The Star. TUESDAY, JUNE 6, 1916. EDITORIAL NOTES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11717, 6 June 1916, Page 4

The Star. TUESDAY, JUNE 6, 1916. EDITORIAL NOTES.

-THE GERMAN LOSSES. As the story of the great sea fight develops it becomes increasingly clear that the enemy sustained a blow of exceptional severity. 1 Onr loss is regret- . tably heavy, but it leaves our command of the. seas and our power to enforce > tho blockade unimpaired. The enemy ■ on his side lias lost ships vital to his strength on the'sca, and his main body has been unahlo to stand up t-o ours in a straight-out action; that, as a British commentator remarks, is the v real test. Onr advance-guard "most boldly and gallantly engaged a vastly superior fleet and kept it until '•/.'ifche. ships of the first-class had time to ' N joip in the battle, arjd but for tho mist and the darkness that hwe proved the Germans' best ally we maP believe with every ffbnfidence that tho battle of the .North Sea would have proved another Trafalgar. f The British Admiralty, which has teen scrupulpusly careful to issue no /bulletins until the news is proved re- ' * liable beyond all doubt, 'sets down > the enemy losses jjt two battleships, two battle-cruisers ox the most powerful type," four light cruisers, nine destroyers and a submarine. Against this set our own loss of three, battle-cruisers, three armoured cruisers and eight destroyers, and will be seen that the balance is more heavily in our favour " than the first reports led tlie world to ~~Eolieve. Messages received to-day report on the authority of our men engaged in tho fight the loss of a great German Dreadnought, the Hmdenburg, "in addition to the Lutzow and the - Derfflinger. Tlie Admiralty apparent- - ly had not taken the Derfflinger into account as disposed of in addition to „ the Lutzow in its interim account of the - damage inflicted, but a c&stroyer's crew is confident that the big ship was lost. The sinking of thes§ ships is /a splendid set-off to the loss of. the Queen Mary . and her consort battle-cruisers, for by - their "deletion from tho Navy -Mist the enemy battle-cruiser force is vastly reduced in" strength. . In all fiermany possessed eight battle-cruisers, beginning with famous Von der la nil, built in 190 S. Now, so far as can be reckoned, she has but three ships of this class left to take the sea. Tlie Hindenburg, the Lutzow and . the Derfflinger, sent to tho bottom -by British gunfiro or torpedo, were all ships of the newest type, all launched since the war began. Tho Derfflinger, laid down in June, 1911, had j a displacement of 25,000 tons and was = armed with eight 12-inch guns and a " Becondary annarcent of fourteen 6-inch * guns. The Lutzow, begun a year later, and launched in March, 1915. was of aimilar size and gun power. The Hindenburg, laid down the year beforo the , coflllict began, was not completed until "tie war had been in progress a year; .the delay in her launching was attributed to the fact that she was to oarry ~17-inch guns in place of the 12-inch for ■ which she was' originally designed. It is evident, however, from tho Admiralty's . accounts, of the battle that those much talked of 17-inch guns which were to have pulverised the. .British did not materialise. The be>t .quality of the t German battle-cruisers was stated tc be* their extreme speed. The Moltke,' for instance, developed S(>,000 horse- 4 power on her trials and /teamed 28.4 knots, and tlie Sevdlitz is said to have "developed the enormous horse-power of 10U,0U0, % and to have steamed at the e ' rate of thirty knots. The great speed if the Hindenburg and her consorts, however, did not avail them when they wore compelled -to fight as they ran the mo'st tremendous action of the Avar. EXEMPTIONS.* The statement of the Minister of Defence regarding 'exemptions makes it perfectly clear that there will be no such thing as exemption of a whole class. Those who claim exemption must, put their case beforo tho Military Service Boards, and employers who liiav need certain men can also lodgo a claim , for their exemption. -Tho Government Departments are in tho samo position as the private' firms, and the heads of departments will make tho claim for exemption should men necessary for the discharge of' public services be summoned to join tho forces. Religious 1. objectors, the Mini iter has stated, must. : also go beforo the beard. •• T decline \ to exempt them as a class/' - Mr Allen said, and few people will be inclined to : adversely cfiticise his decision. In '■ Great Britain religious and conscientious 'objectors go before tho tribunals. Nq other course could be adopted, for otherwise some men would seek to shel- ,

tor themselves under a pretence of conscientious scruples. Tlio Readers of tho churches in the Old Country havo admitted " the necessity for careful examination."

