The Star. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 23, 1916. EDITORIAL NOTES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11784, 23 August 1916, Page 4

The Star. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 23, 1916. EDITORIAL NOTES.

THE WAR REGULATIONS. The regulations gazetted yesterday under the War Regulations Act call for careful attention on tho part of citizens of tho Dominion. Some of the provisions now carrying the force of law may seem to sorao people drastic and arbitrary, but these are not ordinary times, and it cannot be denied that the rales are justified in the interests of economy and of tho public welfare. To the regulations for the better control of women of the unfortunate class there can be no objection, and there is satisfaction in the knowledge that some attempt is being made to deal with the landlords of disreputable houses. The anti-shouting regulations are certain to . arouse criticism, but it must always J ha remembered that these aro purely War-time laws designed for the special purpose of reducing the people's expenditure upon non-essentials. Some efiich j legislation has been found necessary m eTery country now engaged in the struggle; it is imperative thalt, the money so badly required for the purchase of necesaries and for the prosecution of the tvar should not be squandered upon articles that cannot be classed as needfcil. Some may attempt to evade the spirit of the regulations, but tho* healthy patriotio sentiment of the great majority of the population will, wo are confident, assure for the wartime r*ales a ready obedience. It is. after all, no great sacrifice the people are called upon to make. AMONG THE ATOLLS. Fortunate is the man who, like Profe«or Macmillan Brown, is able to avoid our winters by a cruise to the tropic islands of the Great South Sea, " where summer on her shelly shore site down and rests for evermore." Professor Brown, however, is not a mere holiday sojourner in the Pacific Islands; his cruises aro always undertaken with some definite scientific purpose ahead, and each trip adds something to the world's knowledge of the groups of Polynesia, Micronesia and Melanesia and their always interesting peoples. We may expect to learn a good deal about the equatorial islands under tho British flag as the result of the Professor's latest expedition, and in particular about the Gilbert Group, which be describes as " the best administered * British colony in the world." Many years ago New Zealand had commer--cial connections with the Gilberts; Auckland trading schooners and steamers frequently went a3 far north as Apemama Island, and also on to the Marshall Archipelago. Now the trade is in the hands of Sydney firms, with the exception of an occasional visit by an American vessel. Tho isolated islands of Nauru, or Pleasant Island, and Ocean Island, are enormously valuable because of their apparently inexhaustible deposits of phosphates, and commercially they are of more importance to the world, and more especially to.;. Australasia, than all tho other ?f/i«»torial islands. It was Robert Louis Stevenson who first really made the Gilberts and their people "known to tho world. More than a quarter of a century ago, before ha settled in Samoa, he spent some months on one of the Gilbert atolls, and his accounts of the curious medley of barbarism and civilisation which he found in the masterful King Tembinoka's domains makes fascinating reading. Some years before Stevenson's rruiso a New Zealander, the late Mr F. J. Moss, once British Resident in tho Cook Islands, visited the group in :i trading schooner, and his book on the equatorial atolls, although not so widely known as " Tusitala's" collection of travel sketches, is valuable <os a reliable picture of the life of the mid-Pacific in the eighties. That unrostful old lifo has gone; the Pleasant Islander and the man of Apemama n. longer go armed with rifles to work or play as was their way in Moss's cruising days. The pas Britanniea now imposed upon these once pugnacious Micranesians may have mado existence more monotonous, but it has its compensations, evidently, in a semi-paternal Care for the health and welfare cf the islanders. It seems rather a pit- that tho old love of fighting whi-.h found expression in a general d.-ire i<: help Britain right the Germans conk: hot have been turned to some account for the Maori-Polynesian reinforcements, but it is probably just as wcl that these spns of tho Central Puali<

were not takon to tho scones of the groat war. Tho Rarotongans appea:to bo tho only islanders physically fitted io withstand tho severe climatic condition:; to which our soldiers aro exposed. As to tho government of the Gilbert Islands, it is }mi possible that those responsible for the administration of our own tropic islands would learn something useful from a study of the British Commissioner's methods in the mid-Paeihe group. In one particular at least, that of hygiene, New Zealand's regime in the Cook and outlying islands is by no means all that it should be. The natives on lonely a tails such as Mnuihiki and Penrhyo arc in need of medical attention, and an improvement in thio respect i.> the most- r.nn'iit reform required in the government oi Xew Zealand's coral outliers.

