Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, 19 October 1916, Page 21

Current Topics

—•— r/ Trade and Patriotism A late cable tells us that in Germany the deification of Marshal von Hindenburg proceeds apace, and that not only towns and babies but even fashions and the war loan are named after him. So far as the latter aspect of it is concerned, it is the kind of deification which has been an accompaniment of most of the great wars of recent —the keen business instinct of the manufacturer and the shopkeeper trading to the utmost upon the enthusiasm of the hour. Thus, in the Spanish American war there were Dewey cigars, Dewey hats, Dewey cocktails, and most ignoble of all, a Dewey doormat, with his picture on it. Patriotic Americans wiped their muddy boots on the face of the quiet victor of Manila ! 'Twas ever thus. Commercial fame is the shadow of the other fame—or notoriety—which, as Byron says, but ' fills a certain portion of uncertain paper.' Garibaldi jackets, like the old filibusterer ,of Caprera, had their day. The Franco-Italian victory of Magenta has given a word to our language. Bismarck and Moltke caps, pipes, beer, and -powder were the shadows that followed the fame won in the FrancoGerman war by the Iron Chancellor and the silent warrior whom the Germans still love to call tier Schlachtenlenker, tier Schlachtende —the battle-ruler, the battle-thinker. Old Marshal ' Vorwarts ' has given his name" to Blucher boots, Ilavelock to a military cap, Napoleon to a game at cards, Wellington to boots, breeches, knife-polish, and Heaven knows what else besides. The exploiting of the Waterloo victory by enterprising tradesmen brought down upon Wellington's devoted head the mock epitaph: Here lies the Duke of Wellington, Once famed for battles others won : Who after making, spending, riches. Bequeathed a name to boots and breeches. 'Such is fame,' as the late Mr. Crummies remarked, and Hindenburg's will e'en go with the rest. Anglicans and the After Life A witty member of the Irish (Anglican) Church, when a heated discussion was in progress as to the desirability of framing a special prayer with reference to the deliberations of the Synod, then in session, suggested that the case might be met by employing the usual prayer for those at sea. It looks as if this petition might suitably form a permanent part of the supplications of our Anglican friends, for they appear to be in something like a chronic condition of not knowing exactly where they are. In England, at present, the debated question is whether women are to be allowed to preach in the Anglican churches in connection with the forthcoming ' National Mission ' ; in New Zealand, the point of uncertainty and dubiety is what Anglicans are to believe concerning prayers for the dead and ""the after life. About a year ago Bishop Julius dealt with the matter, and impressed upon his people that ' the Church of Christ had never failed in prayer for those who had passed away.' The statement, so far as" the Anglican Church is concerned, is grotesquely at variance with historical fact, but it-may be allowed to pass as representing a present Anglican point of view. About the same time, the Rev. A. H. Colville, M.A., Anglican minister at New Plymouth, also discussed the question, in a sermon published in the Taranaki press, and the reverend gentleman, again endeavoring to elucidate the Anglican attitude, threw the gravest doubt on the existence of hell, at least a 3 a place or state of everlasting punishment. And now comes the Anglican Bishop of Auckland, Dr. Averill, who,: in a sermon preached at the Auckland Anglican Cathedral the other day, calmly abolishes hell alto.-

