Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, 12 April 1917, Page 21

Current Topics

The Submarine Warfare According to Mr. Archibald liurd, a well-informed writer on the Navy, the total losses of British shipping from the commencement of the war up to December last amount to 2,947,475 tons, an average of about 100,000 tons a month. The tonnage sunk in last December was 419,166 tons, and if that standard is kept up during the year it will mean looses amounting to 5,000,000 tons in 1917.

British Naval Losses

England has lost since the beginning of the war 3 battle cruisers, 1 second-class battleship, 7 third class battleships, 11 armored cruisers, 1 monitor, 8 cruisers, 15 destroyers, 4 torpedo boats, 10 submarines, 20 gunboats, auxiliaries, and mine sweepers. Of these 14, including the Queen Mary, Indefatigable, and Invincible, were lost in the Jutland battle. In the same battle- the Germans lost 1 battle cruiser, 1 third-class battleship, 4 light cruisers, and several destroyers.

Air Raids on England

The first air raid occurred on Christmas Eve, 1914, when bombs were dropped on Dover without causing any loss of life. During 1915 there were raids on 23 days, resulting in 181 killed and 450 injured. In 1917, up to the end of October, there were 30 raids, The casualties were: 248 killed and 402 injured.

How M. Bloch foretold the Deadlock of Trench Warfare In his Future of War, published in 1897, M. Bloch forecast that in the next war there would be ' at first increased slaughter on so terrible a scale as to make it impossible to get troops to push the battle to a decisive issue. They will try to do so, thinking they are fighting under old conditions, and they ,will learn such a lesson that they will abandon the attempt' for ever. Then instead of a war fought out to the bitter end in a series of decisive battles, we shall have as a substitute a long period of continually increasing strain upon the resources of the combatants. The war will become a kind of stalemate in which neither army will be able to get at the other. The war will be a multiplication of expenditure simultaneously accompanied by a diminution of the sources from which that expenditure can be met. This is the future of war—not fighting, but famine; not the slaying of men, but the bankruptcy of nations and the break-up of the whole social organisation.'

The Scrap of Paper

On April 4 the Military Board at Dunedin, which had declared some time ago that the Minister's certificate left them no other course but to exempt students on whose behalf it was presented, again made a ' scrap of paper ' of the document which Sir James Allen gave the Bishops to understand would secure exemption. We quote in connection with this the decision of Mr. Evans, S.M., at Blenheim, and ask our readers to remember that the Dunedin Board interpreted the certificate exactly in the same way as Mr. Evans until the Knight of the Bath came here to inspire them : Brutus is an honorable man -.' Blenheim, March 26. — At the hearing of the appeal of Father Patrick Fay by the Canterbury Military Appeal Board, a copy of a newspaper was produced containing a report of Archbishop O'Shea's appeal in respect of the same priest in Wellington, where the case was adjourned sine die, with the condition that the case be reheard before the Second Division. The. Chairman (Mr. Evans, S.M.) gave an important and far-reaching decision regarding

the Minister's certificates. He said it was a mistake to have a personal appeal heard before one board and the Archbishop's appeal before another. There was no Minister's certificate attached to this appeal, and he regretted that he could not follow entirely the decision of the Wellington Board. He did not consider the Appeal Board could put any condition on the Minister's certificate unless the evidence justified the board in over-riding the certificate. The certificate was prima facie sufficient evidence of hardship. It became conclusive evidence of hardship unless evidence to the contrary was adduced before the board. The duty of producing such evidence, if it existed, lay on the military authorities. If no such evidence was produced the certificate was sufficient. Evidence of hardship should be given effect to unqualifiedly. As a certificate had been issued in respect of this priest this boais would act on it as no evidence to the contrary had been brought before the board. The appeal was adjourned sine die, without the condition imposed by the Wellington Board.

