PASSING NOTES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16610, 5 February 1916, Page 4

PASSING NOTES.

Victory is becoming more and more dependent on the naval strangulation of Germany. So say publicists in the Old Country. Perhaps they are right. In reply the German, press atTects to scoff. The Munchencr Neuste Nachrichten characterises the suggested tightening of tho British blockade as, like tho blockade itself, " mere humbug." Nat,hless Geiman scientific ingenuity has evolved desperate tuscs to get contraband through. British craisers have made some rare discoveries. " Substitutes" converted by the Germans include honey compounded of rubber and glycerine, and onions of rubber. Yet the supply of those delicacies is interfered with. It is enough to try the patience of Grand Admiral von Tirpitz.. And lest we do his grand fleet injustice we may consider tho pious impressions of Dt Otto Gaupp in the Munich journal mentioned: — We hoar of our submarines, which have so embittered England's sea supremacy, but who has heard for months of our great battleships, our largo and small cruisers, our ever-in-creasing torpedo-boats, which .stand behind these submarines and make their successful activities possible? A pertinent question. Who, indeed, has heard? Dr Gaupp goes on to explain : — One need not bo long with the fleet to be convinced that the strictest secrecy in war is for it even more necessary than for tho army. A curt command, and dozens and still • dozens of gigantic guns fire enormous shot, it may be, a distance of twenty kilometres. Another command, and a few hours later the fleet are many miles from their first position. What could be more convincing? Btit the target of these enormous projectiles so marvellously responsive to the word of command—there's tho rub! It is certainly not the enemy. The German navy is like the Drainage Board at Tomahawk Beach. It is very observant when the coast is cleaT. German ardour for the discovery of "substitutes" seems to know no abatement. Necessity is tho mother of invention. The Hamburger Nachrichten publishes a vigorous exhortation by a Professor Mehner not to burn old newspapers and other paper waste, which he says can be turned to the best account as litter for bedding cattle. "If straw litter is replaced by paper litter," ho says, " the problem of feeding tho cattle is facilitated and that of feeding tho people rendered easier." The professor also declares that processes may be applied which will make paper itself available as fodder. " And so wo come to this," he says, " that tho masses of old newspapers which have already fed men's minds in town and country will then feed cattle and that old brown paper and cardboard boxes will yield milk and beef-

steak." The enthusiasm of the German people for these expedients is doubtless colossal. It will be comparable to the ecstatic utterance of voji Hindenberg, "War is Suiting me as well as a sea trip." But perhaps the Marshal is a bad sailor.

The German hankering after peace negotiations has had various manifestations. The account of an effort to arrange in Switzerland a peace conference on an " international basis " makes droll reading. The business was set on foot by an individual named Auersbach, who appeared in Socialist circles, springing from nobody knows where. The Socialist paper, YoDcsrecht, furnished some curious details of committee meetings held to arrange for the great event. It was decided that five minutes be allotted at the demonstration to each speaker, whose remarks were to be written out beforehand and submitted to a censorship. But Auersbach's own speech was neither to be censored nor limited in any way. The next step was the appointment of the speaker-delegates to represent the countries at war. No Frenchman of any sort could be foundl to take on the job for his country, so, fante de miens, a French-Swiss was selected. The same accommodating point of view prevailed in the case of Russia, which was to be represented by a deserter. The Belgians and Serbs who had been persuaded to attend the committee meeting left the room before the proceedings were half over. Finally, the committee was reduced to the German and Austrian delegates, some Swiss, and an individual who stated that he represented England and Japan combined! This "Pt/ump" decided that addresses should be sent to the Pope, to Selma Lagerloef (the Swedish poetess), the President of the Swiss Confederation, and the King of Spain, asking them to call an armistice. For some reason the name of President Wilson seems to have been left out. Mr Ford would also appear to have been unaccountably slighted.

Mr Herbert Samuel declares that the appeal of the Government for national thrift has largely fallen on deaf ears. The thrift of a nation is partly a question of meals. We read of a 50 per cent, difference in the tariff between the "recognised " tea-shops in London and " very decent" establishments on the Buckingham Palace road. In this relation thus a writer in the Pall Mall:—

There is scarcely ono article of food and drink that has not been raised in price at the teashops, which were originally, and ostensibly, started " for the convenience of public," and this / at a moment when people even of the scantiest means, earned by drudgery, are urgently being almost ordered to "practice economy"! If the members of this Government really desired to do something practical, a.nd so enable hundreds of thousands of humble toilers, mostly females, to get their frugal meals at something like former prices, they would be doing a humane work and preventing the various " sweaters " from still further enriching themselves at the expense- of the hardworking indigent.

Furthermore it is said that the position of the small unlicensed restaurant, in Soho has become critical. This is the result of regulations forbidding the ordering of alcoholic beverages for customers after 2.30 p.m. or 8.30 p.m. The licensed restaurants are given longer grace. Voicing the "woes of the Soho diner, Mr Bernard Foyan, dramatist, testifies: "The result of this unfair discrimination is that the small restaurants, whose patrons Usually turn up for dinner between 8 and 9, are half-emptied, and many of their clientele are driven to the larger establishments to spend more money, and help to defeat the campaign for national economy."

