Untitled

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16964, 28 March 1917, Page 4

It is satisfactory to leam the Government contemplates au amendment of t.ae procedure under which a military reservist,, who enlists or is called up by baJot for - active service, may apply for tiie financial assistance that is. procurable under the war regulations. The procedure, as originally framed, is distinctly objection'able in the respect that it requires a reservist who desires financial assistance to go through the form of application to a MLitary Service Board for exemption in order that he may obtain the relief that is offered. This involves the absurdity that he has to apply for what he does not desire in order that he may. secure what is necessary to free him from some of the anxiety regarding his financial position that would otherwise weigh upon his mind during his period of active service. , It also gives an uncalledfor publicity to an application for relief which should be a matter of private negotiation between the reservist and the State. There should be no diflicultv in devising a method under which a leservist, after -lie has been passed as lit for service, might apply for the financial ■ assistance offered by the State under conditions that would entail no greater exposure of his private affairs than would be caused if he were to apply to a banker for financial accommodation or than if he were, as a farmer or as a worker, to apply to the State Advances Department for a loan.

There is nothing in past experience during the war to justify the belief that the protest which France is making to neutral Powers concerning the devastation deliberately wrought by the Germans in the territory they are evacuating will not fall upon deaf ears. The neutral countries that were, powerless rather than unwilling to ledress the wrongs which have been inflicted by Germany and her associates in crime upon defenceless people in France and Belgium, in Serbia and Rumania, and in Armenia, will hardly be moved to action by the fresh revelations of the calculated brutality of the German army. Even if they were it is difficult to suppose that any representations from them would have any useful effect. The " argumentum ad hominem " is the only form of argument that seems likely to be of any avail with the Germans. They may most fairly be likened •to the bully who exhibits a fiendish glee in the performance of acts of cruelty upon smaller persons, secure in the knowledge that they are unable to offer an effective resistance to him, but who stands in abject dread of anyone more powerful than himself and capable of visiting; upon him punishment of the kind he lias administered to others. It is scarcely to be expected that the Allies will have the opportunity, even if they had the will, to lay German territory waste after the manner in which the Germans have ( treated territory that has been occupied by them, for Germany will almost certainly make peace before she suffers invasion on the western frontier. The Allied Powers may at least, however, insist, if thejr have the power to do so, as we believe they will have, that Germany shall make ample reparation for the destruction of which she has wantonly been guilty.

The German press is pleased to declare that the deluded populations of the Allied nations are being " deluged " with " appalling lies " about German barbarism and war hist. The Deutsche Tageszeitunc for example, alleges that the people of' the Entente Powers "are suffering from mental poisoning en masse, no less than were the unfortunate old women who in the Middle Ages were tortured as witches" It continues as follows:

The minds of theso poor devils have been tortured by their political leaders until they believe in the fables of German barbarism German cruelty, German war lust, and German militarism, as thev bp hove the Gospels. We shall never master this folly with good words. Fools must bo disciplined as soon as the danger with which they menace the general welfare of the people is recognised, nor must any distinctions bo made between deceivers or deceived.

I hey can only be rendered innocuous by that specialist in the cure of insanity, the German m field grey. He will yet reach' them all and with good solid pills from his machino gun and skilful applications with his lancet, tho gleaming • German bayonet will yet cure the m of their almost chronic hypnotic condition.

Unfortunately for the Deutsche Tageszeitung and for other German papers that write in a similar strain, the evidence of German barbarism, German cruelty, and German war-lust completely establishes the case against the "specialist in the cure of insanity." It is evidence that cannot fail to carry conviction to the mind of any person. And it is evidence which should be marshalled by the Entente Powers for use in the days—not, we hope, far distant—when Germany will have to make a supplication for peace.

Witii the French and the Italians wine is counted a health-giving necessity, second, if not equal in importance, to bread, and this because the beverage in most general use is tho pure juice of the grape, perfectly fermented and. consumed wijhin the

first year of its making, before it has developed the qualities winch, while highly esteemed by connoisseurs, render it both heady and intoxicating. It may be, and the point is not without interest, that the lengthy sojourn in France of so large a body of British troops from the Homeland and the overseas dominions, may tend to a more general appreciation of the valuable dietetic and hygienic qualities claimed for the lighter kind of wines and that this in turn may react favourably upon the wnie-producing industries of Australia and South Africa, to say nothing of our own dominion. In France and Italy the prospect of the world's grape liarvest assumes an importance akin to that excited throughout Britain and America by the wheat outlook. This is doubly the ease at the present time since the faifure of last year's vintage occasioned the authorities considerable anxiety both for commercial and military reasons. A bountiful supply of natural red wine is considered necessary to keep efficient the fighting forces of the French and Italian armies.

Trrr. astonishing statement is made V> Tr Messrs W. and A. Gilbey, in thv.uannual report on the grape hanvest °* .^' ie world,- that France has requisitioned for her military needs some 200 millions of gallons of last year's wine, representing one-fifth of her entire production, besides 40 million gallons from the French colony of Algeria. This large volume of wine, valued at something like £20,000,000, has been specially stored in different districts in warehouses commandeered for the purpose by the I rench military authorities. Throughout Italy similar precautions are being taken to conserve sufficient tion of the 1916 yield for the use of the soluiery at the front, as well as for the sick and wounded in the hospitals. It is interesting to note that the comparative shortage of the wine harvest, together with the increased demand for military purposes, is exerting an important influence upon the production of brandy. It takes six hogsheads of wine to make one of brandy, and the high price of wine rentiers the converting process over costly. Consequently all old brandies are soaring up i;i price, whilst old liqueur brandy is practically worth its weight in gold. The present tfcndency is for a continual upward trend in the price of all wines and spirits, a movement greatly accelerated by the increased cost of all the accessories, such as carles, cases, and bottles. This circumstance cannot, hit least throughout tihe British Empire, be regarded in war time as an evil, since it tends in the direction of that restriction of luxury which war conditions necessitate and which a sound economy seeks to emphasise.