NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 15, Issue 54, 26 November 1921, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY

i, At Washington the delegates are now reaching the stage when the general expressions of amity and good will and acceptance of principle merge down to what they are willing to do in the specific circumstances of the various problems. As a beginning there is a question raised as to the .authority of the Chinese delegates to speak for China. In point of fact they cannot be said to represent anything more than the city of Peking and the territory within a mile or two of its walls. Peking is powerless to impose its will on China as a whole and the South is independent in virtually everything except European recognition.„ Altogether the power of the Chinese delegates to commit the Chinese people to any given course bf action is shadowy in the extreme. No doubt their fellow countrymen will be willing enough to acclaim and approve any benefits that may be secured for China at Washington, but will doubtless feel quite entitled to repudiate any inconvenient obligations. There is already distinguished precedent for this course of action at such gatherings, and . the astute Chinese will doubtless profit thereby. The Chinese settlement,' if one is reached, will bo an intricate and involved document, covering many matters .of detail. But we rave been told that the United States no formal documents which would mean; troublesome treaties for problematical passage by the Senate. But is there any human possibility of an unsigned “gentleman’fi agreement” affording any real solution of the Asiatic tangle? -On so simple a matter as Japanese immigration in California it has been declared valueless, and it needs great optimism to see it a success in the present case.

Members, of the House of Representatives did mot put up a very , good work-' ing record yesterday. Under cover of a, Bill introduced by Mr. McCombs, tbo members of the extreme Labour Parly, with little assistance from other parts of the House, wasted a considerable part of the afternoon in a more or less academic discussion of electoral systems which no one expected to load to,any useful or-practical result. When the Prime Minister movfd a resolution providing that the House should sit henceforth on Mondays, however, members manifested a desire for extended working hours which was quite praiseworthy. Proposals by some Labour members that the House should sit on Sundays were ironical, and drew from the Prime Minister the retort .that he did not break the Sabbath, differing in that matter from the extreme, Labour Party. Other members proposed quite seriously, however, that the House should at once commence sitting tn Saturdays—a. truly, heroic proposal with .tariff revision in immediate prospect—' and there were fairly. numerous suggestions that, the hour of meeting on Mondays should be 2.30 p.m. instead of 7.30 as the. Prime Minister proposed. If they settle down iq, steady work members will 'hardly find it necessary to go to ex-tremes-in extending their working week. With such time-wasting as was indulged in yesterday afternoon, however, the present session might easily I>e spun out until it was time to open a new session -next year; •

There are people’.no doubt who will be rather' staggered to learn tbe rates of pay for truck boys fixed by the Arbitration Court under the now award. The rates are as ■ follow :—

Per day. Boys.' ‘ s - c| . 14 to 15 k..;.. 6 5 15 to 16 8 0 Hi io 17 i ’. -97 17 to 18 11 2 18 to 19' ; 12 10 19 to 20 14 5 Over 20 16 10 When the general run of wagas is considered, even in these days of high wages, these figures do not read like, boys’ pay. I,axis of eighteen who can earn 12s. lOd. a day, and lads,,Of nineteen as high as 14s. sd. a day, must surely be regarded as well; recompensed.- The secretary of the 'Miners’ Federation, Mr. O’Rourke, however, professes to think otherwise. He declaims against the Court, charges if with injustice, declares that it' only considers the employers’ side of the case, and so on. Obviously this is sheer ’ humbug. The fact is that the Court’s tendency is to err in the opposite direction. The miners, encouraged by their leaders, have developed the idea that it is good policy to make a loud noise whatever happens. There is something in the idea. but. there is such .a thing as going too far, as the miners have already discovered to their cost. They were misled into the "goslow” and irritation strike policy, which not only reduced their earnings at the time, but which forced the Government and others into heavy importations of coal from overseas. The result is that work is now slack in the.-New Zealand mines, and many miners are suffering thereby. It is quite time that Mr. O’Rourke and his associates realised that the policy pursued by the miners for some years past in the long run does not pay.

Although the activities of Germany in aviation are restricted by the Peace Treaty, it has been known for some time past that she has been busy with plans for extended services as . soon as the restrictions cease to operate. A few months ago Germans were reported to be making a .careful survey of ’the Spanish coast from Huelva to the mouth of the Guadalquivir, with a view to the establishment of a large Zeppelin base for communication with South America. It was skated at the time this was preliminary work ion an 'air-route from Bu.en.oa Ayres to Beilin, but from yes-

terday's message it. appears that the idea is not to ..wait until the. treaty restrictions end, but to establish forthwith a Buenos Ayres-Cadiz airship service that shall be nominally Spanish, but in reality German. It is difficult lo see how the Allies can hope to prevent or control this sori of thing. If the Spaniards choose to -’employ German engineers to build up a Spanish commercial air service, and German financiers have transactions with Spanish banks which result in the Spanish banks investing money in the Spanish aviation company, there is 'no open breach of the Peace Treaty, ' and the Germans should do almost as well for themselves as if they had a purely German company in operation—unless, of course, their Spanish confreres deliberately exploited the situation to their own. advantage, and outmanoeuvred ilieir Teutonic partners. The path of those who would suppress German activity is likely to be arduous.