NOTES OP THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 122, 17 February 1920, Page 6

NOTES OP THE DAY

Surprise occasioned in London by the news that the British Government hns purchased "Ihc whole of the Fatagonian meat output for 1920" is understandable. The transaction seems to be out of keeping with the policy of terminating the meat commandeer in the Dominions, and dissatisfaction will naturally bo awakened if shipping which might have been employed in carrying moat exports from the Dominions is diverted to Patagonia. According to the committee of the British Board of Trade, which recently reported on the question of meat sup. plies, the Patagonian output amounts to 30,000 ._ tons of mutton, as compared with the annual export from this country of about 160,000 tons of mutton and 40,000 tons of beef. The Patagonian mutton is described by the samo committee as best suitod for _ Continental markets. Why in existing circumstances tho 1020 outnut should have been purchased by Great Britain is therefore something of a mystery. Possibly tho explanation may lie that in this matter the British Government aims still at acting in conjunction with France, Italy, and some of the smaller European countries in obtaining meat supplies. Franco and Italy, it was reported recently, arc strongly in favoui of retaining the rrtoat trade under cor f rol in order to combat the operations of monopolistic combines. The Patauonian purchase may moan that Britain is to some extent co-operating .with thorn in this policy.

• When a seventeen-year-old boy cmployed in a brickyard appears in possession of an expensive, motorcar it must bo manifest to his girl friends that there is something fishy about it. Yet the principle seems to be established in the recent "joyridincr" cases that the girls can enjoy all the.glory of careering about the countryside in other people's motor-cars and escape scot-free while the boy 3go to gaol. Wc would suggest that in futuro cases of this sort it would be a salutary proceeding to bring all the occupants of the cars before the Magistrate to account for their presence in-them.

Judging by the number of American motor-cars in our streets, the American novels and magazines i\\ every household, and the almost American programmes at the picture houses, tho Americanisation of New Zealand would appear to be fairly complete. These phenomena am due, of course, to the complete absorption of British industry in the task of winning the war, to the high spending power of our population during the war period, and to the incomplete absorption of American industry by war work. There is a limit in all things, and that limit is closely approached in some of the American-made moving pictures now offered the New Zealand public. In one of these America is depicted as the saviour of France; tho interval between August _4, 1914, and the American declaration of war on April 6, 1917, is treated as a non-existent period, the general impression conveyed by the picture being that alone America did it. British or French films may be difficult to secure at present, but it may be hoped that ere _ long our moving picture people will be able to afford their patrons some relief from the more aggressive type of the American article.

Fifteen months after the. signing of the armistice, the Allies are now laying down the terms of peace for Turkey. The decision to allow the Sultan to remain at Constantinople is doubtless due to a desire to avoid antagonising Moslem opinion by ejecting the Caliph of the Faithful. The nature of the control over the Dardanelles and. Bosporous is not specified, buji this highway of commerce will now be fully internationalised as it would have been long ago but for the mutual jealousy and distrust of the Powers. By his astuteness in taking advantage of that jealousy and playing off one Power against another the Turk has succeeded in flouting tho public opinion of Europe for generations. Signs have not been lacking that Turkish opinion to-day inclines to the view that a lack of agreement among the Allies will result in easy conditions of peace in the Near East. Rut if even now the Turk is not bundled "bag and baggage" out of Europe, the world will hope that nothing more will be permitted to remain to the Sultan in Europe than an unsubstantial shadow of sovereignty over Constantinople itself.

The attitude of the High Commls-. sionor's office towards the_ would-be emigrants who are besieging it leaves a good deal to be desired—if fairly represented by yesterday's cable message. Five hundred applicants are arriving daily at the offices, and, we are told, "the whole time of the staff is consumed in explaining that at least a year will elapse before a single emigrant can be carried," except those registered during the war. This rush of people to take advantage of the Government's immigration policy as recently announced augurs well for the future, but we would be glad to know that the whole time of the High Commissioner's staff was not consumed in choking off thp prospective omigrants. Is there really no means of doing anything less than a year hence? Something a little more authoritative on this point would be welcome. Is the' London office doing anything to keep in touch with tho callers? , It would bo reassuring to know that they are not merely being pushed out again into the street, with "a flea in the ear," which unfortunately is the tenor of yesterday's message.