Catholic Publicists

M. Rene Bazin, the illustrious Catholic novelist, whose masterpieces are well known to English readers, has succeeded in founding ' The Corporation of Catholic Publicists,' of which he has been appointed President. Its object is to unite France after the war, politically and morally, and to forward the true interests of the country. The Corporation aims at using the Catholicpress, speakers, writers, and public men for the attainment of its object. The programme of the Corporation, setting forth the necessary reforms, appeals to the faith and patriotism of French Catholics, and is addressed to all men of ' common sense and good faith.' The French bishops have heartily approved of the undertaking. The following is from M. Bazin to the Bishop of Amiens:—'Under the title "The Necessary Reforms," you have published, in the name of the "Corporation of Catholic Publicists," a programme of the highest religious, political, and social value. As a Frenchman, I hold that there are political truths on which not only the prosperity of France but her very existence depends, and that the laws which regulate both the family and labor should be inspired by Christian principles. As a Bishop, I give my hearty approval to your generous efforts in behalf of the reestablishment of official relations between the Government and the Holy See, and to the reasons on which you found your claims. As a Bishop, I claim with you respect, for the faith and the conscience of Catholics, reparation for the injustices committed against them, and the repeal of all persecuting laws. As a Bishop, I claim for all Catholics an instruction and an education in conformity with the Faith of their Baptism, and consequently a reform of our teaching system. This shows you with what satisfaction I have read the programme which in full harmony with your associates you have undertaken to carry out and whose purpose is to realise these ideals.'

A Significant Election Count Plunkett, just home from his exile, and with the martyrdom of his son, Joseph, and the imprisonment of two other sons still fresh in the memory of the people, has been returned for Parliament by North Roscommon. The figures were as follows: Count Plunkett 3022 T. J. Devine (U.1.L.) 1708 Jasper Tully (Ind.) 687 The result was received with extraordinary enthusiasm. When the Count appeared he was welcomed by waving of flags and vociferous cheering. Mr. Tully expressed his satisfaction that Count Plunkett had headed the poll, as it showed that North Roscommon had rung the death knell of the policy of going on bended knees to Englishmen. The Count said that he knew that his-

election was a tribute to the memory of his martyred son, and a proof that the people were true to Ireland. ' My place henceforward,' he went on, ' will be beside you in our own country, for it is in Ireland, with the people of Ireland, that the battle for Irish Liberty is to be fought.' Rev. M. O'Flannagan, C.C., said that the seventeen hundred who had voted for Mr. Devine had true hearts but their head had gone astray. The heart of Roscommon was true, and the feelings of the people were not those of Mr. John Redmond when he got up in the House of Commons to express his horror and detestation of the men who kept aloft the torch of freedom. The news of the result arrived in Dublin while a meeting of the Corporation was in progress. There was a scene of wild excitement, the audience in the gallery cheering, and many of the Councillors joining. The significance of Count Plunkett's election, and of its reception is plain. Joseph PlunketC Patrick Pearse, and Thomas McDonagh have not died in vain. The soul of Ireland is incomparably more alive to-day than twelve months ago. Colthurst and Maxwell have done their work well, building in their blindness where they hoped to destroy. The ideals of Irish nationality are revived, and a new light illumines those maxims which were in danger of being forgotten. Irishmen will never again lose sight of the truth that England's difficulty is Ireland's opportunity and that phrase, so often repeated without much thought of its meaning, has become a living principle. The tearing up of the 'scrap of paper' in 1916 will underline the lesson of the Treaty Stone and it will be a long day before the lives of Irishmen are again bought by perfidious promises. The Bishop of Limerick has declared that Sinn Fein is the only sound policy for Irishmen. The Archbishop of Dublin—and no man loves Ireland more —protested that the Parliamentary Party were leading the country to perdition, and that having sold their independence, they were but a tail to the Liberals. Most Irishmen will be sorry for John Redmond, the difficulties of whose position were greater than the majority realised. He had his chance, and for whatever reason, lost it. He put his trust in fair promises when all the lessons of Irish history taught that the honor of English politicians was valueless. He is statesman enough, and Irishman enough, to learn by his terrible mistake, and nobody will deny that he sacrificed the promise of a great career in his own profession for the sake of Ireland. The soul of the nation is awake: the Roscommon, election proves that. May the honor of God and the glory of Erin be now its watchword.

