NOTES OP THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2214, 29 July 1914, Page 6

NOTES OP THE DAY.

; Only once has the.army of. Aus-tria-Hungary taken the field in war fare. The eleven to twenty nations or fragments of, nations over which the Emperor Francis Joseph rules have played their part in war on many occasions in the past, but the one campaign since the establishment of the Dual Monarchy was .that in Bosnia and Hcrzogovina in iB7B. The administration and occupation of these Turkish provinces waß undertaken by ;Austria-Hungary' at the request of the Congress of Berlin. A force of 60,000 troops crossed, the frontier on July 29 but 200,000 men had afterwards to be poured iu, and it was not until some four and a half months' ob : stinate fighting had followed that the country was. subdued. Austria's •last big war was the disastrous conflict against : Russia • in 1866. In this she was supported by Bavaria, Hanover, Saxony, and allied German States, and the upshot was tho loss of huge slices of territory and the payment of an indemnity, tho Austrian share of which ran into six millions sterling. Concurrently another war was fought by the Austrian Army in the South against the Italians, and led to the loss of Venetia, Since this calamitous experience Austrian, diplomacy 1 has ever been more prone to pursue its ends by statecraft and intrigue than by an appeal to force. Some light is thrown-on the inner workings, of the militant Suffragette movement by a correspondent of the London Morning Post. The Women's _ Social and Political Union, it is pointed out, has always been able to boast, of an dasily replenished exchequer,' and has maintained a close hold of its funds. The control of the Union is now in the hands'of a single family, which has thrust all rivals out of the nest in cuckoo fashion. When MR.andMßs. •Pethick Lawrence were pushed out the last discordant clement disappeared. The Family then took complete control of the policy and the money. The Union has since ' consisted of three circles, the Family, a band of hysterical women, and a large number of subscribers. These' subscribers, the Morning , Post correspondent describes as nearly all of tho female sex, most of them past middle age,. idle, bored, futile, dissatisfied, and attributing their futil-ity-and their dissatisfaction to the unfair, position in which their sex finds .itself. The vote interests them only so far as it challenges tlie.dominion of man, and the bulk of the subscribers show little interest in the many excellent ; projects for the education of women. To keep these subscribers • interested, and excited has been problem of the Family. A flagging in militancy apparently means a falling-off ;in the funds. The funds, it should be noted, have been transported to..Paris, where a member of the ruling house mounts guard, over them. The Suffragette m dull times, does its best to maintain the temperature, but. the human victims appeal* most to- the subscribers, and so from .day to day more of the' faithful and hysterical flung to" tho'police; ' ; Yesterday afternoon tho members % ■feir?/ )u^,w-,of ■■" (Showed 'what.theyYcan do when'they; are inclined to work. Instead of frittering away the-greater part of th.3 afternoon,' as, has soSoften been done iii .this and other recent sessions, they wdrked : with steady application, and by the, time the dinner adjournment was reached had made remarkably good progress down the Order Paper. -. Apart from formal business and a number of questions without notice to Ministers, four Bills were read a third -time and two fairly important measures, dealing Tespectively. with loan raising and banking, were read a second time. It is, true that 'the .third reading of a Bill/is usually regarded as:a moro or less formal stage in! its progress, but a much less substantial issue than. a third reading debate has very often,' in the ' immediate' past, served the Oppositions a.pretext for holding.up ,the business of the. country during, an:afternoon or even at an evening sitting. , In the ('matter of the, expeditious transaction, of business the House is of course yery largely, at the mercy of the Opposition, and on that account a measure of • credit is ciue to, Sir Joseph AVaed and his" followers for the. excellent rate of,'progress attained yesterday. It is to be hoped that they will earn similar credit in future, for it is in the interests of all concerned that the House of Representatives should bo a place of industry and effort rather than a place of tiresome verbiage and time-wast-ing. .When, business is honestly tackled' and put through' at good speed, as it was yesterday afternoon, tho, whole, tone of . Parliament is raised and improved. .Work in these circumstances is not only done more quickly; it. is better done. The day of big holdings is rapidly passing in New, Zealand/and with the small farmer is coming the small flock and herd The change is an excellent one, in-so far as ( it means the increase of the rural'population and the building up /of; the Dominion's wealth, but every care should be taken to see that it does not result in a deterioration in the quality of the live stock. It is the big men who have been able to spend money in importing breeding stock of the highest quality; and it is mainly to them that the average run of sheep and cattle in the Dominion is of such a good stamp. Dr. . Reakes pointed out in.his address- to the Agricultural aud Pastoral' Societies' Conference" yesterday that already there are more inferior breeding' owes in tho country than should be the case. The danger of degeneration is one that can be averted, first, by educative work,among the farmers, and, secondly, if the need arises, by the State directly assisting to put the small breeder in. the way of obtaining good stock. It is,'however, a real, and increasing danger, and Dr. R'eakes's warning is a timely one. The declaration of Admiral Sir Percy Scott that .the day of the battleship_ is over, and the subsequent discussion in : the English Press have a special interest for New Zealandcrs. _ The new instruments of warfare, which, in the opinion of one • of the' greatest, British authorities on naval matters, have brought this revolutionary - change' are the submarine'and the aeroplane. They are comparatively inexpensive Uv purchase and maintain, and if their potency is even a fraction of what Sir; Percy Scott alleges they offer an invaluable means of supplementing the defoncco of this Dominion. In the controversy on the subject _it was noteworthy that , none of the usuial protagonists in naval matters rushed into.print, with the exception-

of Lord Brassey and Mr. Arnold White. This has been .taken as; an indication that the leading experts do not consider the matter is ripe for public discussion. There is certainlyno assent to Sir Percy Scott's conclusion that because the submarine and the aeroplane are a danger to battleships, therefore Britain should at dnce ccaso to build battleships. But it is generally recognised that these new factors may yet compel a reconsideration of the whole theory of defence, and that the submarine infinitely increases the value of_ narrow waters, such as Cook Strait, as a place where hostile warships may bo blocked. Tho new trend in naval warfare certainly appears to offer great possibilities in adding to the defences of the oversea dominions' without undue financial cost."