DENMARK'S POSITJOM. A cablegram from Copenhagen published in yesterday's newspapers stated that tho " Nerddeutscber," generally legardcd as a mouthpiece of the German Government, is furiously attacking the Danish Press for giving publicity to Entente news and views regarding tho war. and for disregarding Germany's standpoint. The message states that the officially-inspired journal is u axing very indignant at what it alleges to he continuous attacks on Germany, contending that tho Press of Denmark is giving servile demonstrations of sympathy for the Allies, and in Sii many words conveys what can only bo regarded as a covert threat against Denmark. It is noticeable that tho great bulk of tho pro-German news which readies this Dominion comes via Holland, and judging by the scandalously biassed versions of events which wo receive from that source, it would appear as if the lines arc in tho possession of cnomy agents. During the last couple of years Germany hap reduced lying to a line art, and considering how very distorted is the vision of. the officials of tho land cf " kultur," it is not | altogether surprising that they should seek to implant their own pernicious practices in other lands, and to-day it must be galling for the successors.of Attila to read the truth, as served up to tho public in neutral countries. The truth about Germany reveals unpleasant facts, facts that must be unpalatable to the ruling caste, who aro still striving to delude tho people into tho "belief that the Ausiro-Gcrman arms are everywhere victorious. They know that the day when the full ghastly story will bo laid bare to the people of Germany will witness the end of the present rulers.

Denmark has no particular reason to champion the British cause, but she has every reason to loath the German name. Her lost provinces, until restored, stand as reminders of tho perfidy of her great neighbour. Denmark is tho one State in Europe to which Britain has given very real cause of offence. One hundred and fifteen years ago, at the famous Battle of tho Baltic, we bombarded her capital and seized her fleet because she refused to join in a coalition in which Britain was the leading partner. At that time wo were not afraid that Denmark would join our enemies, but we knew that Napoleon had plans afoot to seize her fleet for his own sinister purposes, and wo merely forestalled him. Again, in 1564, Great Britain gave Denmark to understand that she w-ould defend her against Prussian aggression on the question of Schleswig-Holstein, but failed to do. However, to-day it is satisfactory to know that the old resentment is almost forgotten, and that Danish sympathies are entirely with the Allies. One cannot earnestly hate and dread the Germans without feeling some love and gratitude towards the people who are resisting them. But it is not merely that the Danes know all about Belgium and the sea-murders and the "Pan-German programme, and have seen the heart-rending letters which the conscript Schleswigers in the German army have managed occasionally to smuggle through, but they realise how moderately and inoffensively Great Britain has used her strength. In command of the sea for hundreds of years, we. have never touched or even threatened the colonies of the weaker Powers, Denmark, Holland or Portugal: we have never shut their ships out of our harbours or put obstacles in the way of their traders or their settlers. We are now reaping a reward in tho goodwill of neutral countries for our longcontinued policy of unaggrcssiveness and free trade.

Of course, the position of Denmark has been greatly affected by the v,arit is a country full of dairj' farms and other agriculture, able to supply many of the articles of which Germany stands in dire need. The Danes, in pursuance of their treaty with Great Britain, are sending large quantities of produce to English ports. although the farmer could get much higher prices from Germany. Of course, there is some trade with Germany, both licit and illicit, just as there aro some leakages in the blockade. Copenhagen has since the war began been crowded with nonDanish persons of commercial habits, and sometimes of unprepossessing appearance, whose business is not very obvious; but that is true of all the large neutral towns. The problem simply is: at what point will it become profitable for Germany to take on another small and easy war, and incur a more absolute oversea blockade, for the sake of the food supplies of Jutland, which she can seize in twenty-four hours? Or, again, for Denmark, driven to desperation by some intolerable tightening of the blockade or some excessive strain upon her neutrality, to decide that, since she must be ruined either way, she would sooner be conquered by the English than by the Germans. Britain has a good polit;ca! position in Denmark, an upright Government, and a passionately friendly people, who detest German militarism and look to our victory as their cnlv chance of continued independence. But cno ci the dreadful things one learns by study is that no political posit : o» is. absolutely foolproof. Let us hopo that on: foreign policy will remain h the sr.ma wise and temperate har.cls that guido it n-aw, and the future if. fe.