Continuity

A German philosopher who said that only one student in his class understood him, and that even about him he was doubtful, established to his own satisfaction the identity of contraries, and quite satisfied himself that black was white, and cold was hot. To the common sense of ordinary people such theories are consummate nonsense. Just as ridiculous are the grave intellectual somersaults made in our time by some Anglican bishops. If there is any fact borne out by history it is the fact that up to the time of Henry VIII. the Church of England was one with the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church of which the visible head was the Pope of Rome. And if ever a statement was contrary to truth it is that the Church of England is in unbroken continuity with the pre-Reformatioii Church in England. Though most things change facts remain ; and no amount of juggling with them will transform them into other facts! That the Church of England was founded by St. Paul, or by Joseph of Arimathea, or by Aristobolus are fictions which no alchemy has been able to change into facts. These, and similar attempts to establish an eastern origin for the Anglican Church, are now rejected by all scholars. The verdict of history is that the Church in England was of Roman origin, and that the Church of England can claim no continuity with it. The evidence adduced oy Dr. Short, Freeman, Wilkins, Herzog, and Ranke put it beyond the possibility of doubt, Old writings, such as the works of Gildas, and the Book of Ll-andaff]

tell us what the ancient religion was: and it was by no means the religion of the reformation. They mention the Mass, confession, prayers for the dead, devotion to relics, and other doctrines which the Anglican Church officially condemned as popish superstitions. Trifling differences there were between their practices and ours : but Protestant historians are ready to admit that such differences were disciplinary and not doctrinal. St. Athanasius, St. Jerome, St. Augustine, and St. witness that the faith of the ancient Britons had radiated from Rome, the centre of unity. 'Did St. Athanasius,' says Cardinal Newman, ' or St. Ambrose come suddenly to life it cannot be doubted what communion they would mistake for their own. All surely will agree that these Fathers, with whatever differences of opinion, protests if we will, would find themselves more at home with such men as St. Bernard, or St. Ignatius 'Loyola, or with the lonely priest in his lodging, or with the holy Sisterhood of Charity, or the unlettered crowd before the altar, than with the rulers or members of any other religious community. And on the other hand, can anyone who has but heard his name, and cursorily read his history, doubt for an instant how the people of England, in turn, ' we, our princes, our priests, and our people' . . . would deal with Athanasius, who spent his long years fighting against kings for a theological term. It is not likely that . Athanasius would have anything in common with the society that designates the Mass ay ' a blasphemous fable, and a dangerous deceit,' and calls his dearest beliefs 'damnable and idolatrous.' It is vain for Anglicans to protest that they have nothing in common with Protestantism : for the answer of history is,, that Henry, Edward, and Elizabeth founded the present Church of England as really as Luther was the father of Saxon Protestantism. ' The history of the Church in England,* says Child, ' was continuous from the Mission of Augustine to the time when Henry VIII., upon adisagreement with the Pope about his divorce, cast off his allegiance.' From that time to the present, with the exception of the short interval between the reconciliation under Mary and Elizabeth's first parliament, it has been severed from and excommunicated by the great body of the Catholic Church: and as the latter was before precisely what it has continued to be since, it is clear that the former must have been something not the same: and it is not the retention of a few

names and titles, used as a kind of ' second intention,' and a tew more or less amputated rites, which will ever make persons intelligently instructed believe that an establishment, obviously the mere creature of a single State, is the legitimate representative of that imposing and magnificent Western Church, which is older than any existing State in Europe, and grander than anything the world has ever seen.' Whatever modern Anglicanism may pretend, its historic spirit was one with Protestantism in its hatred of ' the tyranny of the Bishop of Rome and all her detestable enormities; and in its recognition of identity of interests and aims with the leaders of Switzerland and the Upper Rhine.' That one or two German professors should reason themselves into a belief that Yes meant No is conceivably intelligible ; but that a grave body of educated dignitaries should follow their example is a splendid testimony to the influence of prejudice over intelligence.