PASSING NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3250, 28 June 1916, Page 5

PASSING NOTES.

(From Saturday's Daily Times.)

Another week passes, and Verdun is still French. But Czernowitz, if you can pronounce it, is no longer Austrian. And one and one make two. Score that up. How much we are entitled to reckon for men, guns, munitions captured, how much, for moral and intellectual damage inflicted on the common enemy for the common good, the experts -will tell us at their leisure. It is sufficient for the moment to know that things are clearly coming our way. Colonel Repington, The Times expert, usually a cold douche—of tonic effect 'to the strong, but _ lowering to people of no constitution —is this week pleasantly stimulating. "We must not fix our eyes exclusively on General Brusiloff. The eastern theatre" —scene of Brusiloff's marvellous successes —"affects large areas," —has already taken the pressure off Italy and paralysed the German offensive at Verdun. " The Allies are moving at last, and we must look far if we wish to embrace the whole horizon, which will soon be aflame," With this goes well a French official review of doings at the British end of the line. It seems that we have the hardest row to hoe—- " the British sector is, of the two, the one requiring the most vigilant watchfulness and the hardest efforts." It is the scene of " unceasing activity," now about to develop into " a series of blows progressively increasing in severity." All of which is good hearing.

At the Town Hall Steps, Recruiting speech by the .Rev. Mr Hay: Regarding the individuals -with conscientious scruples, he believed that all the men with conscientious scruples had gone to the front because their scruples would not allow them to stay at homo. —(Applause.) The men who had now developed conscientious scruples wore conscit-ntious humbugs.—(Applause.)

I make my compliments to the Rev. Mr Hay. His word here spoken might well be the last word on the subject. But straightway appear in the Daily Times r rotestatory letters on behalf of the 334 Quakers onthe New Zealand census roll. The Rev. J. J. North imagines that he is about to see the Quaker conscience "coerced with bludgeons." The Rev. Dr Waddeil, of a charity that is proverbial, credits the Quakers with " a contribution to national righteousness that has been immeasurable." " And it has been this " —he explains—"because it had behind it the momentum of a noble and beautiful character,"—George Fox. the Founder, to Wit. But the New Zealand Quakers are in no danger of " bludgeoning," physical or moral. The hopelessness of arguing with a.Quaker on Quakerism hSs secured them exemption gratuitous and complete. So I believe.

And as respects George Fox, it would be hard to pitch on a happier illustration of the vagaries, caprices, whimsies, absurdities, that shelter under the nam© of " conscience." George Fox was a conscientious objector to the use of the second person plural for the second peTson singular;—you must "thee" and " thou." He° was a conscientious objector to the practice of saying " Good morning" and " Good evening." These phrases implied that God had make bad mornings and bad evenings. He conscientiously objected to take off his hat in the presence* of dignitaries. Were not Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the presence of King Nebuchadnezzar thrown into the fiery furnace with their hats on? Ho conscientiously objected to steeple houses and the prayers said therein. Wandering about the country to assert these conscientious objections (says Macaulav) "his strange his strange chant, his immoveable hat, and his leather breeches were known everywhere j and he boasts that as soon as the rumour was heard, ' the Man in feather Breeches is coming,' terror seized Hypocritical professors, and hireling priests made haste to get out of his way. B>» conscientiously objected to the punishment meted out to a friend of his " who was divinely moved to go naked during several years to market places, <ind to house 3 of gentlemen and clergymen. He applauded the zeal of this sufferer; "but it does not appear "-*

continues Macaulay—" tlxat frox ever thought it his duty to exhibit himself before the public without that decent garment from which his popular appellation was derived." Even so, that detail missing, George Fox is the conscientious obiectOT at the top of his form. I commend this authentic sketch for study.

Dear " Oivfe,"—At the time, of the Boer War Messrs Lloyd George and \\ . T Stead were execrated for the allegedly unpatriotic if not treasonable stand they took when they thought their country in the wrong. I think they got your pungent criticism. It ;s now wellknown, not least to tho Germans, what Mr Lloyd George will and can do when ho believes his country is fighting for tho right. I was struck by your manly admission of your change of feeling towards him. We do not need to wait for history to tell us how valuable ho has been to England in this great crisis.

In wartime the one and only rule for the individual citizen is " My country, right or wrong!" So far m in him lay the pro-Boer of 1900 lent aid and comfort to tho King's enemies, prolonged the war, sacrificed the lives of British soldiers. To-day, there are men in the British Parliament who ought to bo in the German trendies levelling rifles and flinging bombs. They would do less harm. "Lloyd George?—l simply love him ;—I used to hate him enco." Thus to mo, with feminine emphasis, the wife of a New Zealand politician. There are lots of us who uaed to hate him once. If we hnve changed, it is because of change in him. Lloyd George is now of patriotism tho ckvssio type;-—tliA "handy man" of the Ministry to boot, munitions maker, strike breaker, Ireland pacificator, ready for anything, even for the boots and spurs of Kitchener as Minister of War. Mora power to him!

