NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 69, 16 December 1918, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY

The Dutch Premier has raised the point, that the Kaiser's stay in Holland is protected by the immemorial tradition 'of the right of sanctuary. There can bc, t he says, no question of internment,' nor can the Kaiser's return to Germany be demanded. The real 'point about the Kaiser's claim to the right of sanctuary . is, his qualification for the privilege! It is nob a privilege usually, accorded to criminals. • The civilised world, its sensibilities shocked beyond measure by. the atrocities which, have been committed by the Germans during the present war, atrocities which must have been committed within the Kaiser's knowledge, if not even by his authority, lias passed the stage of according one kind of punishment for the common law-breaker and another, more genteel, mark of disapproval for the international lawbreaker. ' Had the Kaiser waged his war with clean hands, he might well have been permitted to spend the rost.of his life in comfortable sequestration, reflecting upon the mutability of imperial pomp and circumstance. As it is, he heads the list of the world's assassins, and the Dutch Premier's fine distinctions notwithstanding, must face the consequences.

i In noting and welcoming the de-cision-of the Wellington epidemic workers to embody the results of their observations and experience in a report, and inviting similar action in other parts of the Dominion, the Minister of Public Health has made some interesting references to the lines on which he and his Department hope to act: .The proposal to organise classes and lectures in which instruction in nursing and related subjects will be ma,de freely'available to the public is undoubtedly sound. Expenditure in this direction, to be effective, need not be large. Made judiciously, the outlay involved Willie much more than balanced in safeguards to public iicalth. More difficult questions arc raised in connection with the powers taken under the Public Health Department Amendment Act of last session to license places where more than five lodgers are in residence, as also any house in which more than one family resides or any room let for occupation by more than two persons. These provisions pave the way for a comprehensive attack.on the overcrowding evil, but it will be necessary to apply them with, discretion.. .So far as the Wellington metropolitan area is concerned no sudden and completeremoval of existing evils is pos-' sible. Even if rapid additions are made to _ the number of dwellings now available and a vigorous policy of suburban development is instituted' it may be some considerable time before the occupation of a house by more than one family or of a room by more than two lodgers become rarely exceptional in Wellington.. As soon as they come into operation, however, the powers taken under the Act of last session should make it possible to deal effectively with the worst evils of overcrowding. i

An announcement that the King has approved .the'grant of a silver medal mercantile marine for war service presumably means'that the medal is to be conferred on all British sailors whose duty took them through the war zones ; This certainly is what ordinary" justice demands. The heroism of merchant sailors during years of German piracy in itself constitutes an epic of the sea. No finer record could be imagined than that of the officers and men who steadily pursued their calling, undaunted by lurking and ever-present dangers, and many of them after' the destruction of successive ships in which they had sailed. It was well said of the men of the merchant service that they were fighting in the war just as truly at the men behind the guns. Somemonths ago the First Lord of the Admiralty (Sir R.osslyn Wemyss), in paying a warm tribute' to the mercantile marine, observed that the association which now existed" between it and the Navy was so close that it seemed almost incredible that it should ever be severed. Ho hinted at the possibility of some more tangible bond that might permanently link the Navy and tht. mercantile marine. Such a development may not prove practicable, but the grant of a medal at least emphasises the that the men who loyally did their duty in tho mercantile marine, and bravely faced unheard of risks', stand on an equality with those who fought the battles of the Empire on land and sea.