Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, 30 August 1917, Page 14

Current Topics

The Complexity of the Russian Revolution ■ . Dr. Sarolea sums up the Russian crisis as a conflict, first, between elemental political forces, in which statesmanship and sober reason defeated the conspiracy of German intrigue and a Court camarilla ; iii the second place, between the 7 masses _and the classes, or in; other words, a Socialist Revolution; third, a strife between two- fundamentally different mentalities: the ideal of the National and Imperial State and the ideal of internationalism ; fourth, a conflict between different political aims and tendencies: to us the question is how the Revolution is going to help to win the war, to the Russians the problem is how the Revolution is going to help Russia, and whether an immediate peace or a continuance of the war is the best thing for Russia ; and, lastly, there is a conflict between the sober policy of the realist and the methods of the idealist or sentimentalists : the statesman believes that hard fighting will settle the war and free the German people from the spell of the Hohenzollerns, the idealist believes that it must be settled by the democracy, and that as the war was made by rulers and capitalists peace will be made by the people. On one hand stands the Provisional Government, and on the other, the Council of Workmen and Soldiers. And, ns it wore, between two stools, the army in the field is giving way before the enemy. Who shall say what the result will be? Very probably the day of freedom has already dawned for the Russian people; but with so many motives of internal disagreement Russia may have to wade through blood before coming into her heritage. Where so many interests clash she will be fortunate indeed if it is otherwise. Such being the state of her affairs it is clear how vain it was to expect anything like a strong, and sustained offensive from her armies at present. The Allied Offensive A few weeks ago, with large headlines, the press proclaimed the beginning of a great offensive in the west, which was supported by a sudden revival on the part of Russia. For a time the Allies seemed to be held up on the west, by adverse weather conditions, or by. stubborn German resistance, or by both, while the Russians fell back, with a rapidity which looked like a; rout, before the enemy. Even if at present the Russian's are not making any headway in the east it is clear that both on the west and on the south the offensive has developed into the biggest struggle we have had yet. From Belgium to Verdun the front has become a red line of battle through the smoke of which we can see the Allies advancing inch by inch against desperately resisting enemy, still vigorous in attack and only borne backwards by sheer weight of men and guns. The Italian offensive, too, is on a .correspondingly huge scale, and Cadorna seems to be exerting every effort now to clear , the road to Trieste. , It is possible that any day may bring developments which will have a decisive influence on the whole war; and there seems to be an idea abroad that the last great phase of the conflict has arrived. It occurs to many people that if the Allies now manifest their superiority it surely must come home to the Germans that every dav the struggle is : prolonged their case will become more hopeless; and, on the other hand, if this enormous effort on the part of the Allies does not produce a marked change in the situation, how long must we wait before we can hope for a material success? For the past three years we have been told that the coming year would be the last. If now the enemy still holds out and is not decisively driven back, how long will it be until he can be driven back ? If terms so unfavorable to Germany are proposed that the enemy will fight to a finish there are years of war still ahead, entailing a general bankruptcy of the nations. If Germany is convinced of the superiority of the Allies, and if the Allies relinquish the

