The Star. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1915. EDITORIAL NOTES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11537, 5 November 1915, Page 4

The Star. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1915. EDITORIAL NOTES.

*!REEK POLITICAL CRISIS. Tho Greek Government has been defeated and important developments may be expected. Ever since his retirement from office M. Venezelos has held tho fate of the Zaimis Ministry in his hands. Not long ago he warned the Premier that the Government remained in power subject to his consent, and he lias now shown that what ho said was true. But although M. Venezelos commands a majority in the Greet Parliament it ia not at all certain that he will be called 1 upon to form, a Ministry. It has been stated, in certain M-ell-informed -quarters, that the Zaimis Ministry, supported by the King, intended to seek a dissolution in the hope that, on an appeal being made to the electors, the pro-German party might secure a majority. At the last election the German agents spent money lavishly, and every effort was made—efforts honourablo and dishonourable—to defeat the followers of the great Cretan statesman.

Should the King take advantage of the defeat of Ministry to force another election it..will be one of the most momentous political struggles that Europe has seen for many a day. M. Venezelos is reported to have said that when nest he assumed the reins of office it would be to wage war on Bulgaria. He stands'resolutely by the Serbo-Grecian treaty,' and there can be little doubt that the entry of Greek forces into the arena woidd entirely alter the position in the Balkans. The defeat of the Government may be a sign of the pres- • sure which the Entente is bringing to bear tipon Greece. The position is a difficult one. King Constantino practically dismissed M. Venezelos from office because ho held the opinion that the Premier's policy of co-operation ,with the Allies could not be earned to its conclusion—which was war. Now lie must either accept the Cretan leader and his entire policy or follow tho unconstitutional course of dissolv-

ing Parliament when there is a party in the Boule with a clear majority. King'Constantino must como down on one side of the fence or the other and the decision must be made soon.

'NOT A BIRD OF PREY." The French Chamber lias always paid homage to the orator, and many and mighty have been the orators who have I occupied the rostrum, The quiet, matI ter-of-fact manner in which the House fe of Commons transacts its business is ££ the very opposite to that favoured in the Chamber of Deputies. Seldom has 's*& speaker succeeded in reversing a ■--■ judgment of the Honso of Commons. \Vlacaulay is .credited with having converted 1 tho House on one occasion, and possibly in the great days of Pitt and Burko a single oration has altered the mind of the House., But in the French Chamber such a thing is of common occurrence. Not very long ago M. Viviani, lry an impassioned speech, won the support of the Chamber for a proposal which had found little favour, and his successor, M. Briand, has added to his list of triumphs by securing from tho Chamber a vote of confidence, car-' ricd with but one dissentient.

The speech of the Ffrench Premier, voicing as it does the desires of the people, cannot fail to do good. It places in striking contrast the spirit which animates France and her Allies and tho spirit which actuates Germany. The effect, especially in the sister republic, the. United States, must be excellent. M. Briand mado it clear that tho strength of Franco would never bo used to crush freo peoples, and that declaration, contrasted with the action of tho Germans in, Belgium, shows to neutrals that no lust of conquest, no desire for dominance, lies at tho back of tho Allied cause. France, ho deqlaireid, was no bird of prey; for that specimen one must search beyond tho Ailies' advanced line. There is something inspiring in tho vision of a. France fighting for justice and liberty, and not only for herself, but for the smaller peoples. No idea of conquest mars the vision. She fights for a redeemed France, a free Belgium, for liberty in Serbia, and she has the will to conquer.

MR ASQUITH, There may be people in New Zealand .villing enough to pass judgment.on a British statesman and to condemn him as "unfitted temperamentally to guide Britain through a great war." There may bo such people, but they 4*' nv<> express the opinion felt in the Dominion. To judge the calibro ot these absentee critics it is only ueeess&ry to study thoir conclusions. A cablegram from London states that "Tho 'Daily Mail" Christehurch (New Zealand) correspondent says that it is felt in the Dominion that Mr Asqmtn is unfitted temperamentally to ■g.nide. Britain tfy-oufth a great, war, but it is recognised that tho Government ;r list be. trusted,"'