gether, and assigns all and sundry, without exception, to participation in what corresponds tolerably closely to the Catholic definition of purgatory. We welcome the conversion to purgatory —formerly regarded by Anglicans as a Popish superstition ' —but it is a matter for grave concern to see the- Bishop of a Christian Church playing fast and loose with the plain words of Holy Scripture on the subject of hell. And still the inquiring lay member of the Anglican Church is left guessing as to what his Church really teaches, for the present burial service of his Churchwhere, if anywhere, the mind of the Church might be presumed to find expression—declares that ' the souls of the faithful, after they are delivered from the burden of the flesh, are in joy and felicity ' —the implication being that they are no longer in need of the prayers of their friends, and can be in no way assisted by their petitions. What is the unhappy layman to believe? Apparently—such is the glorious comprehensiveness of the Church of England— is at liberty to believe anything or nothing on the subject, just as pleases, and still be accounted a faithful Christian and loyal member of the Church. Assuredly, both for the clergy and laity of ' the Church of England, as by law established,' the prayer 'for those at sea' is the perennially fitting petition. The Russian Aim There is no doubt that the Allies have leaned very heavily on Russia and her millions in the great contest and that the country of the Czar has made colossal sacrifices. There seems reason to believe that when t ne great washing up comes, her demands will be fully proportioned to the service which she may fairly claim to have rendered. She is glad enough to be hailed as the champion and liberator of the Slav peoples, but she will want something more substantial than acclamation and approval when the final settlement comes. So at least says, in effect, the famous Russian economist, Professor Migulin, who writes as follows on the subject in the Xoiry Economist : —'Russia must secure corresponding material compensations for the losses which she has incurred. It is time to give up finally her quixotic policy. Russia lias lost enough power and blood for foreign interests and for foreign freedom. There is still a great deal too much talk to-day about the liberation of suppressed nationalities as the chief object. One ought not to forget that in previous times this duty has always been fulfilled at the cost of enslaving the Russian people themselves. Nor ought we to forget that some of those liberated nationalities—■ Austria, Prussia, Bulgaria—are to-day conducting a war against us, and that other "liberated" people— Roumania and Greece—are observing a hostile neutrality. But where can Russia obtain corresponding compensations ? Above all, not on the western frontier. Russia must have an outlet to free southern waters. She must secure the freedom of the -Dardanelles, and an access to the Mediterranean, not only by sea but by land. We must come to an arrangement with Great Britain to have an outlet to the Persian Gulf. England and Russia must act together in Asia as in Europe. There must be no more talk of any "area of conflict" between the two countries. Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, Northern Persia, and the neutral zone of Persia must be ceded to Russia.' It isn't much if you say it quick, as the colloquialism has it, but like most of the paper arrangements for the great cleaning up day it has only an outside chance of being realised. Ireland and Conscription According to the Dublin Freeman's Journal, the attempt to revive the agitation in favor of conscription in Ireland is a combined and organised affair, and has for some little time past been plainly foreseen in Nationalist" circles. From the comments of the Dublin paper it seems clear, that the threat that conscription.