From Soho to is not too far a cry in war time. Iho Russian restau-rant-keepers are apparently equal to the ovaidon of the alcohol prohibition when their " friends " make the l-ighfc appeal to them. Still they have learned the necessity oF great care. A Russian writer tells of an amusing incident. It occurred in one of the most fashionable restaurants of Petrograd. A certain high Government official, being in a private room with a friend, demanded a bottle of champagne for his supper. lie was met with a refusal at first. Nevertheless, after some gentle persuasion, the manager, notwithstanding that he knew whom he was serving, ordered a bottle of champagne to be sent to, the room, and after the supper the following bill -was produced: Supper and champagne 30 roubles, the penalty for serving wine 2000 roubles; —total of account, 2030 roubles. The high official took the bill, smiled, and said, crossing off the amount of 2000 roubles, " I give you my word of honour that no fine will have to be paid in this case," and he promptly settled the account of 30 roubles. The inquiry as to the resting-place of all the bad people is time-honoured. But scarcely so is the query as to the restingplace of all the bad eggs. Both are evaded. The answer to the latter is to bo found, it seems, at Bermondsev. The Bermon-dsey Borough Council has been sued by ft coftee-honse-keeper over a nuisance crcatcd by its factory for disposing of rotten eggs. The work of destinetion caused such a smell, the plaintiff nllegrd, as to keep customers from his shop. Finally it drove him out of business. This tragedy seems to have been provocative of a comedy in court, in which (Hr Justice Darligg joiAMi. Th«

plaintiff described the destructor as a sort of mangle. The contents of the shells ran down a sower, and some of the moisture ran outside his place. Since the nuisance had been complained of the council had erected what ho believed to bo an exhaust pipe. His Lordship: That wDI bo bad for tho Zeppelins. (Laughter.) The Witn ess: Tt was suggested that they should start breaking tho eggs when tho Zeppelins camo. (Laughter.)

Mr Givoen: Dora tho smell enter your house? —Yes. Eau de Cologne? (Laughter.) His Lordship: Cologne was more celebrated for its bad smells than ever Bermondsey was. (Laughter.) Among other witnesses called was a transport pilot, who said it would have been easy to get barges to take the eggs down tho river. His Lordship: You might paint tho barges like a hospital ship and then they might bo torpedoed. (Laughter.) During the case the interesting information was supplied that Bermondsey was /the centre of the egg trade in Great Britain. Ships brought the eggs from Russia, France, and Italy. Owing to the delay in shipment through the war the number of bad eggs to be dealt with had largely increased. On one day 354,000 had to be destroyed and' on another day 596,000. The eggs destroyed in eight months totalled 23,325,000. With Dominie Sampson we can say, " Pro-di-gi-ous." "Yet the pity of it, Iago!"

The University Senate has virtually decjded that Latin shall no longer be a compulsory subject for the Arts degree. " And a good job, too," the general public would probably say, if its discriminating opinion were asked. But the public knows nothing of the merits or demerits of the dead languages. What the scholarly will wonder is the extent to twhicli such action will discourage the stndy of Latin as an educational subject. A virile correspondent in the Otago Daily Times asks "if Latin is to be no longer compulsory for the Arts degree, where do Arts in their proper sens© come in at all?" Perhaps Professors Segar and Hunter have the answer ready. But the same remorseless correspondent continues: It seerris to me that a university which discards Latin for its Art degree is not only lapsing into Gorman barbarism, but is also abandoning its historical titlo to be called a university at all, and is seeking the lower and perhaps more lucrative fields of a glorified technical school. This is a serious and sinister suggestion. But when professors disagree what is the layman to think? Not upon their infallibility 1 A pity the Senate could not have heard on the subject an utterance from Professor Sale, so long in the Chair of Classics of Otago University. The majority rules, however, in Senates as in Borough Councils. The student is to have a chance of evading the toll-bar of Virgil, Horace, and that ilk in' aspiring for a degree. He is to he no more damnatns longi laboris to that extent. That is unless that red rag to the Chancellor, the "useless and costly ton?" the Board of Studies, retrieves the situation.

This mild resuscitation of the dead languages controversy tempts an extract from an article by Dr W. H. D._ Rouse, of Perse Grammar School, Cambridge. This most distinguished classical scholar has thus expressed lu's sentiments: —

Classical education is my stone: a precious stone, I am old-fashioned enough to believe, if it be but small and dwindling every day. _ This new world, with its books and journals, its facHities of communication and of public nuisance, its telegraph, telephone, and gramophone, its appalling juxtaposition of human beings who meet at sixty miles an hour and produce a resultant of splinters, is apt to drown in it 3 din the still small voice of the mind. Yet even so, amidst all these machines, man is still there: not yet a machine, and he never will be. . . . Machines are nothing without men, after ail: and the proper study of mankind, after all, is man, whatever machines he may add to it. And the classical student comes into close contact with big men ahd big : with the greatest intellects of the world, into all the deep moral problems that meet us to-day, with all the political experiments that are now being tried. He sees these things isolated from all that can disturb his and if there is any root of truth in him from these ho can draw safe lessons. He sees the springs of human nature laid bare in complete sincerity, without the venocr of the modern world; the insight of the poet and philosopher may serve him still. He can learn to delight in beauty, and see that without restraint and order beauty cannot bo. He can see the beginnings of discovery, that candour and love of truth which is stamped upon the very words of the Greek language, piercing its way to principles which have never yet been superseded. Ho learns to know the intellectual mother of mankind, without

which we should all be barbarians." This is eloquent at all events. And scoffing cometh not ad ways of wisdom. The same may be said of contumelious words against the via antdquoruxn. Cms.