The Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1916. THE PATRIOTIC FUNDS.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 5363, 22 February 1916, Page 4

The Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1916. THE PATRIOTIC FUNDS.

It is not easy to discover what is at the back of the mind of the Minister of Internal Affairs in his suggestion (made at the Wellington Conference, last, week) that patriotic associations, should supplement by 50 per cent, the annual payments by th e Stat© to wounded soldiers and dependents. He estimated that on the present basis of the pensions scheme the associations would bo required to find roughly £IOO,OOO a year. Mr Russell ' spoke of the State “paying its share.” A Dunedin paper emphasises the view, previously held 1 in these columns, that the State does not “.share” with anyone its rosponsi- ] bilitie s towards the soldiers and their dependents. Subject to t'heobservance of a maximum limit to the payment which it should make in individual <;u,ses, the State must take the full responsibility for the satisfaction of the needs of the wounded and <Jis- 1 a hir'd soldiers and of those of the deI(undents who hkive a legitimate claim upon it. It, is after the State has ’ discharged' its f»iH responsibility that J the business <*f the patriotic societies begins. Where the payments by the State do not suffice to meet requirements of any ease the funds subscribed by the public must he utilised. A clear line can be drawn between “needs” and “relief”; the »Stat© Ss ahsolnjtely responsible for the, farmer and the associations for the latter. 1 When a working .scheme is establish- .

ed on these lines there should be no room for complaint that a sacrifice ( has not been generously acknowledged. SIGNIFICANT SIGNS'. It is interesting to observe how the credit of enemy countries has been affected by the war. One might quote the example of Turkey, which in 1909 issued 1 in London a 4 per cent, loan at, 89. To-day that loan is quoted at 34, but, as interest is not j paid in London, the figure is not a fair index to the Ottoman credit abroad . One is on sounder ground in quoting the prices of enemy war loans in America. Early in December th© German 5 per cent, war loan, redeemable in 1924, was offered at 202d01. 50 cents per 1000 marks. The value of tlx© mark before the war was 23 cents, so that a 1000 marks should “be worth 237.50 in dollars. German Imperial 4 per cent, bonds bave been selling in New York at 185.50 per 1000 marks. As for Austro-Hungarian credit, the approximate value of 1000 kronen is 203 dollars. The Third Austrian War Loan at 51 per cent, ha® been offered at 141.75 and the Third Hungarian 6 per cent, loan at 146.75. One American correspondent states that at current prices the Austrian and Hungarian loans would return over 81 per cent., and he adds that even at that attractive figure they are not what would be termed popular as investments.

AMERICA FIRMER . The United States has refused to be trapped by the German dodge in using the words "armed merchantmen,” in substitution for “merchantmen in the declaration of a new campaign against merchant shipping. The Department of States agrees that the Allies hlave a perfect right to arm merchantmen defensively and will not approve any act duo to German policy. That is the end of the American request that the Allies should cease to arm their ships, a request which she was manoeuvred into making by German diplomacy, oexpoeting in return and an acknowledgement from Germany of the illegality of attacking merchant ships. Germany, of course, knew that the Allies would not give up any of their rights, and had no intention herself of abandoning her tactics, but it was lipped (says a conteporary) to manoeuvre the United States into a tacit admission that she could take no exception to the sinking of armed merchant vessels. It may be taken for granted, therefore, that, an end lias not been reached in the Lusitania negotiations, and that America has not accepted as a substitute for her word “illegal, ’’ th<? German phrase agreeing that “reprisals may not be directed against other than enemy subjecfta.” There is no question of reprisals about the German submarine plans, and it is evident that America recognises the recent declaration with regard to “armed merchantmen! " as a specious mask to cover future illegal acta, and has refused to be trapped.