NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 84, 3 January 1920, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY

$ „ Though it included a good deal of wild talk, the presidential ad dress delivered by _Mn. Telak Nehru at tho Indian National Congress at Amritsar was in some respects an improvement on what has lately fallen from those who profess to speak for the Indian people. While, for instance, he complained that the Reform Bill was not based on the wishes of the Indian people, he admitted that it gave them some powers and opened avenues' in services which hitherto had been closed to Indians. He might have added, though lie did not, that the "Reform Bill is avowedly onlfr an instalment of reform to be followed up by others as the ground is prepared by practical experience in the. exercise of limited political responsibilities, by the spread of education, and in other ways. As matters stand, it is safe, but hardly pointed criticism of the Reform Bill to say that it is not based upon the wishes of the. Indian people, since of the three hundred million people in question the groat majority are illiterate, neasants. It very largely accounts for the difficulty of Dvomotiin* reform in India that the bulk of the people have yet to develop'the first j.'limme.rings of political outlook, while many members of tho small educated minority are in an unexampled degree turbulent and rnarclvieal. Ungracious as his attitude was, Mr. NV/mtu made some approach towards a practical standpoint when he sr.id that their clear duly was to make the most, of what, was given (in the Reform Bill) rind "to nvees for what was due." In view of his own general attitude, and.that of more cktremn members of his party, bis obr,«n>tions amount to a somewhat strikinrr endorsement of fho genuine merits of the Refqrm Bill.

«»* ■ « Wuateveu grumbling there may be, about the cost of living and making ends meet and similar talk, there appears to lie plenty of money available this year fur Christmas and New Year holiday junketings. There is more holiday travelling going on than has been the ease for a number of years past, and the money that is going through, the totalizator at the different race meetings is in most eases breaking all records. A popular delusion, by the way, concerning the invest- I monts on the totalisator is that of | treating the total amount put i through the betting mach'ino as though it represented the net sum! risked. As a matter of fact, the j greater part of the money invested is the same money going through the 1 machine again and .again in tho course of the day. At the Auckland meeting, for instance, on one day something like £120,000 was recorded as having been put Ihrough the totalisator. This probably represented in actual cash less than one-third of that sum. However, the fact remains (hat there appears to be more money available for sport and recreation of all kinds than has ever been the case here before. The one common tie binding all portions of our far-scattered Empire is the sentiment of loyalty lo the Crown. 11, is with unaffected interest that the citizens of New Zealand will read of the preparations for the visit of the Pimnte of Wales to their shores. The Piunce is a young man of twenty-five, whose engaging youthful qualities and frank bearing made an irres'/.tilde appeal on his recent tour, both to our fellow-subjects in Canada and our cousins in flic United States. It is nineteen years ago since the King, as Duke of Cornwall, visited New Zealand, but His Majesty has always evinced the keenest interest in tho welfare of his overseas dominions, and but for the war New Zealand would doubtless have had an opportunity of greeting Royalty long ere this. Loud Fisher, in h'is racy "Memories," relates bow he oncc said to King Edward: "Sir,

that was a real low form of cunning! on Your Majesty's part sending lo j ask after Kuitt Hatcdie's stomachache F' "By jovc," adds the Admiral, "he went for me like, a mad bull, and replied, 'You don't understand me! 1 am the King of ALL\ tho People! No one has got me iu j their pockets as some of them think they have !' '' This is a tradition to which their present Majesties have more than lived up to, and never in its history has the British Monarchy | been more firmly and broadly based' on the good will and affection of the British people throughout the world. Mb. Lodge and his fractious fellow-Senators who expect the British dominions to forgo their voting rights in the League of Nations Assembly seem to be inviting a little plain talk. The overseas dominions of the British Empire did not. require 10 deliberate from August ■), IBM, until April G, 1917, to discover that it was their duty lo throw whatever weight they possessed into the scale against ("lermany's attempt to dominate the world. Their sacrifices in iife have been greater, both ""Itml and proportionately, tlia.ii those of the United Stales, and if is safe to say that none of them is in the least inclined to play the part of shuttlecock in the degrading exhibition of

part}' politics with which the United States Senate is now providing the world. Exactly a your ago to-day Senator Lodge said: "The days are going by and nothing is done to make peace with Germany. . . The situation is perilous in the highest degree. lam no alarmist, but ths fact is that the war is not over, aiui will not be over until peac« is made. Every day makes it more difficult to make such a peace as we ought to make with Germany to prevent her from breaking out again upon tlie world." This was the, line that this Republican Senator adopted in January, 1918, as most effective for embarrassing his Democratic President. Mn. Wilson went to Paris and duly returned with a Peace Treaty, and it is this' same Mr. Lodge who has used every known device to delay indefinitely, _if not totally ..obstruct, its ratification. Mr. Lodge probably docs not really care- twopjnee about the voting strength of the British dominions. His real object, as a party politician, is to make the Wilson treaty a failure, and the name of Wilson "mud." But most of the mud is likely to rest on the nn-mc of Lodge. « * * «

The wave of -crime in London, to which reference has been made in the [ cabled news, has been a marked feature of Peace \ear. First of all it was the "dope" fiend and drug habit of which tho sensational Press was full ; then appeared the professional motor-ear thief, booking contracts for cars in advance, and giving prompt delivery, provided no awkward questions were asked; and fin-! ally the. year finished with in epidemic of jewel robberies with violence. Wc are now asked to believe that these crimes are commonly the work of demobilised war neurotics. However that may be, tho new criminal is certainly of ultra-modern type. Tho thieves appearing m the London courts have been remarked upon of late as being frequently intelligent, punctilious, and dressed in the height of fashion. _ It has been recorded that a notorious West Lnd sharper, confident the jury would acquit him, ordered his motor-car to take him home, but received a sad blow to his dignity when dispatched to travel in another direction in the "Black Maria,'' The modern London criminal dines in the* best restaurants, drinks the most expensive wines, smokes the choicest cigars, and in faultless clothcs, makes love to pretty women. Furs, clothes, cigars, and jewels to the value o! hundreds of thousands of pounds arc stated to have been stolen cUir'ns last vear, and sold again at practi- , callv full market value. Possibly a sufficiently' penetrating analysis might show the crime wave to be r bad imitation of cruder minds of the hislily successful exploits of that entirely respectable person the commercial profiteer.