Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, 12 November 1914, Page 21

Current Topics

The Suspensory Bill ; r | I The full text of the Bill to suspend the operation of the Home Rule and Welsh Disestablishment Acts is given in Home papers to hand. It contains only two clauses, the vital one ! being as follows:(1) Notwithstanding anything in' the Government of Ireland Act (1914) no steps shall be taken to put that Act into operation, -and, notwithstanding anything in the Welsh Church Act (1914) the date of disestablishment under that Act shall be postponed until the expiration of 12 months from the date of the passing of those Acts respectively, or, if at the expiration of those 12 months the present war has not ended, until such later date (hot being later than the end of the present war) as may be fixed by his Majesty by. order in council ; and th© provisions of those Acts shall have effect accordingly. The Capture of Samoa. y New Zealand has gained a good advertisement abroad ;• and also considerable kudos for her successful stroke in taking possession of Samoa. - As the Irish Weekly points -out, our action really prevented the development of what might have proved a distinctly awkward and even troublesome situation. ■ 4 When Samoa,’ remarks our contemporary, 4 was annexed for Great Britain from Germany, one of the astutest moves in the great 'war game” was made. Had not the New Zealanders taken possession of the territory which holds the body of Robert Louis Stevenson, their excellent but not exactly beloved friends the Japanese would have undoubtedly sent a little “expedition” thither; and then American public feeling would revolt against the establishment of an official sort of “half-way-house” between Japan and the Pacific coast of the United States. Japan was cleverly forestalled by the rulers of the Dominion of New Zealand; and Japan is hated and feared by the Australasians to an extent unknown even in ; the Great Republic. American papers “wax sarcastic” at the yellow men’s exploits as participants in the present war. One leading journal publishes the following rhymes under the heading “ Unearthed . at Last” ; - 4 The Isle of Yap is captured, : \yc:'' v ~ And woe rules in Berlin; ;; yt Japan, though, is enraptured, Loud sounds the tom tom’s din. 4 The Isle of Yap’s discovered. -Geographists will hum- - At last it is uncovered, f . • y ( • V \ / Where all, the yaps come from. ‘ Had. the Samoan groupor those islands that belonged to Germany—been “unearthed” by a Japanese cruiser and proclaimed part of the Mikado’s territory, a much more serious note would have been ' sounded in New York. As matters stand, the • American newspapers are practically ail on the side of the Allies —though there are a few important exceptions ; , and the crime of Louvain has placed even patriotic and ingenious German Americans in a difficult position.’ Apart from its relation to Samoa, this last statement as to the attitude of the American Press is interesting and significant. Carsonite Irresponsibility 4 4 J ' The hope which we expressed a week or two ago that the tragic events which have been in some small part at least the outcome of the foolish talk about ‘civil war in Ireland ’ would have a sobering and restraining influence on the public .utterances of Sir Edward Carson and his henchmen seems to have but a. faint, prospect of being realised. Apparently, they have learnt, nothing; and they continue to emit the same reckless,. irresponsible, and) we may add, dangerous chatter. Here is Sir Edward Carson’s light and airy record, as we find it set ah Heme papers, for the latter half of ; the month of September very time, it will ' be remem-

