NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 245, 10 July 1920, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY

The "Progressive Party" has acquired a -posthumous fame possibly beyond its deserts. Though its existence was known in a hazy way in political circles the public cannot be said to have been vividly aware of it at any stage of its brief and fitful life, nor can it recall any raising, of a "Progressive Party" banner by the faithful thirteen at the last election.- Privily born, it has, however, been' publicly buried, even if' Mr. Stotham did have to exhume a decidedly decomposed corpse for the ceremony. The gravamen of Mr. Statham's complaint, when all is boiled down, seems to bo that.a-jlack of respect to the memory of the deceased was shown by the three- ! members of the party who subsequently joined the Ministry without insisting as a preliminary on the adoption of the elective Executive principle. What other planks were included in the Progressive platform beyond this rather academic one the "public has not been informed. Nor does it appear.that our three Progressive Minister? were required to discard them before- entering the Cabinet. Progressive ideas are what tho country needs in its national policy, and that threo members of their group should have been included in tho Cabinet would be, one would have thought, a ground for rejoicing rather than lamentation by the remainder. But perhaps it would have required the appointment of thirteen "Progressive" Ministera to have left no fly in tho ointment. . . . .-:#■■#■■ # * By their. voting .n n . ![,., Statliam'g amendment, the leader of the Opposition: and eleven of his henchmen have definitely pledged themselves to tho doubtful principle of an elective Executive. This number represents a majority of the Liberal Party in Parliament. Sir Joseph Ward in 1912 declared his 'Belief that so far from th« elective Executive getting rid cf the party system, it would bo simply jumping out of the fryingpan into the fire. Jle did not believe it possible to get. rid of party spirit by machinery of this kind. Moreover, it would bo an intolerable and impossible •position if an elective Ministry agreed as a whole on a certain policy, which was defeated in the House, and the resig. ration of the Minister in whose Department it fell practically called for, as it would be under the tf.ective Lxeeutivo principle. Could the rest of tbo Ministers as men of spirit stand by and perhaps see ono of their best men pitched into the sea? These sound objections <>' his lato leader seemed to weigh suffi-ciently-with Mr.' Mac Donald in 1912 to induce voto against the pnnciple. On tho two previous cccasions, it is true, Mr. Mac Donald did. not vole cither way, and his interest in the subject in lOOti •was confined to asking when the debute was likely to end, as ho had a lot o! letters to writfc It is. remarkable 16-day to-find tlio Liberal Party, under his leadership, definitely embarked on a route'described by the last Liberal Prlmo Minister as lending only from the fry-ing-pan into tho fire. * , # ' . * * ' ■ ~ A valuable step forward in tho eradication of venereal disease will be-taken if the Social Hygiene Act is amended on tho lines suggested *y Dr. Collins in the Legislative Council. At present any person suffering, from venereal disease who fails to apply for treatment to a registered medical practitioner commits an offence under the Act. Venereal ease, though highly infectious, is not notifiable in ordinary course as an infectious' disease. It has been recognised that to make it so would in many cases lead to concealment by tho sufferers. The thing in the public interest is, of course, to ensure early treatment. At the same time, without information as..to the occurrence of the disease, it is impossible to know if headway is being made in fighting; it, To obtain the information, Dr Collins proposes that medical ■ practitioners should be obliged to notify their cases, giving numbers instead of names. Without any loss of privacy to tho patients this would reveal the prevnlance of tho disease and the progress made in combating it. That tho'names of infected persons who failed to, comply with the law by submitting to treatment ; should when discovered also be 'notified;'' is a reasonable thing. The matter is one that should not bo -allowed to end with tho Legislative Council's resolution. « k ■■» * Ono.of the Labour Party delegates who conferred with the National Defence League yesterday wanted to know whether an unarmed Germany would not be a,menace to the peace of the world. To-day's cablegrams reporting the proceedings of the Spa Conference make it clear that tho immediate question is rather whether Germany armed to the teeth is not a menace to the peaco of the world. A German Note submitted to the conference admits that there are in Germany "a million men tinder arms and three million additional rifles." And even this, according to Mr. Lloyd George, does not fully, cover the facts! Apart from the millions of additional rifles (not to mention the fifty thousand machine-guns and thousands of gutu ' mentioned a day or two ago) Germany , on, her own showing bas ten times as many man definitely under arms as she would have had if the provisions of the Peace Treaty, as they were modified' in i her favour, had been carried out. A 1 month or two age- Mr. Lloyd George an--1 nounccd a decision of the Supreme Coun- ' oil-under which Germany was to rcducf ' her Army to 200,000' mon by' April 10 ' and to 100,000 by July 10 (to-day). Tin only satisfactory features of the newf aro tho firm stand taken by the Allies and the expectation raised that the pro cess of German disarmament will al '. once bo greatly hastened. ■ ' . . * * ' * ' ■ *■ Tho Counoii of Agriculture does nol ' favour .a proposal that New Zealand } should say good-bye to tho luxury of whiti [bread. The suggestion that the-Do-minion's scanty-supply of wheat mjghl well be eked out by reducing the standard of flour and leaving in more ol . tho sharps and pollard is not regardec T as being necessary at present.. Yet twelvi S per cent. more, bread might bo mad< - from a given quantity of wheat if tin ft proposal were adopted. The bread wouh t not bo so appetising as tho present whit f loaf, but those New Zealanders whi ; " lived on standard bread in Britain an< ? France in war lime will agree that evei with that very inferior product ther> j was not a great deal to grumble at ~ There does. -not seem ' to be any quw v tion of its being . a decidedly mor k healthy food, and sounder fare both fo »»'tho teeth and stomachs of the' riuin

generation. For health reasons alone a "standard bread" craze was developed by the liomlon "Daily Mail" Bhortly before the war. The British public may never have acquired the enthusiasm of the "Daily Mail" writers for the new bread, but when it arrived as one of the numerous innovations of Uie war.thera were few who had any violent quarrel with it. In these days an addition of twelve per cent, to (ho bread supply is not to be despised. **. * * Even a President's wife has her tribulations. At least so Madame Deschanel, the wife of the new President of France, is discovering. Tho Presidential Palace has a lovely, garden. In the garden is a pond. On the pond are five ducks. In accordance with the habits of the species the ducks make a sound in the form of a quack. They are , particularly addicted to doing this at sunrise. Tho room of Madame Deschanel overlooks the duck pond, and Madame is a light sleeper. The ducks at dawn are torment. Madame Deschanel made ja request that the ducks 'might bo removed, and the requests of the wife of the President of the Blepublic are things to. be obeyed at the jump by French officialdom. The ducks should be Tcmoved, quick, more quickly, and quicker than that. "Only," ,the authorities added, "as according to the Palace regulations there must be five ducks there, we shall have to replace thcs.e five by five others." President Deschanelis an extremely polite gentleman, but the hops has been expressed in Paris that ho will be able to supply some of the phrases of which Madame Deschanel ,may find herself in need at dawn.