NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1685, 27 February 1913, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY.

The annni;.' v.icnt that his Majesty the has conferred posthumously ujion the late Captain ■Scott, through his widow, the signal honour of a K.C.B. will cause intense satisfaction everywhere. The Order of the Bath is a very high and fine one, aud is the highest in honour of those to which commoners can, hope to attain. It-rinks next after tho practically Royal Orders of the Garter, tha Thistle, .anc! St. Patrick, and it carries with it a high place

in the official" order of precedence. In dignity, it is followed by the Orders, the Star of . India, St. Michacl and St.. George, tho Indian Empire, and the Royal Victorian Order; and the wife-of a K.C.B. takes precedence amongst women above all others whose husbands have not Royal or hereditary, titles.' The extent of the honour which the dead explorer would have received had he lived may be thus understood: he would have been two grades higher than a K.C.M.G. And tho people of the Empire will gladly agree that this honour was most fully earned, since C'aptaix Scott was" the first British subject to reach tho Pole. This ground alone would have sufficed nis Majesty, for it is expressly stated that if Captain Scott had lived he would have received this dccoration. Those who affect to despise titles will find themselves at odds with themselves when tlicy'consider'how fit, and . how grateful tq ordinary human instincts, is the King's action in this matter. And it will be no small consolation to the shade of the heroic explorer that he has 'left Some noble honour's for his widow to wear. "

One of the most striking evidences of the incompetence or recklessness of _the "present' leaders of. the Socialist-Labour movement. is the manner in which they needlessly prolong the hardships endured by their unfortunate followers in tho struggles arising out of labour disputes. Everyone, for. instance, knew, weeks before the final utter collapse of the Waihi strike $hat the strikers wfcf-e hopelessly beaten. Practically, •from the outset of*that foolishlyenterfcd on struggle the miners wero beaten, yet- their leaders buoyed them up with promises of victory arid vague hints of '.'trump cards" which would be played at the proper moment, and which would causa the complete discomfiture of the mine-owners.' Most . people felt a.t the time, and everyone knows now, that these promises were only empty bluff—that the strike leaders and those behind them were merely prolonging. the struggle which was costing their followers so dear,'-because they were afraid to acknowledge defeat. What mattered it to.them-what it cost the rank and file 'of t.hc miners and their families so long as they, the. leaders, could for the. time being save their faces 1 So also now with the slaughtermen's strike. The. [men have bc#ri beaten in a straight-out fight, and their leaders ktiow-it. .Yet,-what are they doing? Instead of giving the men' n, chance fri recoup themselves for some, of their low?s, Ijy, getting lwck to work as speedily as possible, they are still ■talking largely about the failure of thciineat companies to carry on'with free-workers. Tlfis. in spite of the plain facts. One would imagine that the strike leaders Would at least strive to find a means of getting as many as possible of their unfortunate followers back into employment beforo all the places_ are! filled, by free labour: but nothing.seems further from their thoughts. They can lose nothing more, than, they have lost by acknowledging defeat now; they should have done so.-days ago. But th;-v have blundered on ' recklessly, arid tlwy'; p.Tsist irt ; ' doing ; so," and r(ihk andiifile/are left to pay. the pijpcr. . ' ~ . : ■ , .

Mr. Massey.; is being blamed for not having long ago published a dis-: patch sent by the Colonial Office, to the ;Dominion Governments in December,'last. We are not concerned to'defend: Mn. Massey, who might indeed just as well have made the dispatch public last month. But.it is rather absurd' to' speak of him as If lie had committed .some terrible offence. We print, in another column, a brief summary of. the dispatch, which we clipped from, the English papers and filed nearly a 'fortnight ago. Tho.Prime Minister's critics could ha,ve had the dispatch days ago if they had looked at the English journals. Perhaps it is because they, do not follow these things very closely' that they omitted to notice the dispatch in the papers of January 4, and are now inclined to'treat its contents as very grave and cpoch-making. As a matter ofi fact, Mn. Haucoukt merely conveyed the text of some resolutions 1 carried in 1911 at the Imperial Defence Committee—resolutions which events have antiquated—together with a quotation 1 from his own widelyreported specch in ' Octobcr last, in which, on behalf of the Government., ho said he would welcome "a more con tinuous representation of Dominions' Ministers, if they wish it, upon the Committee of Imperial Defence." the exception of the antiquated resolutions of 1911, there is nothing of news affecting New Zealand, and nothing new concerning the British ■.Governments opinions, in the whole dispatch. The already well-ventilated question of "a more oontinuous representation" of the Dominions on the' Defence Committee is one which we all know Me. Allen must be discussing at Home. ' To'represent the JPrime Minister as suppressing some tremendous Imperial development is thus quite absurd, and, indeed, cyi(lcnce of want of knowledge of the iour'se of events. As to the . actual question as to the means by (.which New_ Zealand shall secure a more continuous representation on the Committee of Imperial Defence, there is plenty of room and time for discussion. The British Govern-, ment. as the dispatch makes clear, is still, we are glad-to know, as firmly opposed as ever to the subhiissiori."of policy ,to decision by the, Committee 'under any circumstances. '