lord Kitchener look over the command on N'ovoinbct £8; 1900. On one ocra* sion only since then has ho asked for more tronp?. In December, 1900, when t>c Wet forced his way into C'ap« Colony, Lord Kit- ■ clitnr-r requested that drafts should he feut to replscc casualties in tho Imperial Yeomanry, which had sunk from 10,000 to 6000, and he suggested that an appeal should Ijc made to the colanies to send fresh contiu- j gents in tho place of some 5000 over-sea ' colonials who would soon be time-expired. He therefore asked for £000 men. In to- j spome to this we despatched 4800 trained ! cavalry or wounded infantry within six ' wesks: we op?ned immediate recruiting for : 10,020 Yeomanry; we accepted fresh colonial contingents at Imperial charge, and in all we landed in South Africa. 61,000 fresh troops in tiie first six months of 1901. We j : also found arm? and equipment? lor over 1 20,000 men locally raised in South Africa." : i In conclusion. Mr Brodrick contends ihat I there has been no need of Cabinet. nii'Ot- [ i:!gs, which, indeed, he thinks, if held at : so unusual a time, might have suggested .1 1 want of confidence which Ministers did not I (eel. He that lie is investigating the i scandal of the incompetent Yeomanry sent I (nil. So there the matter reats for the pve- . I eont. Hut tiro public is not yet quite sati?- ! lied, oven thoujh Sir Michael Hiife-licarh i I has followed 'n a similar strain. There is j a very tineas) reeling abroad, and this will i no! be readily lulled. t I No coincidence cnul v.elt be move uiifor- , tnnato than the death of the Ameer .if ' Afghanistan at so awkward a crisis in our ; nifairs. lint Osath is a sovereign whe-e dc- ; • wees cannol be disputed, and Abdurrahman | lias passed away. If despotic ami rigorous' ] in his rule iviul unduly infiutuceit at iiiues • by a peculiar mysticism whicli led k> l!'i: j I sacrifice of ii'.oro than ou? iutirru , .!! life to ( j visionary dictates of liii dream-. Al'durran- ! ( nan ncVCTllie'.fss was by fur the h'y.oii a::d 1 bo! ruler \ffjiiiinhlan ha-i iwd for immy a long year, and he \va s a firm end intel'-i- ---'■ soi'.t .ally of (;roat Britain. Hl< diitrwt of liussia was clironic, Once the in- , timated to ))iii» very politely t'u.nt th'.y pur- '■ posed exoreiyi'g some 500 troops on his • ! frontier ai a certain time, it ho luwl u» j objection. He iirompt'v replied that ho h".d j liot the slightest objection; indeed, it was! s curious coincidence that he had ananjed ' I to exercise 6000 of his ova- mops ai the j I same time closu to the same spot, but iiiis ' I would not cause any ir.omveiik-uco u> Ihc '• j other?. Hut tlie I'tis4an nir.Kumvri's did not | I takfl place! I I son, HaiiilmlUUi. the ntw Aniter, U [ ' said to l>o a young man of capacity and :i ' I warm friend of Knijkud. Sti far all lins 1 50r.« FHiooth'.y, but Kussin has been quietly . mossing troops near the [rentier in rcadinc' , for tlie lightest ex-cuse to seize and bs-ld j Herat, and the Kti.«ian War Miniftev • j has left ieci'etly for the same point, i Hut it. lins now coir.e out that Lord Curjcn : ! lir,3 in an cinmlly iiuiet and lino-lcntatioin ; ' maliner been maisini; Briiishlndir.n (ror.jii-; '■ ' on tin" Indian frontier, and ha? a far more ' ; i)ri',vcv(iil foire instantly avai'.abl? llsai !;:s '■ \ liiicsia. So in view of Ru>'-i:>.'< cl'.nniie mi- ; ' willingness to provoke .in open rupture, iin- ! ■ le.is suc-ccwi be as'-jred. it may he lm;wd : ; that sho will not jr,s.li hcadlong into a i blench which under c\islinj treaty urnlrrliikings must lead In :i trcineiidous and ier- , riblo war. i'ov Knglaii'.l iwi?t defend', Afghanistan if atiacke-n. a quarlcr j of a. million of her hoops lied up in j South Africa, iiie :ituation is, lo say the j least, one lo surest sei-ious tlinugiit.' Hap- \ < jiily we have in mr favc.n , tlio personal ; j friendliiie-is of the T=a.r. hii uDicial an to- | bh eharmii>g somi-Kngliih young wife. Biil '. : a;:iin;t this Iht'i'C is the conslanl insidious i j pressure of Ihe I'jii-fcl.uie parly, and of j i iliitt formidable t-fd prelate with tho mi- j i Sjicilf.Wli'. and injpvonouv.ceabl' . Mine, the : ! h«td of the Knsvian Ci'-n-l; Chiir-h. lint we : must bepe for the lies', i Autumn ha* set in vc'.y wu'y :i'.id very ' resolutely. \S T e aciually had some gt-nuine brown fog: of the so-called—lml ini-i'aJloi'— " November" lypc in I einlon !:.ioie t':ii> end of Fkpivmb l : , . And we liav enjoyed J one oi two of tlis enme agroeabli- ! this moiuli. A ho a toiupwt of cx'-i-piional j srveriiy set in wiih cxluoruiniuy siuklen- ■ nes- iiiit Saiurday. doin;, im|iicn-e damagt, and destroying many lives bcih fit sea and on shore. It \vn c a Irm? i vi-lone oJ Ihr vnc.