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Press, Volume LV, Issue 16432, 28 January 1919, Page 6

AVe are very glad tho Board of Governors of Canterbury College agreed u> give Colonel Hugh Stowart further leave of absence from his post as Professor of Classics in order that he

I might carry on the educational work j in which he is engaged in connexion : with our soldiers. Colonel Stewart has brought distinction to the College with which ho is connected by his distinguished service in the neld. According to unimpeachable testimony he proved himself 4, a born soldier." Of th e work in which he is now engaged it is impossible to over-estimate the importance. The primary objects of the scheme of compulsory education of tho soldiers, as he state.s, are twofold : First to occupy the men's minds and so conduce to the maintenance of discipline and an orderly and contented discharge: secondly to help men to reloarn their old occupations, or learn new ones, and so lead to the efficiency of tho individual and increase productive power in the State. It is also felt to be an unrivalled opportunity for inculcating some measure of knowledge of the principles of economics and civics, and instruction in these subjects is being made a central figure in the scheme. We hope tho Government will give this movement liberal support. If it costs £50,000, the amount suggested in Colonel Stewart's letter, it will do money well spent. a— While the future of the German colonics is 'so very much under clis'eussion it is interesting to remember that Germany is not, and never was, a colonising Power, and made singularly poor use of her possessions oversea. Hindenburg, not long ago, claimed that "without colonies there is no security as regards raw materials; without raw materials there can be no industry; without industry there can be no adequate prosperity. Therefore we must have colonies." This edifice of argument was built on bunkum. —« Not more than a few hundreds out of the thousands who emigrated from Germany went to German colonies. The total exports of raw materials from these colonies amounted to a mere fraction of Germany's imports from other countries, and would not havo kept her factories going for more than a few weeks in the year ; if as long as that. No single German colony with the exception of South-West Africa, paid its way, collectively they added nothing to the Imperial revenue, and the only real value that Germany has got out of them will accrue to her if their loss is taken into account in tne bill which the Allies will present to Germany for payment. ♦ As a matter of fact, as an English naval expert pointed out at the time, what Hindenburg really meant when he spoke of colonies as sources of raw materials for Germany's factories was their use as naval bases for German U-boats. If Germany's colonial policy was not deliberately adopted to serve as an example for her naval policy, ifc at least was dragged into service in support of the latter movement. The idea was, says the writer we havo mentioned, that in time every German colony would become a base from which cruisers would issue on the trade routes, thus cutting the maritime'communications of the British Empire and preventing British troops being used outside the British Isles. ' If the German Admiralty had realised some years before the war what a powerful weapon tho submarine could be, they would have had more than about a score of these vessels when war broke out. They would have had submarine bases in the Pacific, both north and south of the Equator, at Tsingtao, in German South-West and East Africa, and in the Oameroons. With some scores or hundreds of submarines distributed at these various places Germany could have "held the maritime nations of the world to ransom." It will certainly never be in her power to repair her neglect of that great opportunity. ■ ♦ Among the essentially "war" industries which were killed by the armistice and the ensuing relaxation of restrictions on imports, was one, it appears, which particularly concerned Australian children. This was the collection of empty tobacco and boot polish tins. One learns from an Australian paper that thousands of school children collected tins and handed them on to the Red Cross or the Comforts Fund. Thousands of others sold the tins direct to the firms which bought "empties,' and applied the profits to the purchase of articles for home consumption or to picture 6hows. "Nothing," said the manager of a factory much patronised by the young collectors, "could be more animated than a group of five or six kids trying to divide the 3d obtained from the sale of half a dozen empties. They reminded one of a flock of parrots." Business has, however, slumped badly since supplies of tin plate became available. Supplies of empties have also dwindled, owing to numerous brands of tobacco being put up in cardboard containers, and Sydney and Melbourne school children will have to find some new way of making pocketmoney.

The whole world is just now following the course of events at the Peace Conference as described in the cables. Before long, it seems, it will have a chance of seeing how the delegates looked and behaved, while engaged in their momentous task. At least, it will have this opportunity if Sir Charles S. Hart, "Director of tho Film Section of the American Committee of Public Information" can carry his plans into practice. Ho reached London 6ome weeks ago on his way to Paris to make ! arrangements "for filming every detail." of the Conference. For this purpose he was to have the pick of the hundreds of American cinematographers attached to the American army in France and the official pictures were to bo released as soon as taken. As there were also on the way from the States some five hundred journalists, photographers, and "movie men," the American public ought to bo in the way of learning everything about tho Conference that could be learned from print or pictures. But we rather doubt if the delegates to the Confer'ence will allow cinematographers to attend the sessions of the Conference and film the deliberations, even though they have the precedent .of the film of the British Cabinet at work, which was taken a year or two ago.