Jingoistic aims of dictating peace in Berlin, surely there is hope that. a “peace with honor’’ is within the bounds of reasonable hope in the near future, S " [ -- - _ Italy’s Position . ; " * From the very nature of the terrain great progress has been out of the question in the Italian campaign, and for that reason we are apt to lose sight of the conflict on the Italian frontier altogether. Now and then a correspondent writes to tell us how the war is going on there, and, if he does his work well, there is no more interesting war news than the letters which describe the marvellous achievements of the Italians in that" wild, picturesque region wherein nature buiß barriers greater immeasurably than human skill could conceive much less fashion. Italy is more than holding her own, and unless the oft-foretold offensive of von Hindenburg is eventually launched against her, she is quite hkely to win her part of the war. What little we do hear of the fighting there reads like a romance. Huge guns have been placed on mountain peaks where few men ever stood before. Austrian soldiers have awakened of a morning to find snow-clad hills have broken their eternal silence and become transformed into forts from which shells rain down on their defences. Thousands of men toil and climb among the sombre pines, and on the virgin snow-fields; and the noise of the big guns reverberates and re-echoes long and far among the lonely hills. All the while now the Italian army is creeping nearer to Trieste and a little progress is a huge attainment here. hey who belittle the fighting men of Italy do not understand them. The Soldato d'ltalia is a cheerful, good-humored philosopher, capable of great endurance, satisfied with poor rations, brave, and patriotic. An Irishman should T>e able to appreciate ths spnit with which they set themselves to conquer their hereditary enemy, Austria, and to realise what an asset that spirit is to the army. From the brave King, Vittorio Emmanuele, to the last recruit in the ranksthey are all patriots. We can hear them sing among the Alpine hills and. valleys the war-song of Italy: 1 a /non d / (aha, va juari strainer. It seems that Italy has need to put her heart into the fight too. It a peace should come about before Trieste were won where should she be ? Here is the opinion of an American expert, Mr. Frank Symouds: “Unless Italy can take Trieste and stand on possession, she is unlikely to have even a remote chance of making good any claim if there is a final settlement of all questions by negotiation.” In his opinion Italy will ‘ put forth every effort now to obtain her objects, in order to have' ami to hold at the end. ; Italy’s Claims Of modern Italy it has been said that she has the honor of never having taken from any neighbor any territory that was not hers. How fax- facts and intentions are in conformity in this we will not discuss. However Italy feels keenly that her neighbor, Austria, lias and holds a portion of her territory, and to recover this is the rationale of Italy’s war. At the time of the last census there wore in Austria-Hungary 768,000 Italians, of whom 390,000 inhabit the Trentino. The remainder are distributed as follows;—90,119, or 30 per cent, of the population in the province of GoriziaGradisca; in Trieste, 118,959, or 62 per cent.; in Istria, 145,517, or 37 per cent.; in Dalmatia, 18,028, or 3 per cent. The Tridentino would b© granted to Italy by all except the Austrians themselves; the western portion of Gorizia, on the right bank of the Isonzo, and also Moufalcone and its dockyard, are purely Italian ; Trieste, on the principle of nationality is an Italian town, but it has been in Austrian possession since 1386, and has a Slovene population of 60,000, while its commercial interests are bound up with the background of Bavaria, Bohemia, and Lower Austria, separation from which would mean its ruin from an. economic point of view the western provinces of Istria, including Capodistria, Rovigno, and Polo, axe Italian,

\vhile the interior . and the east are Slavonic. . Mazzini, speaking of the future boundaries of Italy, says, the mouth of the Isonzo marks "the frontier which God gave you. As far as this frontier your language is spoken and understood ; beyond this you have no rights.” But later, in 1871, he went further, and having- quoted the lines of Dante, - Pola,.presso del Quarnaro , Che Italia chiude e sum termini hag-no-, he says: "Istria is ours, but from Fiume along the eastern coast of the Adriatic, as far as the Bojana River on the confines of Albania, there extends a zone in which amid the remnants of our colonies the Slavonic element predominates.” Fiume and Dalmatia cannot be justly claimed by- Italy, owing to their Slavonic population and interests. John Bull John Bull remains the solemnest and most awful joke in the world. What play he has given to the sly humor of Max O’Rell, and to the mordant wit of Heine we all know. Perhaps a saying of Mr. Birrell’s best sums up John’s character: speaking of the Catholic Church in England, the gifted author of Obiter Dicta thinks John’s chief difficulty about becoming a Catholic is the Pope, because John always wants to be captain of the Bark of Peter himself and could in no way see why he should have an Italian in command. And when John does become a Catholic he is still —we almost said before He sees nothing awful or ludicrous in standing side by side with men whose religion is to hate Catholics and curse the Pope provided the business in hand appeals to his politics. But, Catholic or Protestant, John has very little of the saving grace of humor at all. At present how evident that fact is ! John shakes his head over the Pope’s Note, and says he finds it most inexplicable that the Holy Father does not openly side with him. He also thinks the peace Note spoiled" by the omission of a vigorous denunciation of the atrocities — of the Germans. He does not see at all how impossible it would be for a neutral to condemn the Germans for murder and piracy without saying a word to himself concerning certain little peccadilloes in Dublin, such as the murder of innocent men, the bombing of houses containing terrified women and children, and a very wonderful reluctance to hear any evidence against the perpetrators of these crimes, or to bring them to justice when convicted. He would be astonished beyond measure to hear that the Pope could hardly begin the task of censuring evil-doers without making him blush a little too. But, as we said, it is all due to John’s lack of humor. To the same cause we may charitably assign some of his startling statements about Ireland, and his complete forgetfulness of the fact that he lately confessed that he owes her somewhat in the nature of £300,000,000. The P.P.A. While Mr. Elliott is on his defence for his charges against the postal authorities in Auckland his lieutenants are busy about their general’s business elsewhere. Mr. Hircus, Pastor Myers, and kindred spirits, foregathered at Hamilton on the 16th August and said what all expected them to say once more. From them the Tablet, the Marist Brothers, the Catholic Church in general, got commemorations which to all outside the gathering in question are highly complimentary. No greater proof that we are doing our duty could be desired than the reprobation of people of the mental balance of these orators. Everyone in New Zealand has now read how the vile, low tactics of Elliott were stigmatised by the prosecutor in the Auckland case ; and that the people we have referred to above are in the same galley is enough to say about them. However, here is an interesting document which a correspondent has sent us :