-i pronounced typo, and Irs r.'mire or vort-jx crossed (ho liri:i4 C.'hamicl,. i:iUi:g. onv nf ■ the Dovor-Calois mail boats-en it-i v;av and very nearly swamping it. 'Flu; gnle lastrd . all Sunday, and (lieu subsided n- niddeniv ' :\i it arose; but a second violent slorn , . fol- ; lowed on Wednesday, pud t!io atinospheve continues in a disturbed otidition. The autumn may actually be f.aid to ii:.vi> s<?l in carl} in August, foi we have had no real summer wetilhtr over sinp? then, and it luoks as il we were in for another lons r.nd dreary winter. Ono good remit has accrued from the story. The rain, which in almost tropic.il torrents xccompanic-d thu gale, ha< furnished tho water supply ?o urgently needed hv Lancashire unci Yorkshire. Manchester. Leeds, Bradford, and the other biif lnallufncturing towns were in dire extremity when ilie welcome downpour arrived, and it is hard io say what might not have been the conseoK-ncrs <>[ anotiior vveet's drought, lu London there is a good dej! of rickness just kow. C'a«o? of amalloox ar." still : dii-nirroctilily numeral]:-, .\nd ilio imti-vac-ciiuttionists we workiuy; their crane for all it . i« worth, and more. Their chief apostle, the j well-knoivi> Tcbh, lwi just had fo plead guilty to a very cx'i'uordiiiitry error m ' figures. He has corrected his blunder, but ' meanwhile it- has produced its desired effect upon the weaker miiii'. This bort of thing ij very mifchievon?. i'over and diphtheriu are also scourging Ceitsivi localities where sanifstitin is defortivp. Still, on the wliok, the death rate of this overgrown assemblage of rit million people kwps wonderfully and satisfactorily iosv. 1 Of matters musical the chief at the mo-

] went U flip Leeds trimiial fostiva!. Its ! schema is being rather hotly criticised owing I iu III? paucity. o[ firt-:it complete works in J its prcssmiiime :ind the :>.V.ind.uice of smaller I oiks and exiraeU-. |i i s urged that the Bi-hfin<> nf i»!i a bi<; fcMival sTtould not lie :' fo fiagiaeulary, uud thai this time it is in . reality a m?re .series i.f "• miscellaneous ron- , cori-.' , Ucwc-viM , , ilio Lmls people and visitais sewn .to like it. for tlic daily' attendance bat been r: uif.ikably sjnnd. Verdi's r splendid " Requiem," composed in honour of ■ lliinzoni, iia« ia fur been the greatest suecow, tlic gorgeous and sensuous clioral ami • orchestral drums boin;? superbly delivered • liy tho;o niagnifieont Yorkshire voices, perJ haps tlic finest Hio whole world can eliow. ' Indeed, tome critics complained that there 1 was "too much .sound." " Tho eiiicf novelty ha; been Mr Colerid^e- [ r Taylor's cantata. " The Blind Oirl." of swncwhete or other with n. complex name. Much was expected of ('his work owing to tho sinking beauty and effectiveness of tlie ' young Anglo-African composer's setting- of I.imgfcllowV " Hiawatha." But the. proverb says, "Blesvd are .they that export nothing j lor they shall not be disappointed." The expectation! have not been realised. Mr J and all that—very suitable for clioral so- , and all thai— very suitable for t'Uoral 60- ' firtic-s. hut sadly lacking in tin freshness [ and power, and even inspiration which dis- " tinniished "Hiawatha." I hope it moy dot, ' prove that Mr Colei-idße-Tayi.iv has "shot ■ : his bolt," We arc badly in need of new : musical creators. But undoubtedly this last t essay of his ha? be'on rather n cold douche . ■ to our admiration of him as a rising com- . : poser. However, we may liopa he will do ; better next-time, and lim "IHmd Girl" is i at least pka=ing,