bered, when Irishmen by the Hundreds were giving their lives for , the Empire along the momentous Marne : /'j September 16.—Sir Edward Carson rejected Home Buie. He said, ‘We will never, never have Home Rule.’ ■: • T'' _ ... ‘ W ‘ "Ti September 17.— Sir' Edward Carson adopted Home Rule (personal version). He got married. ' / . September 18.—Home Rule passed in the Imperial Parliament. Sir Edward Carson on his honeymoon. ■ * September 28.—Sir Edward Carson said, 4 I propose, if necessary, so far as Ulster is concerned, that the first Act of the Provisional Government shall be to repeal the Home Rule Bill as regards Ulster.’ Mr. Bohar Law supported Sir Edward in these words: ‘ If the occasion arises we shall support you to the last in any steps which Sir Edward Carson and your leaders think it necessary for you to take to defend your rights. The pledge which I gave at Blenheim had a condition. I felt that as the leader of a British party it would not have been right for me to support you if the people of this country had declared against you, but now I say with the full authority of our party that we give the pledge without any conditions. It is my belief that we shall never be called upon to redeem it.’ ' •• •' ' * This,’ comments the Westminster, is a remarkable exercise in statesmanship, and we can only hope that the day will never dawn when Mr. Bonar Law, like the German Chancellor, will have to -defend “the wrong we are committing” by pleading that “ necessity knows no law.” ‘•The German Emperor was not wholly mistaken when he took personal notice of Sir E. Carson a year ago,’ adds the Chronicle. 4 He has come nearer to the German expectations than anybody else.’ How the Irish Fight As to how these Irishmen fight to whom Sir Edward Carson and his irresponsibles would deny the ordinary citizen right of self-government, we have many glowing and glorious stories. All tell the same tale of their inimitable dash and irrepressible gallantry. Last week we published the narrative' of a wounded French soldier who described how the Irish Guards went forward in a fierce bayonet charge against three regiments of German cavalry singing a strange song *■ about God saving Ireland/ . Now we learn that ■ the prelude, in these same Irish ranks, to another perilous but irresistible bayonet charge was a few minutes’ quiet but dead earnest prayer. The incident is described.by the Paris correspondent of the London Evening News; and we venture to say that never in . all the long history of the world’s wars has battlefield presented a finer or a more impressive and inspiring scene. ‘ The Irish Guards,’ writes the correspondent, ‘were one day last week the heroes of an incident which has been the subject of enthusiastic comment from one end to the other of the British lines. The famous regiment was ordered to take an exposed German position, and, before advancing, they knelt for a moment in silent prayer. Then, springing to their feet, they fixed bayonets, and dashed in wide open order across the exposed plateau, swept by the enemy’s machine guns. What remained of the regiment—for many felttook the German position at the point of the bayonet. Eye-witnesses state that our men ; crossed the plain hurrahing and singing, .while many of them had a look of absolute happiness and joy on their faces.’ •' / .'T- ■■ ■ , - * •rv;-% V/ ; -• ; . To this may be added as a fitting pendant the story of how an unknown private in the Royal Irish Regiment found a hero’s grave. . It is related (reports the Daily Chronicle) by a wounded corporal of the West Yorkshire Regiment now in hospital at Woolwich. ‘ Early one morning,’ says the ,corporal, * we were sent ahead to a little village near Rheims, which we. had reason to believe was clear of the enemy. On the outskirts we questioned a French lad, but he seemed scared and ran away. We went on through the long, narrow street, and just •as- we were,; in sight of . the end the figure, of a man dashed out from a farmhouse on the

