CURRENT TOPICS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12083, 11 August 1917, Page 8

CURRENT TOPICS.

AMERICA'S FOOD BILL. The people of New Zealand, who have good reason to curse tho Government's indifference to tho ever-rising cost of living, cannot but admire and envy the celerity with which the United States Administration has taken measures to restrict the operations of the food-cornering traitors and to eases the burden of living to the nation. A synopsis of the original provisions of the Food Bill shows the wide-reaching scope of the measure which Mr Hoover is to carry out under the President's direction: (a) The President to establish standards and grades of foods to establish their quality and va.ue. (b) 'Licensing of manufacturing, storage and distribution, of foods to prevent uneconomical mamuactura or inequitable distribution; ompo.ver the President to direct the disposition of hoarded stocks. (c) Tho President to prevent hoarding, monopolisation, or the exacting' of excessivo profi.3, by having tho Government either manufacture or deal in necessaries. (d) The taking over of factories or plants foi Government it necessary to provide proper distribution at fair prices. <e) The President to prescribe rules for the conduct of exchanges and Boards of Trade, or to prohibit entirely their operations if in the public interest. _ .... (f) The fbang- of minimum prices to the producer to stimulate production; authorise import duties if importations threaten cporar v'on of guaranteed minimum prices; authorise purchase by the American Government at the oresiribed minimum prices supplios for allies of the United State* Establishment by tha I resident of maximum prises to break food corners or to prevent hoarding and_ speculation. (h) The changing ot milling grades or the mixing of grains in mailing flour. Minor amendments have been made and some additional powers have been embodied in the Bill during its passage through the Legislature, but tho clauses here summarised sufhciently reveal the enormous value of tho food-regulating lever placed in the President s hands. And yet even if our own New Zealand Legislature conferred similar powers on hoods of tha Administration, what

avail would they bo while the Government was secretly determined to protect the food exploiters P THE HUNS IN THE PACIFIC. The Australasian world has beon thoroughly aroused to the necessity for preventing the enemy ever again obtaining a political footing or an important commercial share in the Pacific Islands, L\it it is not so evident tha'ti even leading statesmen in the Old Country are well posted in the longlaid and deep-laid schemes of Germany to obtain strategic control in the South Seas. Here is an item of information which ought to be sent on to those who view with lack of sympathy our protests aganst the revival of the Teu- ' ton menace in these seas. Tt was made public recently by a Sydney writer. Germany's desire for naval bases near Australasia, says the writer, did noti begin and end with, the harbours of Ivaiser Wilhelm's Land, New Britain and Vavau. in the Friendly Grofup. Havannah Harbour, on Efnte Island, of the New Hebrides, was also marked down for capture. "When the Germans found that the fine harbour of Vavau was unavailable, as the result of the British protectorate over Tonga, then* secret, agents in the Pacific turned their attention to Havannah, a splendid harbour, probably the best in the Western Pacific, and conveniently close to the coast of Australia. A Frenchman starved 'to buy land about the harbour. Nobody minded Frenchmen or Englishmen buying what they could, so ilhe deals went on. and wei'e nearly completed when a British agent began to s'uspect. He found tho clearest evidence that the German Government) was behind the negotiations, and tho business was promptly stopped. So the Hun designs upon well-concealed and protected Havannah were thwarted just as they had been in Tahiti and Vavau. A. FRENCH NAVAL CRITIC. Some remarkable criticisms of Allied naval policy are made by a 1 rench officer of the greatest distinction, Admiral Degouy, in his remarkable volume, "La Guerre Navale et I'Offensive," lately published in Paris. The Admiral has a touch of gentle sarcasm for the "benignity, not to say the partial and accidental character," of the blockade as practised iu the past, and he urges the Hecesßi'tO' of enforteijng a close and effective investment of Germany, cutting off all traffic along the Danish ooast and closing all tho routes from Scandinavia. One of the anti-submarine plans which he disousses is that of a great barrage or mass of obstacles! across the North Sea, composed, as he suggests, of special mines and special nets: ' What is quite certain Is that if this barrage proved effective the Germans would try to destroy it, while the British would endeavour to repulse their attacks. There would be engagements, first of light ships, then of more and more powerful ships, and at last perhaps an engagement between tho battleships on either eide. If such a barrage is constructed across the North Sea, he says, the entrance to the Baltic must also be closed. Examining the Allied operations in detail, he finds at every turn signs of what he calls "the Collingwood method," not "the Nelson touch." The lesson is—more vigour, le&3 of the passive defensive war. But it is pleasant to find that with all his criticisms, many of them clearly justified, of the British naval war administration, Admiral Degouy ha& nothing but the warmest praise for the two great heroes of the Fleet, Sir Diavid Beatty and Sir John Jollicoe.