Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, 6 August 1914, Page 21

Current Topics

The German Way

The intimation in a Copenhagen cable in Friday’s papers that twenty-eight German warships passed through the Great Bell, going southwards, and another large licet arrived in the Baltic,’ recalls attention to the recent completion by Germany of a magnificent engineering feat which will be extremely useful to her in the present imbroglio, and which surpasses in some respects even the construction of the Panama Canal. While the eyes’of all tin* world were centred on the latter undertaking, German workmen were quietly enlarging a waterway from the Baltic to the North Sea, which has locks even wider and deeper than those of Panama. This enlargement of the Kiel Canal was only the other day completed. .Except for their height, the locks of the German canal are larger in every way than those of Panama. In length they are 1082 feet to Panama’s 1000 feet; in width 1471 to Panama’s 100 feet ; in depth 45 to Panama’s 41 feet of water over the sills. Some short time ago the Kaiser remarked with special satisfaction that while the battleships now under construction can barely pass through the Panama locks and the -45,000-ton super-dread-nought will have to follow the path of the Oregon around Cape. Horn in passing from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast, the German locks will easily admit the biggest type of modern battle-ships. Should naval designers ever construct a 00,000-ton super-dread-nought in the course of future developments, there would still be room for it to pass through the Kiel Canal. The original waterway was opened in 1895, and was traversed in the year 1912 by as many as 57,366 ships of 9,924,237 total net tons. The new improvements have cost 1114,000,000, while the outlay for the first canal was only approximately £10,000,000. The methods of providing food and of securing discipline among the nine thousand working men from many nationalities were extremely interesting. They were housed in barracks, and were provided with meals at from lOd to Is a day. The preservation of order was left entirely to the men themselves and the police were even forbidden to approach the works. The laborers themselves elected their barrack seniors, who exercised a strict control over all unruly elements in the camp. The trip from the' Baltic to Hamburg will now be shortened by 480 miles; from the Baltic to London, by 269 miles. Germany has not had long to wait before reaping the advantage of her thorough and progressive policy and methods.

Then and Now : Some Former Referendum Bills The scheme of religious education which is being agitated for by the Bible-in-Schools League has been described by the Presbyterian Ottt/ook as ‘revolutionary’ —and it is so, in a sense somewhat different from that intended by our contemporary. It is, we believe, the first time in the history of Bible-in-schools campaigning in this country that the agitators have barefacedly proposed to dragoon the teachers into' giving Biblical lessons in the schools, whether they believed in, or in conscience approved of, such lessons or not. In previous Bills for the taking of a plebiscite on the Bible-in-schools question, express provision was always made preserving the rights of conscience of the teachers. We have before us the full text of the Bills for 1903 and 1905, and both provide a conscience clause for the teachers. The Bill of 1903 was entitled The Bible Lessons in Public Schools Plebiscite Act, 1903,’ and it embodied the proposals which had been before the public and before the political candidates in the election of 1902. Section 4 (f) reads thus: ‘The voter shall strike out one only of the lines on the votingpaper. If he strikes out the second line his paper shall be counted in favor of the proposition that lessons from the Bible be included in the regular curriculum of the public schools of the colony, the teachers giving simple literary, historical, and ethical explanations, but that teachers who object to give such lessons shall

not be required to do so, and that the children of parents who object shall not be required to be or to remain in the school while such lessons are being given ; and if he strikes out the first line his vote shall be counted against such - proposition.’ The Bill passed its first reading, but was not further proceeded with. The Bill of 1905, which provided for a plebiscite on the question of opening the public schools with the Lord’s Prayer as well on the question of Biblical lessons, showed similar respect for the conscientious rights of the teachers. Section 4 (c) enacted; ‘The voter shall vote by marking a cross either in the square "opposite the word “ Yes ” or in the square opposite the word “ No” on the voting paper. If he marks a cross in the square apposite the word “Yes” his vote shall be counted in favor of the proposal that the public schools of the colony shall be opened daily with the Lord’s Prayer and that lessons from the Bible be included id the regular curriculum of such schools, but that teachers who on conscientious grounds object to take part in such opening exercise or to give such lessons shall not be required to do so, and that the children of parents who on conscientious grounds object to their children taking part in such opening exercise or being taught such lessons shall not be required to be or remain in the school while such lessons arc being given ; and if he marks a cross in the square opposite the word “No” on the voting-paper his vote shall be counted against such proposal.’ This measure passed its second reading, and was then allowed to lapse. * The earlier Bills also present a marked contrast to the latest measure in respect to the plainness and directness of the issues to be submitted. In the Bill of 1905, the voting issue was thus presented ‘ Are you in favor of the proposal that the public schools of the colony shall be opened daily with the Lord’s Prayer, and that in such schools Bible lessons shall be taught to the children by the teachers during school hours, subject to a conscience clause for teachers and scholars?’ In the Bill of 1903, the issue was still more briefly put: * \ I vote for Bible lessons in public schools. I vote nyoiust Bible lessons in public schools. Compare these models of brevity and simplicity with the confused, inaccurate, and misleading tangle now asked to be submitted to the electors, and it will be apparent how far the League members have travelled from the simplicity and straightforwardness of their earlier principles and ideals.

