PASSING NOTES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18447, 7 January 1922, Page 4

PASSING NOTES.

Good is it on occasion “ to run a moist pen slick through everything ■ and start afresh.” The traditional hour for the birth of good resolutions does not find Bail Eireann prepared. The Irish debate on the peace treaty drags on. Fifty-three members have spoken. Other fifty, no less, announce their intention of speaking.- A good deal depends upon the patience of the constituencies and everything upon their common sense. The war of words in the Bail may be the precursor of doings more strenuous. Meanwhile, there is abundant cacophony. The women are not roaring gently as any sucking-dove. The estimable Countess Markievicz— So smooth, so sweet, so silvery is thy voice, ' , As, cOuld they hear, the damned would make no noise 5 But listen to thee—confesses conscientious scruples. She cannot make a declaration. of fidelity to the King and the Commonwealth of British nations which is holding down India and Egypt. Therefore while Ireland is not free—also India and Egypt—she is a rebel. Just so! Zaghlul Pasha and Mr Gandhi send her the compliments of the season. One feeble attempt at wit in the debate introduced the name of Princess Mary. Mr Michael Collins rose chivalrously to the occasion, but there was no mention of coffee and pistols. Therefore the author of the' sickly jest must have been a lady. There was a frog in Assop that thought to blow itself out to the dimensions of an ox. It burst in the effort. Let Mr de Valera ponder the fable. Puffed out immediately with the national aspirations of Ireland he plants his feet with, little circumspection. In Mr Erskine Childers he has a henchman who is a worthy discordant of Mr Jefferson Brick, war-correspondent of the Rowdy Journal. “ The liberation of freedom must be quaffed iff blood,” etc. Mr de Valera will find his cave of Adullam in due course, where he can chew the thrice turned cud of wrath to his heart’s content. In the first Blue-book of Bail Eireann Mr Lloyd George is described as “ Baithi Qnorach Lend Scoirse ” and “Baithi Uasal Leod Seoirse.” The niost provocative language is that which is unanswerable.

The world is the victim of its own cleverness. Scientific invention bestrides its back like the Old Man of the Sea. The Powers were invited to Washington to limit armaments. What has really been accomplished ? Not much, it seems. Land armaments untouchable! A pruning of the big naval squadrons, and an enlargement of the smaller! What has been cut off at one end lias been added at the other. Mr Hughes's limitation scheme has been torpedoed—by The submarine has been the wrecker. T>{ie vivacious Republic will let capital ships go hang. There is no telling, anyhow, what may befall French pride in the near future. The airmen talk most vividly of what they can do. But, France will pin her faith to the submarine. She will concentrate on a submarine fleet of extraordinary power. Purely for defence purposes of course! That is quite understood. But alas for the hopes of the wood’s burdened taxpayers! Great Britain, America, Japan, and Italy must be involved in an Expenditure of millions and millions on counter programmes -if branee will have her 90 submarines of 1000 tons' apiece. By one calculation, Great Britain alone will have to spend about fifty millions on additions to her surface fleet in the shape of convoy sloops, submarine hunters, and destroyers. Allowing a margin on .the right side it is a pretty prospect. France has a penchant for twisting the British Lion’s tail, but is very aggrieved if he should presume to roar. They may <yme to all sorts of pious resolutions designed to outlaw the submarine as a weapon against commerce. These will look well on paper. But what Government will dare to rely upon their inviolability? There was a tentative endeavour at the Conference to secure revision of all the rules of warfare. It was abandoned. American experts reported against the abolition of gas as a weapon on the score that it is just as humane as shells. That is as it may be. So much for discussions, in a blind alley. Let''the causes of war be eliminated and the instruments will look after themselves. And in the words of General Choke: “ What are the United States for, Sir v if not for the regeneration of man?” • •