was coming was one of the most potent causes of the Sinn Fein rising, and that the cry was worked for all it was worth, and perhaps a little more, by the promoters of the movement. ' Notwithstanding the success of the Irish Party,' says the Freeman, 'in having the special circumstances of the artificially depleted Irish population taken into account, and Ireland excluded from the operation of both the Registration Act and the Military Service Act, the dupes of the insurgent agitators were persuaded that the danger of Conscription was to be averted only by the threat of armed resistance. Readers of even the meagre and restricted evidence given before the Hardinge Commission have now realised how barren the Sinn Fein campaign, as it is called, would have been but for the sinister assistance which it thus received.' *■ As to the tale that the Irish regiments are being starved of recruits, the Dublin journal will have none of it, and it gives good reasons for its scepticism. 'This story of the starvation of the fighting divisions is now an old one. But we have been waiting for evidence of it in the casualty lists. It is now overa year since the fiction was put in. circulation; and still as the tale of death and wounds in the Irish regiments comes flowing in we look in vain for evidence that their drafts have been drawn from any sod but the old one. The simple truth is that Ireland has supplied more than sufficient men to renew all the Irish regiments three times over, and if there is any lack of recruits to their strength it is because it was the policy of the War Office, assisted by the Irish Recruiting Committees everywhere save in Ulster, to scatter the Irish recruits through British regiments, so that the value and extent of Ireland's efforts in the war should be obscured, and the story of Irish valor be but a mangled tale. If there is anything defective in Ireland's voluntary contribution to the common cause we all know the reason. Had there been an Irish authority to organise the strength of Ireland as the Governments of Australia and Canada organised the strength of those Dominions, the Irish Brigades would have been marshalled in even greater force than the country could spare, through Ireland's own enthusiasm for the issues at stake.' But that enthusiasm, the paper explains, was damped by the course pursued by the War Office which evidenced a deliberate plan to rob the country of the political credit due to its endeavors. Not a single recommendation made by any Irish leader who knew Ireland, and who knew how to appeal to its heart, was adopted by the War Office : the recruiting campaign was given over, in the main, to persons estranged from the people, who thought that abuse and threats were the proper ingredient for an Irish appeal ; and strike-bearers and Unionist electioneering agents, out of a job in England, were among the principal orators. 'Only for a brief period before the advent of the Coalition Government, when these methods had failed, was the appeal of the Irish leader given a fair chance. His advice to enrol the "Volunteers for Home Defence was scouted. Had it been accepted we should have had no insurrection.' The Food Question- in Germany There are two extreme views regarding the food situation in Germany which find not infrequent expression in this country amongst the partisans on either side. There are those who will not hear, or at any rate believe, a word about the alleged shortage in the Fatherland, and who persuade themselves °that Germany is sailing gaily along under present internal conditions, not seriously incommoded in any way. There are others, in the opposite camp, who are convinced that Germany is in a condition of sheer starvation, such as will inevitably, and in the near future, bring her to her knees. The best evidence available goes to show that both of these views are over-state-ments. It seems quite certain that -Germany will not be driven into submission bv the economic situation, but it is equally certain that she is suffering very seriously and severely indeed. That is the unanimous testimony of the neutral correspondents who have reported on the matter, and it is confirmed by German utterances, official and otherwise, that cannot be gainsaid. . We. learn, for example, from America, which

j is much more pro-German than pro-Ally in sympathy, that the president of the German Food Regulation Board has appealed to the peasant women of Germany to economise in food. The harvest in general has been abundant and the cattle have recovered from the fodder scarcity of last winter, but the produce, he says, must be rightly distributed : ' Hundreds of thousands he wounded in the hospitals and need abundant good food. Other millions of men and women in large towns and in mines are also working loyally for victory. They wish, like you, to have enough to eat in order to be able to work. Like you, they have children who cry when their mothers cannot give them necessary food, and their parents then lose the strength and courage for work. Roth for the soldiers and for those who fight in workmen's clothes we must provide nourishment. People on the land must give for that purpose all they can dispense with in their own households.' The peasant women are reminded that restrictions are necessary and that any one living on the land ' who consumes even half a litre of milk or a quarter of a pound more of butter or even an egg more than is absolutely necessary sins against the Fatherland.' An organisation is being created (o buy up "all that can bo dispensed with in the country to feed-the army ami the poorer families in the big cities. * That is sufficient, of itself, to indicate a serious condition of affairs. Unfortunately, as so often happens even in purely military measures, the weak and innocent are also involved, and are, perhaps, the heaviest sufferers. This is evidenced by the fact that recently the 'Medical Committee of Greater Berlin' sent to the press a protest against the inadequate supply of nourishing food for invalids and infirm people, maintaining that something must be done if invalids were not to suffer lasting injury through privation of suitable food. An increase* of infant mortality in Germany lias been officially admitted in the Reichstag, while the results of a careful investigation, instituted by the Vonrartz, into the condition of school children, point to a spread of anaemia and debility owing to insufficient consumption of meat, fat, and milk, and in some cases of bread also. In one school in Potsdam it was found that 13 per cent, and in another 20 per cent, of the children had no mi!!,- at all: and j u one s; all town the percentage rose to 55. This is anything but nleasanl reading, and no humane person will derive any satisfaction from the p?rusal of these painful facts. Put it is reasonable to assume that the children and the sick would be the last to suffer: and if the distress has extended to the schools and the infirmaries ;t y- safe to infer that it has affected the whole population .