SPECTATOR' SUMMARY

Timaru Herald, Volume XCIV, Issue 14456, 31 May 1911, Page 7

SPECTATOR' SUMMARY

LONDOX. March 13. At Sydney last- Saturday Sir Joseph ) IWard, "tho Premier of >iow Zealiad, _ suggested the creation of an imperiat j House of Representat.ves, returned j according to the population of the i various parts of the- Empire, and an Imperial Senate to which each couufciy of the Empire would send an equal number of members. This Imperial Parliament would be limited to the discussion of strictly Imperial questions nnd would aim chiefly at the maintenance of an invincible Navy. Sir Joseph IWerd contemplated that such a scheme would best fit in with federalism in the United Kingdom. Ho pointed out that siuee IS6O the area of tho Empire had increased by forty per cent.; the overseas white population was now thirteen millions; and Great Britain could no longer keep up the two-Power stan lard unaided. "Wts cannot continue," he said, "to expect the- British taxpayer to provide for our protection. Wo must contribute to our own and also to the l Empire's." We must acknowledge tho generosity of Sir Joseph Ward's words. Wth such excellent feeling among the heads of tho Dominions we need not fear that the various parts of the Empire will fail to 00-operate adequately in Imperial defence. Wo think, however, that nil kinds of Imperial Federation must respond to particular needs and be of more gradual growth than Sir Joseph Ward anticipates. The Australian Commonwealth, for instance, is not prepared, and in our view rightly, to consider any further step than the creation of a consultative council which would refer proposals back to the Dominion Parliaments. For our part we could favour no scheme that split the Empire at the heart, whether under the name of federalism or under some other ta'tTe. YOUNG TURKS. The "Times" of Tuesday published a jeview of the state of Macedonia and Albania from its Balkan correspondent. .We are glad to learn that the local •nthoritiea hare appreciably changed their policy towards tho subject races in Macedonia, and that the beating of peasants is now less common. More than that, friendly advances have been mads.both towards the Albanians and who, of course, excite tho usual anxiety in the Government as the spring—the opening of the fighting sea-Eon-japproaehes. So far as these modifications do not represent a change of poßcy on its merits ,they are to be explained by the fact that the Young Turks cannot afford to lei grievances continue so long as large numbers of troops are required in Yemen. The extent of the desire of the Young Turks to produce an appearance of ge leral conciliation is proved by the holding of so-called mass meetings, at which the subject populations obedientlv pass resolutions of their belief that" all is for

the best in tho best or all possiblo j worlds. Preparations arc already bong | made in Albania for the reception of i the Sultan in April or May. ' I TIIK BRITISH ARMY. j Mr Hnldauo introduced the Army : Estimate* ou Tuesday. He began by stating that the first concern in military matters was the preservation in their lull strength and efficiency of ; our overseas garrisons in" India and elsewhere, and recorded h!s conviction that tie introduction of compulsory training, even on a moderate scale, would disastrously affect recruiting for tho overseas army. That army could only I» obtained on a voluntary basis, and ho therefore stood firm against all proposals in favour of compulsion ; and dcfended his action in publishing Sir lan Hamilton's Memorandum., Last year a bad year for recruiting, but, although tho establishments had been nearly 1,700 short ou January Ist, the shortage was now made up. The Iron in the Army Reserve was nn inevitable result of the- alterations in the terms of service with til? colours and the reserve. The whole of the fighting personnel of non-coms and men. for tho expeditionary force of six divisions .vero there; 2,700 more officers were available for special service abroad than five years ago; and" there would be no difficulty in mobilising the expeditionary forces so far as officers were concerned though that woidd delete tho home forces; but arrangements had been made to tide over the difficulty, and officer:; from the Universities were coming in well. A committee of cavalry experts was working out tho supply of horses, and lie w-as negotiating with some of tho great railway companies in connection with the proposed organisation of a Construction Corps of Regular Royal Engineers with an establishment of COO, atid a Special Reserve Tragi-, Corps of 1200. Touching the newly established Veterans' Reserve, composed of men who had served with the colours and passed through tho reserve but who. in many cases were only a little over tbu y, Mr Haldane expressed the hope that the recruiting to this corps would be large enougn to reduce considerably the shortage in the Special Reserve. Tlio provision for aeronautics now amounted to £133,300; a' new dirigible had been built and nine aeroplanes purchased, and tho dirigible factory had been completely ltorganised. The grants for the Territorial Association would be increased by £131,000, including £fiS,ooo for establishment and £30,000 for horses. The officers: ih ; -th.o Territorials were about ljloO more than those in the old Volunteers and Yeomanry in 1907, and the camp attendances showed a marked increase. Recruiting, owing to good trade and emigration, had not been good, but the last two-months showed improvement, and the force stood at 272,000 officers and men, or about five-sixths'..of the whole. ' Of these, ■ 1,045 officers and 17,459 men had volunteered for foreign service. , . ;

ARBITRATION. Tlio chief feature of the debate on the Navy Estimates, which took place on Thursday, was Mr Balfour's speech ou Arbitration with the Uuitod Statos. Wo must express our admiratio i for the far-soeing and statesmanlike utterance of the Leader of the. Opposition. Mr Balfour lias always been a warm friend of America, and his Friendship is based not upon interest or what wo may term diplomatic motives, but on a real sympathy with our kin on the other side of the Atlantic. While acknowledging the difficulties of the problem, he declared in the clearest way that thcro was no reason why an arbitration treaty should not be "concluded between/the, kindred co'mmunities. He Jwpotl that President Taft's' speech, men nt thirty- whatever other nations do, our t.vo countries would, at any rate, cuter into treaty arrangements which would prevent" the possibility of anything so horrible as war between them. If our Government saw their way to make such a treatv thev would have no heartier supporter's than those on his side of tho House. Mr Balfour went on to enter the verv necessary caveat that however successful thev might be in instituting a plan of Arbitration with tho United -States, that could, not affect the- future of the Ivay.v of tins country, for ive irerrt not building against America, and it had vet to he shown that any European Power would he prepared to submit aJI questions to arbitration.