CURRENT TOPICS

Southland Times, Issue 17633, 18 January 1916, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS

THE GREAT CHINESE PART IBS. Even the din of the Great War cannot wholly overpower all echoes from the strife raging in China over the question of "President or Emperor." There are two great political parties in China today. There is the Conservative Party, which counts as its adherents the older officials who have been in the service of the Manchu dynasty. They are men of ripe experience and great weight. They are of the Li Hung Chang type, and are Conservative only in the sense that they advocated a constitutional monarchy, and were quite contented with the retention of the infant Emperor as the head of the State. To this party belong the present Secretary of State, and even the President. Then there is the Republican Party, consisting of the younger —perhaps less sober—reformers, who advocate republicanism without qualification. The foreign »correspondent generally discounts this class, and is of the opinion that tbe regeneration of China will depend on the ability of the "elder” statesmen. They are men who were impressed by and took seriously to heart the lesson of the coup d’ etat of 189 S. The younger politicians are the men who engineered the revolution of 1911, and brought about the fall of a dynasty. The division into these two great parties is essential to the study of the significance of the monarchical movement. The rural peasant, although he is the true “Celestial,” by reason of his ignorance and indifference is contented to be the subject of that sovereign who, whether he be the "Son of Heaven” or President, offers on his behalf annual sacrifices at the Temple of Heaven. In fact, lie is so contented that one can quite conveniently leave him out of account.

BRITAIN' AND ITALY, An Italian recently published in th« Pali Mall Gazette some proposals for closer relations between Britain and Italy. He suggested (1) a commercial and economic understanding between Great Britain and Italy, based upon study and first-hand knowledge of resources and neeessities of both countries, with a view to supplanting German capital and industry with British capital and industry. This could and should centre in an AngloTtalian Bank, which should act as financial as well as commercial intermediary between British capital and the Italian investment, and thus obviate the difficulties arising from the difference of methods between the two countries. (2) A carefully organised system having as its aim a mutual, intellectual, and cultural education and understanding. This could centre round some organisation which should see after a thorough and complete penetration of the English Book in Italy and the Italian in England, and draw away from Germany the monopoly exercised by the Book Associations in Leipzig. (3) The strengthening of political and diplomatic relations between Great Britain and Italy. This last heading, he said, in point of fact, embraces all the others in that the other means mentioned are instruments to this end, namely, the establishment of a definite, practical, and operative friendship and political understanding between them. GERMANY'S VAIN HOPES. It was asserted by two neutrals who recently returned to Berne, the one from Berlin and the other from an important German provincial town, that in October last the people of Germany believed that the war would end by Christmas. Commenting upon the matter, the Berne correspondent of the London Morning Post says it may, of course, be that the wish, as to which it is now scarcely possible to doubt, of the German people for peace is father to their thought, although it would be the height of folly to flatter ourselves that they are as yet really "war weary,”

or that Germany is ready to make peace on terras acceptable to any Power save herself. These assurances as to Germany’s belief in the war nearing its end are borne out by various signs, in particular by recent events on the Berlin Stock Exchange, where the belief now prevails that the brilliancy of “war industries” as an investment is distinctly on the wane. Berlin financiers apparently think that, ns the war cannot last for ever, and as raw material is becoming scarcer, and a point may even be readied when it is all used up, it is imprudent to risk too much money in war industries.