NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 75, 22 December 1919, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY

Though speculation as to the probable result of the Liquor Poll is still keen, the 1 latest figures available suggest that Continuance, with the aid of the votes cast for State Control, will again win the day. After counting the whole of the votes polled in the ordinary way in New Zealand, and also the soldiers' votes polled in England, Continuance and State Control combined havo a majority over Prohibition of some 1500 votes. The votes yet to bo counted are. 1300 odd soldiers' votes on vessels at sea, 1800 seamen's vbtcs, and the votes of 16.000 absent voters. The soldiers will no doubt poll in their full strength, and on past experience the great majority of their votes will be against Prohibition. Probably it is safo .to say that the soldiers' votes will add at least another 1000 to the majority against Prohibition, me Icing it 2500. Of tho 1900 seamen's vot n s assuming 1000 are polled, it is likely that the result will be to bring the majority against, Prohibition up to about 3000. This would leave only the absent voters to come, and of the 10,000 of these probably 15,000 at least will record their votes. Assuming that the estimates given above of the seamen's uni the soldiers'' votes are somewhere near tho mark. Prohibition to win would require to poll nearly two-thirds of the absent voters' votes. It may be taken for granted that the majority of the absent voters will noil for Prohibition, but it is hardly likely that they will vote in such strength as would seem to be nccessary to wipe out the deficit and give Prohibition a clear majority. It is rpiite certain, however, that the finish will be even closer than it was at the poll in April last, and this in spite of the probability of the State Control Issue having diverted votes from Prohibition. Unless the absont voters' votes aro decisive one way or the other, the final result may not lie known until well on towards the end of January, when the last of the soldiers' votes come to hand.

A new definition of hitting below the bolt was provided by Me. Semple at the Labour rally last night. His opponent in the late election, he declared- had talked of patriotism and loyalty; he had even used the Union Jack as a poli tical weapon; and finally lie had descended to the depths of singing the National Anthem after political meetings. "It was just about the most sickening thing I ever heard of," declared Mr. Sejipee. There is no copyright in the National Anthem, and if and his friends were a little more accustomed to singing it and a little less addicted, metaphorically speaking, to using the Union Jack as a doormat, he and his political associates might not have had the same cause for dejection that they had at their dispirited rally last night.

The Korean delegates, having walked all the way, have arrived in Paris for the Peace Conference, a mere trifle of eleven months behind the opening date. -This painstaking effort by these representatives of the Cinderella of_ nations deserves some, reward. It is significant that their near neighbours and deal friends, tho Japanese, in spite of the remarkable growth of their merchant marine, were unable to 'md the delegates a nassage. The Koreans may have missed the conference, but from what one can make of the international outlook would still have time to walk to Ivoree, and back again and not miss the settlement.

Mr. Pamer, the United States Attorney-General, advocates, as part of his campaign against profiteering, that men should wear old clothes until the present prices drop. Tho man who can afford to have any option in this matter belongs in most countries to-day to a. rapidly dwindling minorily." What is really wanted is a Consumers' League, with an issue of distinguishing badges to those.who have made prolonged and honourable resistance to the of their tailors, with a spccial star for the gallant souls who succumb only when the limits of decency have been reached. Put, after all, is.it the tailor who is to blame'! Judging by the landed cost of materials in New Zealand to-day we have to go further afield for the root of the trouble.

Opponents of the League of Nations in the United States Senate have succeeded perhaps beyond their hopes in occasioning obstruction and delay, but it is rather early to assume that their triumph is final. The real weakness of their position appears when they put forward the proposals it is evidently incumbent on them to substitute for those they so strenuously oppose. Senator Knox, for instance, is rpioted to-day ns the author of a resolution declaring pcace with Germany, retain-

ing to tho United States all the benefits of the, Treaty of Versailles and "approving of any practical plan for an international peace league." It is not surprising that tho Democrats indicated'their opposition lo this artless proposal to claim all the benefits of a treaty of world-peace without doing anything :io uphold it. Senator Knox's proposed approval of "any practical plan" for a peace league is at most of debating society value. Sooner or later he and others who share his attitude must face the fact that the Treaty of Versailles is capable of enforcement only under the League of Nations, and that, as Mr. Balfour pointed out not long ago, the reservations made by ono Great Power in regard to the League will be copied by its contemporaries and '.so will tend to undermine the whole structure. Thus f.-.r the opponents of tho League in the American Senate havo fastened chiefly upon what Mn. Rm.fouh on the same occasion called "small difficulties, technical obstacles, and netty'considerations." It is not the less that in proportion as their campaign succeeds they arc darkening the prosnccts of setting up any organisation lo safeguard world-pence, This is so clear that even now it is nossihle to hone for a development of miblic ! opinion in America that will comDol the S4en,\te to reverse its attitude