“Full success to the sublime idea of abolishing the causes of war and the pro-motion-of friendship and reconciliation among all peoples.” From Germany’s New Year message to the United States per Dr Wirth. Laudable sentiments of course! But what is behind them? The usual Gorman procedure. Peaceful penetration on a vigorous scale, backed by all that insidious propaganda can accomplish. Said Bernhurdi, The Germans are born business men, more than anv others in the world.” This will be an article of German faith. One Colonel Unsv/orth, a travelling secretary for the Salvation Army, has observed Germany’s desperate efforts to capture the trade of the Dutch East Indies. He sees a danger of her becoming a dominating commercial force in the Far East. She is undermining British prestige where opportunity offers. Lord Northcliffe tells a very similar tale, “Ho has seen German wireless tapped daily during voyages, disclosing misleading lies concerning the Washington Conference, affairs in Egypt and and the conditions of British trade.” From Berlin propaganda is being used to sinister purpose by the same mischievous minds that were operating in the war period. The money that ought to meet Germany’s reparation bills is being lavished in directions hostile to British interests. A great German company has .been formed to construct a canal that will link the North Sea with the Black Sea. The Drang nach Osten has been merely interrupted. Those there are who talk of a repentant Germany. About as repentant as a baffled crocodile. She will play the hypocrite till further orders—be as ’umble ns Uriah Heep if it serve her needs. But she is the same old Germany. Play the straight game she will not so long as she has a card to shuffle with. Beaten with one weapon she will concentrate upon another. The more she can set her neighbours by the ears the better she will be pleased. Her professed desire for the promotion of friendship and reconciliation among all peoples very, much “ gammon and spinnage.”

Seek and ye shall find ! The Mayor of Christchurch has proved the truth of the injunction. Like Haroun A 1 Raschid of immortal memory he has been going about among his people, even into their backyards. He has been shocked. I visited two shops—a fruiterer’s and a butcher’s. There I found innumerable tins of refuse all uncovered, and all filled with comestibles riddled with rat holes. Evidence of recent visits of rata waa on the floor. There were at least five cart loads of refuse and garbage that should have been taken away. There wore fowls grovelling in the dust at the back of one of the .buildings, also chickens, and in one of the backhouses there was a cot with kittens lying in a bath. The whole condition of the premises was absolutely scandalous, and this in shops purveying fruit and meat to the public. It is a terrible picture. Fowls grovelling in the dust appeased not the mayoral indignation. Worse still, that a cat should have kittens in a bath! A premonitory proceeding surely, but shameless all the same. Cats have-no business with kittens at all when there -are so many rats to be caught. l)r Thacker can be depended upon, no doubt, to see to it. Nothing of “a mild indifferentism” in that quarter! Anything lilt© the sound of a rat Makes my hca/t go pit-a-pat. Homer represents the Grecian Army as employing music to stay the raging of the plague. We have heard of its application to a plague of rats. What a cnance for the Pied Piper in any of our towns to-day —Christchurch for preference ! To blow his pipe his lips he wrinkled. And out of the houses the rats came tumbling— Great rats, small rate, lean rats, brawny , rats, Brown rate, black rats, grey rate, tawny rats, Grave old plodders, gay young friskers, Fathers, mothers, uncles, cousins. Cocking tails and pricking whiskers, ’Families by tens and dozens, Brothers, sisters, husbands, wives— ' FoUawad tfeft Pip** fax thftu livpe.

It is a contumacious generation. There are'persons who object to paying Tates. London boasts a aclerio who has almost achieved fame by His objecting. The Englishman's house is his castle. For ten months the castle of the Rev. J. B. Bcrnll was besieged by myrmidons instructed by the Islington Borough Gfouncil. For ten months his food was hauled up in a basket to his first floor windows. Coming into funds he eventually paid. With a banker’s draft he sent his persecutors the following letter : Your Council have resorted to all the base methods that they imagine the law allows, and have absolutely failed in their purpose. I have compelled them to rely upon my word as m.v bond—which they should have done at the first. A matter which requires gome explanation is why. alter* you had received my letter informing you when I should be in a position to pay, niqo police officers were sent on the Monday following to arrest me, being here , night and day for practically a week, at a cost-to the ratepayers of £SO. ' This must be a small part of the total cost. The matter is by no means at an end Mr Borrill was not surprised at the happy, end to his difficulties. “I was warned.” he explained, “by my exalted friends that I should see the downfall oj my enemies and I certainly shall.” In the future he intends to devote his time to spreading his ideas on the changes which are coming. These ideas have been communicated to’ him by the spirit voices whichmake his house their home. He is at presenf'busily at work on his new book “which he set's up in type direct - from dictation by the voices, and prints in his conservatory." Example is infectious. At Islington another siege is or was in progress. A young woman, this time, determined that “the hand of the law shall never take her alive.” When last heard of she had not been outside her door for. six months apart from Sundays. An unhealthy 'business at best, this self-incarceration! Especially when there are no comfdrting spirit voices about the premises.

