NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1754, 20 May 1913, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY.

It has been made very clear that the dishonesty of the attempt to misrepresent the statement of Mn. Jambs Allex conccrning the dispatch of an expeditionary force from NewZealand should such ever lie required has been sufficiently exposed to silence those critics who were attempting to mislead the public in the matter. The statement of the Minister fur Defence was plainly enough shown tl) he nothing more than an expression of his belief that the loyalty of New Zealanders to the Empire would lead to a ready response from its young men in time of need, and that the men offering would, under the compulsory training scheme, be trained men. II; was clear enough that while the expeditionary fores idea was a natural part of an Imperial defence scheme, it was a matter quite independent of (lie compulsory training scheme, which provides only for service in New Zealand. There is no power, of course, lo compel men to serve outside of New Zealand, and any expeditionary foroc dispatchcd to any

other part of the Empire would bo composed entirely of volunteers for the service. It suited certain of the anti-Reform journals to profess to regard Mk. Allen's reference to an expeditionary force as something "sprung on the. community," and very shocking. As a matter of fact it was, as has been shown again and again, neither new nor shocking. Curiously enough, those critics who were loudest in their condemnation of the idea appear to have entirely overlooked the fact that practically the same thing as aroused their indignation when given utterance to by Mr. James Allen was said by Sir Joseph Ward at the Imperial Conference of 1911 and quite escaped their censure. Sir Joseph Ward was discussing the necessity of co-operation in defence matters, and in the course of his remarks said: "We expect to have a mobile land force of fully 80,000 men very shortly, and we hope to have for overseas work a very considerable number—sooo to 10,000 trained men—only to go outside of New Zealand voluntarily." This is almost identically what Mr. James Allen has been saying. Our Wardist friends should really be more careful in their choice of grounds on which to attack the Government.

By the agreement between Britain and Turkey regarding the Bagdad Railway and the control of the Persian Gulf, an outline of which was published in bur cable columns yesterday, Britain appears to have secured a number of important military and commercial advantages. The German newspapers are irritated at the concessions which Britain has received in connection with the railway, and think that something ought to bo clone to counteract English influence at Constantinople. It was reported in February last that Hakki Pasha was empowered by the Porte to open negotiations with the British Government with regard to certain matters in connection with the extension of the Bagdad Railway towards the Persian Gillf, the status of Kowcit, and other quest-ions affecting British interests in that part of ,thc world. The railway when completed will connect the Mediterranean with the Persian Gulf. The Germans control the Anatolian system, which runs from Scutari, on the Bosphorus (opposite Constantinople) to Konia. The Bagdad lino is to run from lConia, by way of Adana, Mosul, and Bagdad, to Basra. It is expected that the line will have been constructed as far as Bagdad by. the year 1918, and it is also proposed to construct branch lines, in which Russia and Germany are interested. In 1912 conversations were opened up between the British and Turkish Governments respecting the construction of the Gulf section of the railway, the result being the valuable concessions which have just been made public. The commercial possibilities of the country through which the line will pass are very considerable, and the fact that it will bring India in _ closer touch with Europe makes it important that Britain should have a voice in its control. The agreement also has a bearing on the present competition for trade and railway concessions in Persia. Germany has been rather unfortunate in her international diplomacy of late years. Tho defeat of Turkey in the recent war upset more than one of her_ plans, and among othev things it will probably block her way to Asia Minor by a barrier of Slav States. This will take away a great deal of the value of her ' railway concessions, and the new agreement between Britain and Turkey will make Imposition still more unsatisfactory.

Sound and reasonable criticism is a good thing for all Governments, and the lie form Government is just as likely to be benefited by the knowledge' that an alert eye is being kept on its methods of linance and its administration generally as any other set of Ministers would be. It is pleasing, therefore, to see a critic like, the member for the Bay of Plenty coming forward with something definite to complain about, and presenting facts, or what he believes, to be facts, in support of his opinions. Mk. M'Donald, it is true, would seem to have been a little unfortunate in , some of his I facts, the actual figures of the year's I transactions, as disclosed by the Minister for Public Works, offering a somewhat balcl and uncompromising contradiction of certain of his supposed grievances. Indeed, in respect of railway expenditure in his own electorate, the member for the Bay of Plenty must be a good deal embarrassed to find that instead of having any grounds of _ complaint over the niggardly behaviour of the Government, as he imagined, his constituents really arc under a debt of gratitude to the Ministers for exceeding the expenditure authorised on the work. For an ex-Minis-ter for Public Works—Mr. M'Donald held that office for a few months in the Mackenzie Government—the member for the Bay .of Plenty would seem to be singularly ill-informed as to what has been going on in his own electorate in the matter of public works expenditure. However, that by the way. Mr. M'Donald has served a useful purpose in forcing tho hand of- the Minister for Public Works regarding the expenditure for the past financial year, and by so doing has helped to dispel the mists of misrepresentation and misunderstanding with which the situation has been clouded. From the figures given by the Minister it would appear that the hullabaloo which has been raised by some •of the Opposition and their press claqueurs concerning the starving of public works has been_ mainly _ the outcome of the fertile imaginations with which these critics are blessed. The expenditure for the past financial year on public works of various kinds approached the quite respectable figure of two million pounds. The previous year, it is true, the expenditure was creator; the gross amount out of the Public Works and allied special accounts 1 being >-2,.'i57,411; but to quote the Public Works statement of last year, this was "the largest amount in any single year for over thirty years." Moreover, it mijrht be pointed out that 1911-12 was ejection year. Taking the net expenditure out of the Public Works Fund, as disclosed in the public accounts, it seems thatfor over twenty years past Ihe total has only exceeded two million pounds on five occasions, and then only to a-small extent. Ministers are not careful, lliev will have their critics changing front and charging them with a too lavish dispersal of the Public Works Fund. As a matter of fact, we should lie very pleased (o see some of ilujse who arc so anxious just now (.:) find fault: with the Government rating Ministers roundly for spendins a single penny-piece more on the Otira tunnel and railway.