An important point that must bo studied in this respect is the provision made in the Bill for dealing with conscientious objectors. Clause 17 of the measure now bpfore Parliament "says that every man called up for service "shall have a right to appeal to a Military Service Board on any of the following grounds":—The grounds are set out in four sub-clauses, but, as far as we can see, no' provision of any kind is mado for the granting of exemption for religious or reasons. Ono sub-clause docs state thai exemption may be granted if tho appellant can show that his calling-up would causo him or qtliers undue hardship, but this lias been taken to refer to domestic or financial affairs. It should bo clearly set forth in tho clause that Bill does not state that an appeal may grant exemption on grounds of religious belief aud conscientious objection. Unless this is douo it is not at nil improbable that men in a. position to prove to tho boards that they havo genuine grounds' for exemption may bo refused that exemption, because the Bill does not statet that an appeal may "bo/granted for tho reasons advanced. It is right that conscientious objectors .should go before tho boards, but there should be provision in the Bill for tho exemption of nifjri who are ablo to satisfy thoso hearing the appeal that their claims are genuine. An addition to clause 17 would meet tho difficulty and ensure that no injustice would bo done thoso who for religious or conscientious reasons could not become combatants.

THE EIBH MARKET. For years the question of establishing city markets, has been discussed in Christ-church. 1 In 1911, for instance; thoro was a* prolonged debate concerning* the supply and tho sale of fish. Tho po'ssiblo sources of supply, Lyttelton, Kaikoura, Akaroa and tho south were all made tho subjects of inquiry, but thero ,tho matter stayed. The increased cost of living during the' past year or two has again drawn Vittention to tho fish supply. Last year tie City Council had beforo jt a proposal to establish a municipal market in the Colosseum. A subsequent motion aske 3 d the committee to examine other sites,/ and, after months of delay/ the council has decided to do nothing, at least as far as fish is concerned. Compared with the policy adopted by the Auckland council, the city . fathers here have shown masterly -inactivity. ,Parliament empowered the councii to take steps in tlii« direction; the need for doinfi; what it could to reduce the cost of living should have acted as a spur, but the net result is a decision „not to do anything at present.

The methods adopted by committee will strike tho average citizen as passing strange. It consulted tho fish retailers—the people with whom it would come into competition—and, apparently, accepted their statement that thero was nothing in tho fish business. If any mail wanting to start in any business in this city will first go round to the firms with whom ho will ba in competition he will get plenty of advice as to the folly of such a step. No business man would dream of following such a course. Having been advised by the opposition firms not to start, the committee prooe&ded to accumulate "a quantity of valuable evidence," and it found that, for some strange reason the demand was not so good when fish was plentiful." Fish, it appears, must be something of a luxury, or the public of Ohristchurch won't consider it. And there the committee halted. Could it produce anyevidence to show that when fish was plentiful prices' came down? The inability of the public to purchase supplies when fish was plentiful may be due to the fact that thero being little or no reduction in price made impossible for tho working man to buy, and that may explain, also, those consignments of fish to the destructor.

The idea that tho demand for fish fell off when the supply was good is absurd. If good supplies meant cheap fish—as they should—the demand would be all right, and it is because a municipal market would produce that result that the demand for civic enterprise in this direction has been so persistent. Wo believe that tons of fish have been sent to the destructor—not because it could not be sold, but because it could not be sold at the prices asked. But tho Markets Committee finds that whenever supplies are {jpod the demand is poor, a ,trulv delightful conclusion in these days, of high cost of living. Wo have little humour in our public life, but the idea of a committee first approaching probable competitors and taking their advice not on any accountto get into the fish business goes a leng way to meet the deficiency.