' "Membership Declaration. Protestant Political _ ' Association, , •’ ••• of .... Street ...tt. declare that I am a British subject ; and a Protestant* I - reject as superstitious the ' Romish ; Doctrine of the Mass, that I am not married to a Romanist nor will I marry one. I hereby enroll as ; a member of . the Piotestant Political Association, and will loyally abide by its rules and co-operate, to fulfil its objects, and will keep secret all matters relating thereto, failing which."I shall forfeit my rights and privileges of membership in the Association. - ' .. r • “5ignature............... ......... "Received by.... Date ' V - "Patterson, Printer, Pukekohe.” Om correspondent assures us that the document is authentic, and we give it for what it is worth for the amusement of our readers. The use of the word "Romish,” which common politeness has banned except, from the lowest and most ignorant amongst bigoted circles, is an internal argument in favor of its genuinity. ■ No self-respecting Protestant uses the term now, and-, the word discredits any document in which it appears. - The Jesuits The Catholic Press recently published some remarks made by Dr. Rentoul in no complimentary vein about the Orangemen. As a specimen of their activities we. mention that one of the cultured' journals which these' people affect has lately published a gross, libellous attack on the Jesuits, accusing them of having in past years taken an oath" to commit, if ordered by the Pope,, such enormities as were freely committed by the Orange’ men in Ireland what time, according to Hilaire Belloc, their sexual filth drove a peaceful people •to . armed resistance. Here are a few facts about the Jesuits which we commend to the imitation of the ghouls who are at present burrowing among tombs in New ZealandA writer as reliable as Howard Elliott stated recently that there are 25,000,000 Jesuits in the world: as a matter of fact there are 17,010 altogether—B444 priests, 4417 students, and 4149 lay-brothers. Another writer of the same high historic attainments stated that the Kaiser could do what ever he pleased with the Order: the truth is that fifty years ago the Jesuits were expelled from Germany, and they have not returned yet. ’ In France there are to-day hundreds of Jesuits in the firing-line, and many of them have been decorated for 1 valor ; hundreds of French officers have been educatedj; in Jesuit schools. In Belgium the priests of the Order have held chairs in the famous University of Louvain and were the leading educationalists of that heroic nation. In England and Ireland a great number of the Fathers are serving as chaplains: Father Austin Hartigan, S.J., accompanied the troops in the march to Bagdad, and sacrificed his life. The old boys of the Jesuit College of Stonyhurst have won three V.C.’s,. 15 D.S.O. Medals, 26 Military Crosses, 66 other distinctions, and 88 were mentioned in despatches. Cion-"' gowes Wood (Ireland) old boys won eight D.S.O.’s, ' seven Military Crosses, two were decorated with the Legion of Honor, and 33 mentioned in despatches. ’ Fathers Humbert, Gwynn, and Bouvier displayed great heroism at the front, risking their lives and dying for their fellows. The motto of the Order has always been ‘ "For the Greater Honor and Glory of God and the deeds of the sons of Saint Ignatius during this war have 1 added new lustre to the great records of the past. If some of the itinerant parsons whose sole mission in life is to stir up strife and hatred against Catholics had a single spark of honor or chivalry they would find much to admire in the annals of the Order which they calumniate.