Russia v. Austria Recent revelations, published before the murder of the Archduke Ferdinand and before there was any sign of the present imbroglio, show that Russia has been steadily' and persistently intriguing against Austria, and indicate tolerably clearly that this under-ground diplomacy and scheming has been one at least of the factors that have determined Austria’s present attitude. Scrvia has throughout been used as the catspaw of Russia. The disclosures, which were made public through the open recriminations among the Bulgarian public men, show that the plans which led up to the Balkan war were formulated in 1908, when Russia entered into a secret treaty with Scrvia, directed in the first instance against Austria. King Ferdinand of Bulgaria was also drawn into the plot, and the NeurFreic Pre-sse, of Vienna, in commenting on the situation, explained how he came to be involved. ‘ The King of Bulgaria,’ it said, ‘ signed the Balkan Alliance under the impulsion of Russian diplomacy, and notwithstanding his better instincts, which were dissuading him. In his war manifesto he almost humbly placed himself under the protection of Russia, and always tried to remove the mistrust of Russia. A t the time of his visit to Ccttinjc, on the occasion of the jubilee of King Nicholas, he spoke of himself in his toast as a Slav sovereign. Only once he did not submit to the Czar, and there is the reason why Russian diplomacy and its secret agents are putting everything in motion to bring about his

fall. On June 8 the Czar sent telegrams to King Ferdinand and King Peter demanding that they submit to him as arbitrator their dispute over the partition of Macedonia. In that dispatch the Emperor Nicholas said;,“l insist on declaring that the state which will commence the war will be responsible before the cause of Slavism, and that I reserve to myself all liberty of action as to the attitude Russia will take in connection with the results of so criminal a war.’ Speaking of the Balkan Alliance, the J eue Frtie J‘ rtxxe further said: 1 Almost at the same time at which the military convention between the Balkan States was concluded, Russia on her side made a military convention with Servia, Bulgaria, and Montenegro. These conventions had for object to act in common in certain contingencies specified in detail in the agreements. These arrangements were # in connection with the possibilities of conflict foreseen by the Serbo-Bulgarian Treaty of Alliance, and were directed notably against Austria-Hungary.’ -» The ll iigxischr lliiinlxclmu , of St. Petersburg, issued what is described as an authoritative statement in which it said: ‘The Czar as well as Ministers Sassonoff and Kokovtzeff, and all the leading personages in Russia, are peaceful, and have proved it on several occasions during the Balkan crisis, as Count Bcrchtold has recognised in his statement. It is true that the Balkan Confederation was created under the auspices of Russia, with views hostile to Austria-Hungary. Hut in the intention of Russian diplomacy that confederation was not meant to enter into immediate action, but was to serve in the future for ‘the advancement of Russian interests. It was tried at first to constitute the Balkan Confederation with the adhesion of Turkey, which would mean that Russia, did not project a- war between the Balkan States and Turkey. It is known that the efforts in that sense made by the former Ambassador Tcharikov at Constantinople failed, and that he was recalled from his post.’ It then goes on to say that the Serbo-Bulgarian Alliance was concluded, the articles of which have been revealed, and that by it Russia desired ‘ to assure her interests in all eventualities.’ The Russian Den, in the beginning of December last, said : ‘ Russian diplomacy in admitting the insertion in the treaty of alliance of articles directed against Austria-Hungary has assumed the responsibility for all the military armaments provoked in Europe by that alliance. The fact of the alliance of a million bayonets in the Balkans would not have caused the increase of the German military forces if the rumor had not got about in diplomatic circles that that alliance had an anti-Austrian tendency.’ In connection with the publication of the Balkan secret treaties, the Dexter-Lloijd,, of Budapest, said, on the authority of a former member of the Bulgarian Cabinet: ‘There are only three copies of the treaty with Servia, all three are in the handwriting of Guechoff. Two copies from the originals are kept by the Kings, Ferdinand and Peter. The third is a copy which was presented on April 3, 1912, by Daneff in a sealed envepole to the Emperor Nicholas at Livadia. Guechoff only kept the rough draft of the treaty, of which he did not even communicate the text to the members of his cabinet.’ The plot was frustrated, thanks to the prompt action of England, Germany, and France; but the danger of a general conflict was only temporarily averted. As a well-informed writer' expressed it: * Russia has, apparently, only drawn back till she is ready for the next spring.’ r The 4 Sectarian Bigotry League ’ In one of his characteristically vigorous letters to the press on the Biblc-in-schools question, Mr. J. J. Ramsay has recently described the so-called Bible-in-Schools League as ‘ The Sectarian Bigotry League.’ The term is an apt one, for it conveys the simple, literal truth regarding the spirit and method of the League’s official propaganda. From the time when he first started his campaign in New Zealand, Canon Garland has not been ashamed to play the part of an apostle of bigotry, making at every opportunity his small-minded ‘ no-Popery ’ appeal, and degrading a professedly re-

