CURRENT TOPICS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12176, 27 November 1917, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

THE LIFE OF FRENCH MINISTRIES.

There is a bewildering frequency, it is being said, about the coming and going of French Ministries. But that is nothing new. It might, indeed, be contended that there is an increasing tendency towards stability. When M. Fallieres became Prime Minister in 1883 he was the twelfth politician who had held the office in ten years, and his Cabinet was the fifteenth that had boon formed since the overthrow of M. Thiers in 1873- Under Louis Philippe M. Jacques LafUtc was Prime Minister for a year, and was so horrified at his defeat that he burst into tears and bemoaned his part in the Revolution of 1830. Thiers was at the head of affairs for eight months, and then for six months, under the same King. The Ministry which carried France into the war with Germany had taken office only on January 2, 1870. Jules Simon was Prime Minister from the autumn of 1876 to May, 1877. Gambetta's ''Grande Ministere " lasted for seventy days. For sixteen years after Louis Napoleon's coup d'etat there were neither regular Cabinets nor Prime Ministers. The Emperor himself presided over his Cabinet Councils, and Ministers were responsible individually to him, and not; collectively to the Chambers.

HERR BALLIN'S FALL. The leading Vienna daily, the " Neues Wiener Journal," states that Herr Ballin, the director-general of the Hamburg-Amerika Line, who was formerly one of the Kaiser's chosen confidential advisers, has fallen into disfavour- The fact that the Kaiser has absolutely ignored. Herr Ballin's sixtieth birthday has, says this journal, given rise to lively discussion, heca.use the Kaiser formerly maintained intimate relations wirh Herr Ballin. Following the Kaiser's example, officialdom in Germany, which formerly never failed to offer Herr Ballin birthday congratulations, has also ignored him. The boycott is due to the frank way in which Herr Ballin has publicly criticised the German Government's policy. upon which he passed a highly unfavourable verdict. Among the Hamburg shipowners, and also among the Hamburg Senate. Herr Ballin's attitude is disapproved, because it is considered that his sharp condemnation of the Imperial Government's policy is likely to diminish Germany's prestige abroad. It is certain that Herr Ballin has lost his former influence.