Apparently the British Empire is to place no confidence in Mr Asquith. but trust the Government of which he is the head, it would be just as logical to tell an engineer that the propeller .shaft of a steamer was cracked but that he could put implicit trust in tho

ship's engines as a whole. As a matter of fact these vague statements about the "feeling of the Dominion," although quite to the liking of tho "Daily Mail," are the veriest nonsense. In New Zealand, of course, fiuch n. message causes amusement. Hut the matter has a serious side. New Zealandcrs <lo not want to furnish the enemies of the Home Government with any munitions, and if nows is to he srpolied let it bo at leaat based on fact. How many people in New Zealand can pass judgment on Mr AsquithV.cnpaeity to lead the Govornnent? How can 'they possibly know rnything about the- temperament of tho man? And yet we are told thai l New Zealand regards him as "temperamentally unfitted " to carry the burdens of office. It is .not the temperament but tha intelligence of the person :c----sponsible for that vague genoralisttinn that wo call in question.

AMERICA'S FIFTH OF NOVEMBER.

To-day will be a. memorable- date after a-fashion to "our Inn across the sea/' a't any rate to that section of our kin on the other side of tho Pacific which takes pride in seeing Americas flag wave over the mercantile marine in foreign ports, and more particularly tho seafarers- and shipping interests of San Francisco. "When the sun rises over the Pacific ou the morning of November 5, 1915," says a United States paper, "it will not shine down on the American flag floating from the main truck of a single freight or passenger boat running between Pacific Coast ports and the Orient." The explanation of this remarkable announcement is furnished in the new United. States shipping measure known as the La Folette .Seamen's Bill, to which reference has been made on several occasions in our cable messages.

Section thirteen of this Bill provides that .all vessels of the United States on and after November 4 shall carry crews of which not less than 75 per cent shall bo able to understand any orders that may be given them' by their officers. The owners have translated this to read: "who shall speak the English language." They claim that to operate their ships under Section 13 would mean an annual deficit so large that the patriotic satisfaction of flying the Stars and ■ Stripes is not sufficient inducement for the American shipping mail to remain in business. So tho Pacific Mail Steamship Company, which for thirty \years has run a line of steamers between San Francisco and Panama and between San Francisco and Oriental ports, has sold its five traixs-Pacifio liners to the Atlantic Transport Company, of Virginia— giving as its reason the financial ruin that would attend competition with the Japanese lines under the new law — and the Robert Dollar lane has soldi some of its- steamers and put the others under British registry, and is moving its headquarters to British Columbia.

The new Seamen's Bill isj of course, devised in the interests of white, crews and aims at the elimination of the. cheap Chinese sailor and fireman. It was conceived, Mr Peter B. Kyne tells us, in the brain of one Andrew Furuseth, w r ho spent fifteen years of his life as a sailor before' the mast, and who is an untiring advocate pf. seafarers' rights and the raising of the seaman's status. Mr Kyne's view, as set forth in a leading American paper, is that with the exception of the owners operating trans-i'acific lines, no shipowner who flies the United States flag has anything to complain of under ,the new. measure. " Any shipowner ivho employs white labour need not go out of business. It does not affect Great Lakes or coastwise shipping a particle, except to make ships safer to travel on. . . Any proposition that spells expense is always an outrage, because it 'never had to bo done before. 5 Tho coastwise and Great Lakes shipping always has employed white labour; 35 per cent of the coastwise crews speak the English language, and, on the Pacific Coast at least, coastwise sailors are the best paid a ud best fed sailors under heaven. . They average about seventy ■ dollars a month and found."

But on the coast there is no foreign competition. It is in the trade to Japan and China and other trans-Pacific countries that tho mandate which practically necessitates replacing Chinese or Japanese orews with white ones hits'the shipowner's pocket most heavily, hence all the tears and the flag-renunciation of tho big San Francisco (concerns. The patriotic American must' lament the disappearance of his country's flag from the ports across the Pacific. There was a time when his colours floated from sailing ships and steamships in every large port of-'the Orient and of Australasia, and when, for example, the tea trade from China was largely in the hands of Boston and New York clippers, many of them grand specimens of the shipbuilders' art, and «tlio models Ifrom which the British builder drew the Hues which made for .speed. Now the Japanese ensign, it seems, is to a very large extent to supplant "Old Glory " on the. 'world's greatest ocean.