Great is the capacity qf spirits for creating mischief. There is bound to be trouble when vicars become addicted thereto. When in Dunedin Sir Arthur Conan Doyle made passing reference to his sympathetic friend, the Rev, Wale Owon, vicar of Oxford. ‘‘ Now Mr Owen is at loggerheads • .with the Bishop of Liverpool over Sir Arthur Qonan Doyle. In an admonitory letter the Bishop to him :

However-, much I may regret. your advocacy Of spiritualism, and, the articles you have published in the press. I have never lest my regard for you as a good man and an earnest clergyman, It was therefore a real grief to me to read in the press that you had asked Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to speak in your church on Sunday evening. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle did not actually grace the occasion by spiritualistic discussion. In the Bishop’s view, however, he used words bearing on the fateful subject when he said that “he and those of the same faith who desired to restore the spirit faith to England regarded Oxford Church as the lighthouse to lead them to higher, and purer realms.” Very indiscreet of Sir Arthur, to say the least of it! Mr Vale Owen has been requested not to repeat the ecclesiastical offence of permitting a layman to speak in churc Without permission of his Bishop. He has made a spirited retort in the parish magazine. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle read the lessons it seems, and addressed “a few words” to the congregation after the sermon. Ths church officers said they would be delighted if he did so. Says their spiritualist vicar : The question arises as to the degree of liberty tp bo allowed to the laity of the church. The Bishop’s action would seem to indicate that no congregation has a right to hear anyone in their parish church unless episcopal sanction be first obtained or, to put it in another way, whoso views do not coincide with those of the Bishop of the ■ diocese. Surely his lordship overlooked the fact that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is not only a Christian man but also a gentleman. Altogether a pretty little controversy! The creator of Sherlock Holmes has need of. more, .exalted friends. It is time he captured a Bishop. /

“Hoard melodies are sweet, but tnose unheard are sweeter.” Very good no doubt, take it as we may! With .an easy variation we get “seen melodies ai-e sweet but those unseen are sweeter.” Sir Henry Wood says that “Music is not for the eye, and if artists were unseen thgy would perform, better and, the audience would listen better.” This from the nation’s latest “D.S.O. of music”—and well earned too, for no country can vie with England in a ten weeks’ season of “Promenade ' concerts—has created a flutter. It has evoked a vigorous vindication of “the immense value of personality as an interpretative force.” Soft impeachment as well as sting resides in the suggestion of another eminent musician—“ Sir Henry Wood is a groat personality, and I cannot believe that the wonderful audiences of the Promenade Concerts would understand the music so well if Sir Henry were hidden behind a curtain : they would probably go to sleep.” Yes! Harmony unaccompanied by the moving picture of its production might have a disastrously soporific effect. “The conductor is able to communicate the rhythmic and expressive spirit of the music to the audience,” says another authority. He scores a point in claiming “something splendid pictorially” for the great symphony orchestra. On the other hand who of us has not realised that platform personality can create strange illusions ? The public likes all it can get for its money. It- loves to behold the outward marks of genius—all the box of tricks, so to speak. 'Where the individual is concerned popular appreciation is a' foggy sort of thing.. Sir Henry Wood’s test would be the true test. It would banish distractions of the judgment and adventitious aids' to the performer. But it won’t do. Musicians must be seen as well as heard. It is one of, their rewards —their very life. They cannot be stars without the limelight. Imagine Mr Henri Verbrugghen subjected with his orchestra to the indignity of a curtain! Imagine a Highland pipe band condemned ever to skirl behind the arras! Imagine it if you can !- Cxvis.