Untitled

Press, Volume LV, Issue 16431, 27 January 1919, Page 6

I It will be a subject of the most sincere regret- if influenza of the virulent typo .should get a footing in Australia ni'tor all the efforts made to prevent such a calamity. The cases reported in Melbourne have a suspicious appearance, but the chairman of the Board of Health has stated, as the result of a medical conference, that a unanimous | opinion was reached that the reports received did not justify drastic action, therefore Victoria would not for the present be declared a quarantine area. A strict patrol has, however, been established on the Victorian border, and although no restrictions have yet been placed on shipping between Melbourne and Sydney, the hurried stampede homewards of Mr Holman and his colleagues from Melbourne, seems to indicate that quarantine is likely sooq to be enforced in tho case of all .arrivals from Melbourne, whether they come by land or sea. Wo take it that our Health Department will watch very carefully all vessels arriving from Melbourne. It would be disastrous if the virulent form of the diseaso wore to obtain a fresh footing in tho Dominion.. ♦ If, as reported in to-day's cables, Turkey is in such a condition that m some areas her troops and officials do not seem to recognise that their country has admitted defeat, the action of the British Commander in assuming tho position of Director of Gendarmes is at least intelligible. The Commander mentioned is presumably Vice-Admiral Cnlthorpe, who reached Constantinople in tho middle of November with tho position of British High Commissioner. At that timo everything in Turkey was in an extraordinary state of confusion. With the dissolution of tho Committee of Union and Progress, which had managed the country fo r ten years and had ended in corruption and tyranny, the Government passed into the hands of Tcwfik Pasha, who was trying to carry out sundry much-needed reforms. But the Allied fleot lying off Constantinople was • : tho only real authority in the whole * situation, and thero is no apparont 1 reason yet fol- the belief that Admiral Calthorpe's action is anything more than an attempt to help tho Government in the restoration of order. 3 ; * ! Tho investigation of tho records of the Austrian Ministry of War are said to show that fvhilo Austria-Hungary •was suffering great privations tho Emperor -was receiving from tho army commissariat enough food to feed 14,000 | men. It is added that his household , consisted of only seven persons, bnfc ] this must bo a mistake, for he and his ' wifo and children account for 6ix, and 1 tlie royal household probably numbered many scores. The revelations of tho Emperor's greed, together with thr.se jf the peculations of' some of his relatives, are little calculatcd to encourage tho remnnnt of the Monarchist party in Austrii-Hu'ngary in their dreams for tho return of the Emperor to th<? Throne. Tn this matter of food-lioarding tho Emperor Carl and the Kaiser had something in common, in spite of ,their disagreements on other questions. An account was lately given by a member of the Workers' and Soldiers' Council, t.o a Frankfort paper, of tho provisions which a scareli ,l f the palaces had shown to have been storod up for tho roy;tl household. There were he said, huge quantities of foodstuffs of every description, including meat, game in ice, salted foods, sacks whits meal, thousands of eggs, gigantic vessel? filled with lard, coffee, ten, chocolate, jellies, and jams, hundreds of loads of sugar, peas, beans, dried fruits, and biscuits. "One is rendered speechless," commented tho writer, "by tho quantities,!' the value of which was assessed at many thousands of pounds. Thero seems to bo some difference of opinion as to whether Germany is as hard up for food as her. politicians say she is, but thero is no doubt that during the latter part of tha war food was not plentiful. The Kaiser had evidently decided that wlinever elso went hungry, vho Hohenzollerns were going to havo enough to eat. » —r His altitude und that of Carl in the matter ivas in striking contrast vita that of King Georgo, who applied to himself, and his family and household, tho same rationing restrictions than wero enforced upon the nation. Ha had his own meat and butter and sugar coupons just as any other citizen, and in addition ho bound himself by the voluntary self-denying pledge against the use of alcoholic liquor for the duration of tho war that a number of his subjects adopted. The King shared the inconvenience imposed by tho war upon the civilian population at Home, and it was the recognition of his practical sympathy with the people that gave emphasis to tho extraordinary demonstrations of affection which London tendered to him on and after Armistico Day. * A grim picture is given by the "Daily Chronicle's" special correspondent at Amsterdam of the Kaiser's life in his Dutch retreat, at Amerongen Castle, beonging to Count Bentinck. The whole vorld discusscwhis fate, excopt, appai enty, the villago that harbours him, which ees little of him and cares less. "I vonder what l:e looks like now," renarked the correspondent to one who ias come a good deal in contact with 'William the Last" of Germany. 'Looks like! " was tho answer; "why, ie looks dejected. That man has teror in his heart." Pointing to a winlow on an upper floor, he added: "It s thero ho 6its, writing as though ho fere in a hurry, hour after hour, sheet iftor sheet, often all forenoon and ifternoCn. It is as though ho were viiting against time." If he is enjaged, as is believed,, in drawing up his

defence, ho may woll write in a hurry, for the toils are closing upon him, and he may soon, as the correspondent says, "receive an imperious demand such as no man on earth has ever received," to appear before a world's tribunal to answer for the greatest crimo man ever committed.

One of to-day's cables explains, in some measure, why demobilisation of the British Army, apart from considerations of employment for returned soldiers, and tho magnitudo of tho task, cannot proceed as quickly as tho men would liko. Wo are told that there are still three British Divisions in Italy, threo in tho Balkans, three in Palestine and Syria, four in Egypt, besides four mounted divisions probably in

Palestine, and six divisions, including one of caralry, in Mesopotamia, besides battalions or small forces at in tho Tyrol, Persia, Siberia, and Xorthorn Russia, probably numbering altogether half a million men. Some of these nro merely waiting opportunities to be sent home, but in addition to them thero is the army of occupation in Germany. Apart from the services being rendered by tho latter, there is a great deal of cleaning up to be done after such a war, especially in territories where our enemies do not yet seem to realise that their Governments have admitted defeat and signed an armistice, and it may bo many months yet before order is finally restored and good government re-established on lines laid down by the Peace Conference.

There is very natural impatience on the part of the British troops to get homo again, and either resume their pre-war occupations, or take up fresh ones. But, ns Mr Lloyd Goorge has pointed out, it is our first duty to ensure that tho fruits of victory which havo been won by so many lives, are not jeopardised. "Impatience now," he addod, "might lose in a few weeks what it has taken years of heroism and sacrifico to gain." The work of demobilisation is being pushed ahead with all possiblo -speed consistent with tho necessities of the situation. It is not at all probable that Germany would fight again, no matter how much sho may object to the terms of peace, but we shall not bo wholly safe until these havo boon accopted. A contributor to a London paper has suggested that an interesting book could be compilod from the prophecies regarding the war, which authorities, and others, uttered during its continuance. Ho bad in mind, one gathers, the immense number of predictions that wore falsified, sooner or later, by events. But if an_y one over contemplates the making of such a hook lie must not overlook the striking forecast by Admiral Mahan regarding the naval part of tho war. Speaking to an English visitor soon after the wnr began, the author of "Sea-Power 111 His-

Tory," predicted that ■Germany's "future upon the sea" would end in the sail of hor fleet to English ports to surrender! For foresight and accuracy that prophecy would be difficult to boat.