However, neither the British nor the Japanese is to bo allowed to rim away with America's trade for very long, for it is provided that foreign ships visiting American ports shall come under tho Bill on March 4, 1916. The United States has given the overseas shipowners until then to prepare for tho change At present San Francisco is the storm centre,, but when foreign owners—and particularly tho Japanese —come face to face with this extremely radical shipping law the sphere of discontent will bo vastly enlarged. There are certainly possibilities of touch friction with Japan, which has cut into American traclo enormously during the last decade.

JAPAN'S NEW ISLANDS. The statement cabled from Tokio, founded on apparently substantial grounds, that " t,he islands won from Germany will represent additions to the Japanese Empire" is the first definite announcement, although it has not yet received official confirmation, that outPacific ally will remain in possession of some of the valuable oceanic groups which have passed away from the Kaiser's grip during the last year. Mention has been made of tho delight of the Japanese at the news that the Tokio Government would have a voice i'i the making of peace terms. There is every reason to believe that Japan will bo permitted to exercise a- much more important influence in her sphere of the Pari fie than hitherto, and that in particular she will have as permanent npannages the Caroline Tdaiids. the

Marianne or Ladrono Islands, and the Pelews, in all numbering nt least a thousand islands of some commercial value. It wns hirgely to Japanese nnval help that Britain was able to make such a clean sweep of tho German flag in the northern and equatorial Pacific, and it is natural that Britain's staunch Eastern ally should retain a share of the fruits of conquest.

Tito Carolines are the most valuablo of all the new oceanic possessions of Japan, and they are a prize wo.-th the keeping, though the total land area is jiot very great, seinethh.-g under four hnndrod square miios. They havo had a, curious history, not alone in tho dim. pa.st, when .Pontine and Knsaie, with their wonderful massive structures of stone, were occupied by a. people much further advanced iu civilisation than tho present native inhabitants, but within the last few decades, when Spain controlled tho islands and atolls of this widespread group and its neighbours, 'only to give placo to Germany for a money consideration. Germany entered upon tiro administration of the Carolines in 1599, not long before her flag went tip iit Samoa. Copra, tho great Pacific staplo, is tho mainstay of. commerce in tho group, but there are other resources, and it is probable that rubber, not long since introduced, will be largely cultivated. Tho Germans have done a good, deal to develop trade, on their energetic State-fostered system, in these rich islands, and Japan, and incidentally Britain—jealously barred to all intent since 1899—is likely also to benefit by tho new order of things. One thing seems certain, and that is that Japan practically will be ruler over that portion of the Pacific—exclusive of the Philippines—northward of the Equator and westward, of about 165 east longitude, and that her overflow population will find iu that mew domain an extncjiuely profitable field for trading and industrial enterprise.

THE NEW CRUSADERS, The war has taught us that there truly is nothing new under the sun. At any rate, a great many contraptions used in it by the highly skilled man of battle are but ancient devices under new names, and some are almost exactly the weapons and defences of our ancestors of a thousand or two or three thousand years ago. In the last resort, the supreme and ultimate test, the fighting man sticks a long knife into his foe' just as he did in the Cave-man age. There is little satisfaction in killing at a distance, and so the primitive death-grip is tho desired of all warriors. Thus the threebladed dagger comes in, and one tiench-m.ia blows tho other trenchman into small pieces with his high explosive bottled up in the old handgrenade.

In some methods of defence, too, we f.re back to the days of the Crusaders. A recent cablegram telling of the new British &teel helmet and its success carries some picturesque suggestions. The old Roman shield, or something not unlike it, may come, and we may yet have our young New Zealand•ers facing the Turks arrayed in a fashion reminiscent of mediaeval times, the days of Richard Cceur de Lion and Paladin And it may be suggested hero that our troops would have suffered fewer casualties on Gallipoli had they bet-n provided with steel helmets or some such head protection. In trench work the head is the most vulnerable part, often the only target offered to the enemy, and the great proportion of our men who have been shot through the head is a.fact calling for some stich sensible and simple defence.