NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 206, 26 May 1921, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY

A. confession of failure is mn<lo in the current issue of the local Labour-Social-ist journal, which, for a long time past has voiced the views and aspirations of the extremists of the Labour-Socialist movement. “What’s wrong with our movement?” it pathetically asks its readers, and’ it answers the question by a recital of reasons why insurrectionary methods are bound to fail in New Zealand. Apparently the extremists are to be jettisoned, and “constitutional methods” preached. Incidentally, there is a change of editors. Mr. Hickey, who unsuccessfully contested the Wellington Mayoralty against Mr. R. A. Wright, retires, and makes way for Mr. Thorn.. Whatever may be thought of the change of front of this "extremist” organ, it is at interesting as a disclosure of the fact that recognition of the utter failure of "the Reds” to win a.ny measure of public approval fox- their rovolu. tionary ideas has at. last penetrated to the inner circles of the Labour-Socialist movement. It is a sign of dawning intelligence.

Particulars supplied in English newspapers which arrived by the last mail show that the Auckland, city loan flotation. effected at the beginning of Api'il was a successful operation of its kind, but they also emphasise the extent to which conditions in the London money market have changed for the worse (from the borrower’s point of view) as compared with pre-wax - d/xys. The amount raised! was £500, 000 in debentures bearing interest at 6$ per cent. The loan, is unconditionally guaranteed by the New Zealand Government, and a sinking fund is to he provided to redeem the principal in 1942. The debentures wer® issued at par, and the loan was over-subscribed well ahead of time, the application lists being closed! on April 4, although, accoiding to the prospectus, they might have been kept open until April 6. The rate of allotment in the case of the larger applicants, the London "Times” stated, was fifty per cent. Under the terms of issue, the loan, will presumably cost Auckland not £6 10s., but £7 6s. 3d. per cent. It was -issued free of all New Zealand taxation, present or future, unless held by a person domiciled in New Zealand. Interest on the debentures is liable to Dominion taxation at the rate of 2s. 6<l. in the pound, and no doubt this tax is to be paid by the borrowing municipality where the debentures are held by persons resident outside the Dominion. It is interesting to recall that the last Auckland loan floated in London before the war (an amount of .£221,500), though it carried no Government guarantee, was floated at 4| per cent.

Thirteen years ago the Boy Scout movement was originated by General Sir Robert Baden-Powell. To-day there are Boy Scout corps in every part of the Empire; in the countries of all the Allies, and in many other parts of the world. By its appeal to the adventurous instincts of the small boy, and without preaching at him, he is taken oilt into the open on scout expeditions and competitions, taught much that is useful to him in after life, and a fine spirit of camaraderie and co-operation deveL oped in him. At the Dominion Boy Scout Conference yesterday, the executive's report contained the welcome announcement that a great revival in scouting has taken place. Although no complete census of the corps is available, we note that Brigadier-General Andrew spoke of the movement’s 25,000 hoys. Britain, with a population of 47 millions, has 250.000 Boy Scouts, and if New Zealand with one million inhabitants has even approximately 25,000 scouts the movement would appear to be in a remarkably healthy condition. That is not to say, however, that it cannot do even better, and in localities where there are no corps any man who has the necessary leisure and qualifications cannot do better than start one. As Lord Jellicoe said yesterday,. the movement is one of the most important in the British Empire at the present time. It makes the boys handy, observant, and self-reliant, and it gets the idea of unselfish public service into their bones at a very early age. All of which things are factors that must count in the future of any country.

Apropos of yesterday’s conference, the attitude of official Labour towards the Boy Scouts is worth- noting. An appeal by the Prince of Wales on behalf of the movement was recently circulated to the Press of the Empire, and in common with other journals the "Maoriland Worker” received a copy. Its late editor, Mr. P. Hickey, was moved to insert a paragraph stating that the Prince’s appeal was, in the "Worker's” own phraseology, "on the verge of the dizzy,” and its answer was an emphatic "No.” Boy Scouts, it was grotesquely alleged, had been used as strike-breakers, and their training was in the direction of making them "servile upholders of the existing state of affairs.” We have before us a copy of the Scout Law, on which the whole organisation is based, and it is a pity that Mr. Hickey did not specify his objections more particularly. There are ten rules. The first is that a Scout’s honour is to be trusted: the second that he is to bo loyal to his King, his country, his officers, his parents, his employers, and those under him; thirdly, he is to be useful and help others. Perhaps the fourth rule excited Mr. Hickey’s ire: "A scout is a friend to all, and a brother to every other scout, no matter to what, social class the other belongs.” Practical application of this rule would naturally make the world a different plpec, hut if: must be poison to extremists in quest of a class war. Possibly, also, exception would be taken in those quarters to the laws that a scout is courteous, thrifty, and obeys orders. Rule 8, "A scout smiles and whistles under all difficulties,” hardly fits in either with the extremist ideal of reform by nagging at everything and everybody. The Labour Party to-day feels uneasily that it lacks something—and tlipt missing ingredient is the moral quality expressed in the Scout law.

M. Briand has informed the French Chamber in unequivocal terms dial he intends to maintain the Entente, and that if this policy is not approved a new Premier will have to be found. This declaration reduces the Silesian problem to its proper proportions. French policy aims at the old idea of

tho establishment in Europe of a balance of power. She fears the reappearance of a truculent Germany on her eastern frontier, against whom she cannot stand alone. In the past she pinned her faith on the alliance with Russia as an assurance against wanton attack, and with Russia collapsed she has been building her hopes on a resurrected Poland. The original peace terms were to have included a mutual guarantee treaty between Britain, America, and France, but this went by the board with the collapse of the Wilson policies. The desire of the French for security is understandable, and it is not surprising that there is a desire among large sections in France to support the aggrandisement of Poland at all hazards. Ihe Poles have put themselves clearly in the wrong in Silesia. As a nation with any degree of stability they are- an unknown quantity, and to break away from tlxe Entente to support a Poland in the wrong would be a suicidal i-olicy for France. M. Briand sees this clearly enough, but a great many of his countrymen do not, or at least they have been hoping by sufficient clamour on their part to induce Britain to kick the bottom out of the Peace Treaty and support the Polish adventure. Fortunately for Europe Mr. Lloyd George put his 'foot down firmly so that now not even France’s own Prime Minister will back that clamour at the price of wrecking tho Entente.

The latest use to which the kinema is being put is to reproduce the Battle of Jutland. Sir George Aston, of the War Secretariat, has worked out the courses of each fleet, and a bird’s-eye view of the battle will be given from the time the British and German fleets left harbour until they returned to home again. The necessary material is now available from both British and German sources, and it is interesting to note that the ship positions worked out were found in general to correspond closely with the range entries in the gunnery commanders’ logs. The film, whan. complete, will make clear exactly what happened at Jutland as no narrative or series of diagrams can hope to do. Its preparation, as might be expected, is proving an extraox’dfnarily laborious undertaking. No gearing is possible io show the movements of 70 or 80 ships proceeding in varying directions at valuing speeds. Models an inch or two in length are used on a grey background, and each model has to be shifted separately by hand after each exposure. There are 16 exposures to a foot of film, and to show the formation of the Grand Fleet on its way across ihe North Sea took 90 feet of film, and necessitated 80,001) separate movements. Jutland on the screen as it might have been seen from above with an unobscured vision will nevertheless still wear a vastly different complexion from Jutland fought in haze and smoke from a wai’ship’s bridge, and with uncertain knowledge of the position of all but those vessels in ihe immediate vicinity.