WORLD AFFAIRS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 223, 20 September 1928, Page 6

WORLD AFFAIRS.

A WEEKLY REVIEW.

(By BYSTANDER.)

I believe that there are still somt people who hold that not sufficient attention has yet been paid by the world at large to the great question of the maintenance of universal peace. Anybody whc has doubts on this subject may be confidently invited to study a pamphlet issued recently by the Union of Democratic Control and entitled "The Peace of the World." It contains a summary ol all the principal proposals now before the nations for the extension of international arbitration and the abolition of war, and to the pacifist it should be very pleasant reading. Apart from the work of the League of Nations, which, though not yet conclusive, is certainly directed along pacifist lines there are many subsidiary attempts to further the cause of world peace. In England there are organisations which insist that arbitration must come before war, and that in the last resort everybody should take a personal pledge refusing to support war under any circumstances (as advised by Mr. Arthur Ponsonby). Even if we decline to take quite seriously the Russian disarmament proposals, and the similar scheme foi world disarmament brought forward by the German League of Peace, there is still the possibility of disarmament by example—the scheme advocated in the House of Commons by Mr Ponsonby last year and now urged by the Laboui Party upon the attention of M. Briand. In addition to all this we have a great number oi su ?g e stions for the complete and final "outlawry' of war—the Briand proposals, the Kellogg Pact based upon them, the various resolutions submitted to the American Congress by Senators Borah, Levinson, Capper, and Frazier—the last advocating the prohibition of war for any purpose whatever. As to arbitration, we have the scheme for "the obligatory arbitration of disputes" submitted by Dr. Hansen to the Assembly of the League last year, and finally a "Protocol for the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes' based upon and amending the Covenant of the League. This last scheme attempts to improve upon the work of the League by substituting compulsory "settlement" for "conference," and probably it is likely to go as far as any of the alternative proposals toward the desired end. A Tragedy Revived. The tragic death of the Prince Imperial dates back almost exactly half a century, and it is most unfortunate that after this lapse of time any attempt should be made to revive the memory ol it for ulterior purposes. M. Rostand—of course Maurice, the son of the great Edmond Rostand, oi "Cyrano" and "L'Aiglon," who died nearly ten years ago—has written a play dealing with the career and fate of the son of Napoleon 111., and in it he has revived the abominable "canard" which was circulated in the French "gutter Press" at the time, to the effect that the Prince Imperial was really assassinated by the English soldiers in Zululand with the knowledge and consent of Queen Victoria. Apparently the younger Rostand is of the same type and calibre as Leon Daudet and the "young monarchists" of the "Action Francaise," who think that it is fair to impute any sort of crime, however detestable, to one's political opponents. But this suggestion of cold-blooded and sanguinary treachery in regard to a friendly and allied nation has something peculiarly heinous and revolting about it, and I am glad to observe that the French critics have already administered severe punishment to the offender. As to the facts of the case, they are sad enough without any fictitious accessories. It seems certain that Lieutenant Carey, who commanded the little party ambushed by the Zulus in 1879, really believed that the Prince Imperial, by virtue of his rank, was the superior officer, and let him make his own arrangements. But it is equally certain that at the critical moment Carey "lost his head" and left the hapless Prince to his fate. He died—of fever the doctors said—a broken man, three years later in India; and it is some consolation to know that the Prince's mother, the Empress Eugenie, after the court-martial had condemned Carey to death, appealed personally to Queen Victoria to get the sentence remitted. An Echo from the Past. There has been a great fire at Bourges, and the cables inform us that one of the medieval buildings spared by the conflagration is "the House of Jacques Coeur." This sort of thing helps one to realise how very ancient Europe is and how young we are, by contrast, on this side of the world. Not but what one might expect to find vestiges of remote antiquity at Bourges. Before Caesar began his conquest of Gaul—that is to say, close on a hundred years before the birth of Christ—there was a town on the site on which Bourges stands, and there have been French men and women living and dying there and working and handing down legacies of all kinds to posterity there ever since. As to Jacques Coeur, he is young compared with his city, but still he goes back to the fifteenth century. In the reign of Charles VII. —the king whom Joan of Arc seated on the throne after she had rescued her country from the English—Jacques Coeur was a great merchant and trader. His ships were on every sea; he gained the confidence of the king, reorganised the finances of the countjty and readjusted taxation so as to press more equitably on rich and poor alike. But the nobles hated him as an upstart, and by bringing false charges of fraud and embezzlement against him they drove him into exile. So he fled to Italy, and there at once rose to eminence as a great capitalist and—a curious combination of functions —admiral of the Italian navies against the Turk. He regained more than all the wealth he had lost in France, and died at Chios somewhere about 1460, much honoured by his newfound friends, and allies. But the memory of him has always been preserved in France as the man who first dared to plead the cause of the people and assert the rights of the middle class against the nobility. And so his house—five hundred years old—is held in honour at Bourges unto this day. Yes, the Old World is very old—and we are young. Trans-Oceanic Airways. The conquest of the Tasman by the intrepid aviators who flew from Sydney to Christchurch in 14 hours is certainly one of the great events of the age; but I will not attempt to add anything to the tremendous mass of journalistic material that has already accumulated around it. However, I would like to point out that, whatever people on this side of the world may think of the commercial possibilities of the Tasman air-route, our German friends are fully alive to its potentialities. Four weeks ago the Australian Federal authorities received a communication from the Dornier Aircraft Company, of Friedrichshafen, suggesting a passenger and mail service between Australia and New Zealand, to be promoted by the Germans and subsidised by the Commonwealth! To gild the pill, the Germans offered to use British engines and to man the flying-boats with British engineers and British crews. Further details are unnecessary, but I am not surprised to learn that the proposal has aroused great indignation in Australia, and a strong protest has been made by leading Australians against any project that would entrust the exploitation of the airways on this side of the world to foreigners, and especially to the Germans. No doubt the warning thus conveyed to the Federal Government will prove effective. But it is well for us to realise that the world around us is moving rapidly ahead on the lines laid down by scientific invention and research, and that we cannot afford to be left behind.