From the same correspondent: But what about Mr W. T, Stead? Commenting on the -recent naval light, you said: " Ship for ship/ we could afford to los,© two for their [the Germans 1 ] one." Therein liea our great advantage. It was claimed by Mr Stead, and since- the war has been asserted again by his son Henry, that many years ago hia scries of articles, "Tho Truth wboufc tha Navy," written in association with Captain John Fisher as technical adviser, eiposed the weakness and inefficiency of the navy at that time; that ho advocated "two keels for ono "—indeed, that ho coined this phrase. Sinco then Captain Fisher has gono up top i but who has a word to say for Stead's part? As another great fighter recently, so Mr W. T. Stead four years ago mot his death in sensational shipwreck. Lord Kitchener has left a great military organisation behind him. Our justly -trusted two-to-one navy is a monument to the faraeeintf patriotism of the journalist. Surely his services deserve remembrance. What say you ? I say no other. In the annals of adventurous journalism—tho journalism that fears- neither scrap nor scrape nor even tha ridiculous —r.o name holds a surer place than W. T. Stead. To W. T. Stead scrapping was tho breath of his nostrils j as for scrapes, that was a bad one that landed him in Holloway Gaol; as for the ridiculous, what could beat " Julia" and her " Spirit Bureau"? But, recalling his services to patriotism, wo may forget that he was erratic with tho inconsequence of genius,—Stead, not 3teady. Certain it is that his series of articles called •" The Truth about the Navy" (1884) "forced the Admiralty to lay clown more ships next year." So writes the " Britannica," an impartial witness. It is a tenable proposition that Stead tho journalist had a share in Admiral Beatty'a victory.

The fablo of a Limbo Infantum peopled by babies waiting to be born comes to mind when I consider my correspondence drawer. It is wartime, and some of these unfortunates have waited long. Only in a mutilated condition can they be brought into the world at all. I offer them apologies. Hero is the quintessential part of a letter on enlistment and eugenics := — The merest tyro in the laws of heredity can surely foresee what is likely to bo the result* of much of the present day marrying and being given in marriage. The progeny of the man who marries to evade enlistment and

of tho woman who is thought]??* enough to accept him onnnot ha expected to develop into " boys of the bulldog brood," and if in any grout emergency the Empire had to depend on them, I say, ''God help the Empire." With this bracket the reply of the Prince of Serbia (in Thursday's cables) to the suggestion that his troops had suffered enough and that" every stalwart man was needed to re-establish (by paternity) an annihilated race." How can we recruit the Fatherland except as conquerors? Of what avail will it bo to perpetuate the race if we aro content to lot others do our fighting? Tho offspring of a Serbian who has been a hero aro worth 100 who are able to fight but who * topped at home. That ia so. Nature's aristocracy in NewZealand will derive from the Anzacs. Shirker progeny aro the predestined hewers of wood and drawers of water.

Sa,ul among the prophets—the Sydney Bulletin praising the Y.M.C.A. _ A correspondent sends me a cutting (in which, bo it noted, " Billjim" is the Bulletin slang name for tho Australian soldier on service) : Two years ago tho average Billjim thought of tho V.M.O.A. as a genteel anaemic blood relation of the red-eor-pusclcd Salv'army, and he had little or no fellow fooling for it. To-day ho thinks of it as a practical friend in need, and a real good sort. From tho outset tho. aim of the organisation has been to keep the reasonable Billjim out of serious mischief. New South Wales money is wanted for 150 new Y.M.O.A. "huts" with a secretary to each, and the Bulletin gives the demand its blessing: .-- On tho evidence of do/ens of old

Bulletin men at the front this paper has no hesitation in saying that it believes very excellent use will be made of every pound.

The same here. When, last noted in this column the Y.M.C.A. was repeating a c.<:k and bull story from Egypt about_ a young trooper's misconduct, his despair, and his suicide —under medical advice. But along with the Bulletin I readily testify that its deeds are wiser than its words.

Dear "Civis," —One is continually hearing of the Kaiser's stupendous lies. How would this epitaph do for hie tomb when he goes under? Here lies Will, whos«? lies no end did know ; He lied above and now he lies below.

This punning on the double sense of the verb X " to lie" was neater done a hundred, years ago: With death doomed to grapple, Beneath this cold slab, he Who lied in the Chapel, Now lies in the Abbey. Epitaph for William Pitt by Lord Byron,—"the Chapel," the House of Common* A poet though a peer is not necessarily a patriot. When the news of Waterloo came By von was " damn'd sorry to hear it."

Dear "Civis," —Would you give a note on what colour Adam was—whether black or white? After a great discuscion on this question, we have referred sarno to you for your adjudication.

Yon are mistaking me for Knox College. I accept the compliment- with thanks. It is an even chance that on this subject, the complexion of our First Father Adam, Knox College is no wiser than I am, and that the biology classroom at the University knows as little as either. Darwin, I believe, held that v,-e descend from a harry creature with pointed ears and a tail; but how many nowadays hold with Darwin is itself a question. There remain th i dictionaries and encyclopaedias, which oracles, knowing nothing really, entertain you with gossip,—telling how the letters ADAM ar9 the initials of four Greek words meaning north, west, east, south ; how that the Hebrew letters ADM are the initials of "Adam," "David," "Messiah"; how that "Adam's apple " in the throat was caused by a bite of the forbidden fruit sticking there and refusing to go farther: but of these and other " how thats" only one lias relevance—how that the radical notion in the word "'Adara" is—redness. That settles it. Was Adam a black or a white man? Neither; he was a red man. Civis.