TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8287, 15 November 1906, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

I Colonel Colt, nresident of the United States JKubbjsr Trust, has issued a statement to the effect that although the negotiations with King Leopold are yet incomplete it is more than probable that the trust will acquire the rights to work the or arte rubber properties in the Congo Independent State. Colonel Colt says, "The importance of this deal is obvious." The trust hes just obtained the control of the large Brazilian rubber interests. Colonel (jolt insists that the aotion of the Continental Rubber Company, which is backsti witb capital by Mr Rockefeller, in computing for rights in the Congo, does not mean war 1 between his company and the Continental, whiob, be declares, will work .harmoniously together. Bis remarks go to strengthen the belief tbatj there will be an early alliance between these corporations. Queen Wilhelmina has just inaugu rated a daily religious service nfc the palaoe in The Hague. The service, • at which the Queen, attend«d by ber suite, presides, i* open to all Court officials, from the butler to the Grand Chamberlain. At 9 o'olook every morning the Queen takes her seat at a small table in tbe dining rootn : and opens the pro ceedinga by reading a paalm, which is afterwards sung by all present. Tbe Queen : then reads a chanter from the scripture?, recites the Lord's Prayer, and closes the ceremony with another psalm and hymn which again is taken up vocally by ail present, to the aocompaniment of a seraphine'j organ. Though they have been instituted entirely at her, own initiative, the Queen has been careful 4 o direct that no sort of pressure is to be exercised to indune any Court offioial to attend tbe services. In the 'North Review Mr E. Mitchell describes one of the most extraordinary occurrences of recent times—the creation of « vast inland sea <n the borders of . Mexico. The Lower Colorado River which has changed Its course owing t<) tbe silting-up of its banks was being used for purposes of irrigation. • A deluge came and the river forced its way through tbe irrigation cand into a vast natural hollow which it is now converting into what is known as tbe Salton See. Should the waters of the river continue to flow into the basin in their present volume after making tbe proper allo'.vanoe for evaporation it will taks from 30 to 40 years to fill the entire saucer-like depression up to eea level. Should this ever happnn there would be a lake neatly 2,000 square miles in area, the overflow / waters of which would eventually I reaoh the gulf by some r<ew channel cut through the barrier of silt at their weakest point of resistance. Upon the Alaskan Boundary question, upon the Newfoundland Fisheries question, and upou the New Hebrides question, clearly expressed claims of the colonies immediately , interested nave been set aside by the Imperial Government, and what are locally regarded as incontestable colonial interests have been quite cri3UHlly surrendered. It was the same at Samoa. It was the same at New Guinea. And it will continue to be the same as long as Imperial Government is conducted as at present and ae long as the Colonial Office, however friendly and cordial towards colonial Interests and colonial wishes, is absolutely subordinate whenever the slightest foreign business is involved to the Foreign Office. It may be said that this subordination of colonial affairs to the Foreign Office is quite inevitable, and is absolutely eesantial to the maintenance of the Empire, but why? The United States does not subordinate its colonial or any other affairs to any Departmental yet nobody has yet aocused it ol ! over obtaining the worst of an international bargain. So farijfroni its foreign affairs being absolutely" under the control of a .foreign Office, they are not even under the control of tbe President and his Cabinet. The .United States Government cannot make any treaty whatever without the consent of the Senate, whiob must often shook the statesmen of Europe, but ooinpels the American statesmen thenjselvcs to be vf>ry sure of what they are doing before they venture to make any provisional arrangement with a foreign Power.