right. , Immediately the rifles began to crack in front, and the .poor chap fell s dead r before 1 he reached us. He was one of our men, a private of the Royal Irish Regiment: ... .We learned - that he had been - captured the previous day by a marauding party of German cavalry and had been held a prisoner at the iarfti where “the Germans were in ambush for Us. 11 c tumbled to their game, and though he knew that if he made the slightest sound they would kill him he decided ‘ to’ make a dash to warn us of what was in' store. He had more than a dozen bullets in him, and there was not the' slightest hope for him. We carried him into a house until the fight was over, and then we buried him next day with military honors. His identification disc and everything else was missing, so that’we could only put over his grave the Scriptural words : “He Saved Others, Himself He Could Not Save.’’ ” There wasn’t a' dry' eye u among us when we laid him to rest in that little village.’ "• The German Naval Policy , '• y : v-Tf. Germany adheres in the present struggle to the naval -policy which she has been thinking, out lor years, Admiral J ellicoe and his men will have , a long and weary wait for' the appearance of, the “German fleet and; for the much-desired trial of strength in the open sea, Germany, has ail along realized that her navy would be outnumbered, arid that in the ■ war at sea she would have to fight against an undoubted superiority ; and her naval plans have Been developed in careful preparation for that contingency. '* It (the •British superiority) will, be so great,’ says the muchquoted Bernhardi, / that we cannot hope for a long ..time to take ... the offensive against the ’ English fleet. But we must., contemplate the possibility of becoming its master in one way or another, • and of winning the :freedom of the seas,, if England attacks us.’ And the manner in which; this is to be, accomplished is detailed by the same great authority in the notable work published only two or three,, years ago: ‘ Even the war •against- English pierce holds out less prospects than * formerly. -As soon as a state of political tension sets -in, the. English merchantmen will be conveyed by their numerous cruisers. Under .such \circumstances' our ■auxiliary ; cruisers could do . little', while J our " foreign ships would soon have to set about attacking the enemy’s warships, before coal ran ' short, 'for to : fill lip r the - coal bunkers of these ships will certainly; be a-difficult'task; -We must endeavor by renewed and unexpected’''attacks, - especially . by. night, ; partly... wi h k v submarines and -■torpedo.- boats, partly with battleships, to" give -the : blockading:/fleet no breathing time, ! and to cauke it' as much loss as possible. We runs, not engage in a 'battle ;with superior hostile forces, for it is hardly possible at : sea ; to •• discontinue a.'.fight, because there is • tin “-place whither the loser can withdraw from the' effect of the enemy’s ; .guns. ’, In y : ow of fact iliat it is -thus 'the pre-arranged and settled -.policy, of Germany ‘ to give the . blockading - fleet no teatiling, time,’ and “ by renewed and: unexpected attacks’ to do all the damage possible, we have reason .to regard ‘ it as' extremelv ' satisfactory that the loss actually inflicted by the enemy’s' submarines has been relatively so very small. •fV'“ i : , ..... ’ , ‘ ~' ' - ■ Q ; or,. When the Two Fleets Meet ; . . 6 . v '• T ' r / .When the great clash comes Between the two fleets, it will, if the German anticipation is realised, Be short, sharp, and decisive. According to ; high authorities’, the 'German Navy has not been organised with a view to, or on lines that would fit it for, a long-sustained contest. “The German Navy,’. say Hurd and ( Cas le , ; in their reemit volume on Gr muni;. Sea Power (.tolm’ Murray, 1913)) 7,1 is recognised ,- as... a ■ vast ■ complicated machine ' which has i to be worked at , the highest, pressure;; and “ therefore no sand must , impede the engine nor ‘ salt water'get' into the everything ~musV be made to ‘g q smoothly - and quickly ; -so far as it can Be eliminated, , there nitist -be brid'-> distraqtiqn. n , It f may ' be , '£lmt‘; the ‘officer's and men are -being, submiiteci to a regime' which is inimical .to their staying power, that their endurance is being unduly tested, and , their nerves kept too con-

, • ■■■ tinuously on the strain. This may be so, but the German naval authorities have in view a kind of war different from 1 any iVhichhas hitherto been known. It is not to be a long-drawn-out contest in which patient courage, sturdy ,;tenacity of purpose, . and incapacity, to recognise defeat can triumph after months or years of hostilities. The German- fleet .is intended, to be used —if used at all like thunderbolt. The whole record of its evolution -and training..confirms this conclusion.’ ' i y * f Notable corroboration of this view-Is furnished by two Spanish officers in a weighty series of notes contributed to the lit vista Gent rede di Marina of November, . 1911, which are translated and published in the Jo urnal of. the . Royal United Service Institution. After carefully studying the German naval system, they sum ,up their estimate in the following terms: ‘ The German Nayy has a definite and immediate objective; everything must be prepared for a rapid, energetic,': and decisive action. Her ships, equipped by her national industry, rich in , . resource ; of • every kind, provided with war material of the highest efficiency, must be ready to dart at a given moment against an enemy whose fleet awaits them almost at the mouth of the German ports. . The first encounter, fierce and terrible, will decide the campaign,, and.wilk influence the future of both nations. Tile' partial actions, the long blockades, the prolonged manoeuvres 1 of fleets, which require such seamanship, such skill in the personnel; will necessarily be eliminated in the future war. All that is required is men of action, with the 1 ' determination to win in one day of supreme and fierce struggle.’ ‘ The German naval authorities,’ write the ’expert authors of German Sea Power, ‘ are intent on creating : an instrument which will look well on paper when tons and guns are compared, and thus achieve a diplomatic objective, and which will be trained tp-the highest pitch of 'efficiency for-a sudden, coup, representing a triumph over the disadvantageous conditions traceable to the law of conscription; but it will never be"the kind of, fleet which St. Vincent fashioned and Which maintained the blockade for month on .month off the French coast and still preserved undiminished its ability to go in and win whenever battle offered. Also : it ; -will--not- be the kind of fleet which British officers, faithful to their inherited traditions, still desire to preserve—a body of well-manned ships .which can go anywhere and do anything, whether the service Be short and sham, or whether it be a long and wearisome task.’ •‘d • •'•