NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 57, 1 December 1920, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY

The heavy increase in the Japanese Army Estimates must inevitably add to the tension in the relations of America and Japan. In 1018-19 iho Japanese military budget amounted to about 8J millions sterling. Last year it was up to 10 millions, and, as announced yesterday, the estimates for the forthcoming year are- 24i millions. This is a prodigious increase, and it is obvious tihat it can only be accounted for in part, by the world-wide rise in prices and lessened purchasing power of money. The Japanese Budget is complicated by its division into ordinary and extraordinary expenditure, and the voting under the latter heading of largo sums for naval and military purposes to be expended over fixed periods of years. These amounts do noil appear in later Budgets, and apparently their expenditure goes on concurrently with that of the new grants, so that the actual increase in the omflay on armaments is probably even greater than indicated by the figures quoted above. Japan is, of course, in a strong financial position, nnd well able to lay out money for warlike purposes. She went into the war with 35 millions sterling in specie, and sheeamooutofit holding 180 millions it/ gold, nioro ihan half being in the hands of the Government and tho rest with the Bank of Japan. The expenditure ou armaments indicates that Japan anticipates some menace unless she displays sufficient defensive power to discourage it. Wheuher or not tho expansion of this already huge expenditure will inflame popular feoling on both sides of the Pacific to a dangerous extent, and so tenu lb precipitate a crisis, is another matter.

An unrivalled opportunity for inspecting the products of the British manufacturing industries will bo afforded by tho British Trade -Pair, to be held in February and March next. Those fairs were first established In 1915 and have proved so successful that the coming one will bo on a vastly extended scale. The fairs aro not exhibitions, and admission is restricted to bona-fide buyers interested in particular trades. The exhibits must in all cases be the actual manufacture of tho exhibitor* In London ono group erf trades will be represented, in Birmingham another, and a third in Glasgow. The three fairs will be held almost but not quite concurrently, so that visitors interested in various classes I of goods can conveniently attend all three in sequence. Tho idea is lo bring buyers -from abroad into touch with the actual manufacturers, and the whole, of tho manufacturers, in each trade. This will naturally economise both the time

and money of visiting buyers, and as only accredited buyers nro Admitted inspection can bo carried out and inquiries made and dealt with unhampered by the crowds of sightseers in an ordinary exhibition. Shlo by sido with the firms with whoso products tho buyer is acquainted will he those in the same lino who ii'avo been unknown, to him. Effective comparisons of price and quality can be made on the spot, and the way opened for the establishment of valuable . new connection}!. Business men who contemplate attending; the coming fair cwi obtain full information from tho British Trade Commissioner in Wellington. The opportunity is one that should not he missed for knitting trade relations with tho Mother Country still closer, and so adding to tile prosperity and stability of the Einniro.

Since the recommendations of tho Federal Basic Wane Commission wero at onco shown to 'be impracticable, tho discussion they momentarily awakonod in Australia is hugely robbed of interest. Incidentally, however, some light was cast ou the limitations that govern wages in the Commonwealth with production at its present level. In his policy statement.ou the subject, the Federal Prime Minister (Mr, Hughes) quoted, "ns a final and crushing answer" to the suggestion that there was n margin between what the worker sol and what he produced which would permit tho payment of the proposed basic wage .without increasing prices correspondingly, some figures given by the Commonwealth Statistician. Mr. ICnibbs. "If," lie said, "the whole of the net profit of Australian manufacturing industry had been distributed among .tho employees, they would, during tho period from 1913 to 19J8, have received only from 7s. 4d. to lis. per week more than the actual wage." On the face of it, ho added, the proposal to givo an additional litis, per week (as recommended by the "l3asie Wage Commission) was impracticable. Citing further figures supplied by Sir. Knibbs, the Federal Priino Minister stated that if tho whole of the interest and not profit realised in Australian manufacturing industries between the years 1913 and 1918 had been distributed amongst the wage-earners, tho maximum basic wage which would have been paid in these years would have t>een as follows:—1913, X's Ss. Gd.i 1914, .£5 95.; 1915, £5 75.; 1916, X's is.; 1917, .£5 lis.; 1918. & 13s. It it, of course, quite clear that such wages could not in. any case have beoii paid. Something inoro thiin bare interest is needed in most, easra to enable manufacturers and traders to carry on their business. To. attaeli interest as well as net profit in an attempt to increase wages would be automatically to bring practically alt businesses to a standstill. At their face value, the figures given 'by Mr. Knibbs indicato that there is hardly any scope for an increaso in real wages in the Commonwealth otherwise than by an increaso in production. In such circum-' stances any appreciable increase in money wages would simply raise tho cost of living in a greater ratio, and at the same lime, unless protective) duties were largely increased, would exposo Australian secondary industries to conditions of competition from abroad which they could not face. t » • » ■ Coincidences are strange things, and in the circumstances surrounding tho murder of tho Russian Royal Family at Ekaterinburg believers in omens have found au extraordinary one. In March, IGI3, the Tsar Michae?, the first of the llouso of Romanoff, was elected Tsar while at the Ippatievsky Monastery, near Kostroma. In 1918 Nicholas 11, last of tho House of Romanoff, was murdered with his family and heir in Ippatievsky House in Ekaterinburg. The house in which the Imperial Family was imprisoned was tho homo of a niorchant named Ippatiev, and from him 'it derived its name. Outside it was a shrine of St. Nicholas, the Tsar's patron saint, and from tho window of the Tsar's room tho only thing visible was. tho golden cross ,on tho top of the dome of a neighbouring church standing clear against the sky. Perhaps it is another coincidence that those who have waded in blood and massacre to destroy one tyranny in Russia have merely seated in its placo another and even worse one. It has beenJ6aid. that however much Russia changes it is always tho same thing and there is always a tyrant.

, Last night's gathering in the Town ITall gavo some insight into the warm fnelings of affection and regard inspired by Mr. I'irlh in the thousands of hoys, who have passed through Wellington College during his thirty-nine years' connection with it. That connection is now drawing to a close, and it was fitting that this public tribute should bo paid on the evening of Old Boys' Day. The old hoys of the collcgo—many of them decidedly matured "hoys" now—form a considerable clement in the community, and most of them in looking back must feel that the personality and spirit of Mr. Firth during these early impressionable years at Wellington Collcgo wero a powerful factor in shaping their attitude and outlook in life. The old hoys of the college played their part well in the war. and the memorial hall, for which it was Inst night announced that, the necessary funds have been secured, will be a monument not only to those who went forth into the field, but also to the headmaster whoso thirty-niuo years of unflagging labour was so potent a forco in moulding the spirit that 6ent them there. '