ligious movement to the level of a mere sectarian wrangle. In his very first address before the Presbyterian General Assembly of New Zealand he introduced his • Home Pule or Rome Rule’ talk—a lino of appeal that was as unbecoming as it was childish. He was taken lo task by several of the leading dailies of the Dominion, who severely reproved the bad taste and absolute ineptitude of his remarks. Put we have high authority lor it that it is not easy for the Ethiopian to change his skin or the leopard his spots; and so it need occasion no surprise to find that in official League publications the ugly yellow streak of bigotry is still prominently apparent. It is a conspicuous feature—indeed, it is the very warp and woof—of an official League article published in the Outlook of July 7, and entitled ‘ Roman Opposition.’ Mr. J. A. Young, M.P., Waikato, has apparently handed to some member or representative of the League the six questions submitted to him on behalf of the Catholic body by Dean Darby and others and Canon Garland, who is presumably 'the author of the article we refen to, gives the questions an excellent lice advertisement by publishing them in full. ■* 1 hen comes the following comment, which, as regards its spirit and its form, might well have been taken from some tenth-rate ‘no-Popery’ publication. We quote the passage in its entirety, so that we shall not be accused of suppression or misrepresentation; ‘ h or some time there has been an ominous silence on the part of Roman controversialists, even Bishop Cleary abstaining almost altogether from his common practice of writing letters to the newspapers, while the opposition League was allowed to come out into the front of the battle. This procedure was clever, and possibly lulled some League supporters into the idea that the Roman opposition was at an end, and that the only foe to be met was secularism represented by the opposition League. The most innocent League supporter, however, now may be assured that Rome never changes in her hostility to the opening of the Bible and in her determination to allow no education system, if she can prevent it, which does not meet her own exclusive views. Apart from the language of these questions, which does not represent the proposals of the League, the evidence is now unmistakable that Rome has been actively at work during the recess. To this may be added the organisation of the Roman Federation, which has been explicitly stated as having been called into existence to combat the Bible-in-Schools League. The organiser of that Federation travelled throughout the whole length of the Dominion, and reports satisfactory results. We do not fear the consequences, for once the people of New Zealand realise that this is really a struggle to obtain religious liberty as against the domination of Rome, there will only be one answer given by the people. All side issues and small points which may be raised will be of no account as beside the great question, Shall Rome rule The defeat of the proposals of the League would mean that the people of New Zealand accent the Roman position that religious instruction in the schools should be taught only under ecclesiastical authority, and taught only in so far as it meets the views of the-Roman Church. And refusal to allow the referendum would also mean that members of Parliament accept the Roman view, whereby the people are not regarded as competent to decide a matter of conscience or religion for themselves, bub should entrust the keeping of their conscience and the settlement of their religious aspirations to the keeping of others—a position which the people of New Zealand are not likely to submit to at the dictation of 14 per cent, of the population, if by any chance it should bo thrust upon them, even temporarily.’ * We make no comment on this ridiculous farrago—it is most effectively dealt with by being left as it stands, in all its naked foolishness and absurdity. It will not deceiveit will only disgustintelligent New Zealanders. Canon Garland has mistaken his public. If the Bible in State Schools League is defeated —and

present indications seem to point in that direction—its members will find that one of the factors which has contributed most largely to that result is the crude and clumsy bigotry ot the organising secretary.