TOPICS OF THE DAY

Evening Post, Volume LXXXV, Issue 29, 4 February 1913, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY

■ ' ■■ » An island story was given eloquently by > the Earl of LiverNavy Eloquence pool to members of from the New Zealand the Governor. Club yesterday. The Governor revealed himself as a thoughtful student of naval history, in relation to Britain and the world at large, and his words showed impressively how Britain's greatness had grown up on the decks of ships through the centuries. He described the national dramas of successive epochs, and always his language, vigorous and neatly .phrased, stressed the all-important part of the navy in holding the Empire ad a heritage for Britons in the ages to come. It was a stirring lessor in history, a moving sequence of truths well told, a pleasant innovation in Imperial discourse. The speech depended for its forcible argument on it* clear facts, and the significance of those facte, through the storm and stress of hundreds of years, was set out masterfully. No jingoistic note marred this welcome address; not even ( a Red Federationist could object to its tone. It was an ob-ject-lesson to the average politician to brighten up his vocabulary and endeavour to put some colour (not lurid) and melody into his periods. The Governor's peroration on Pitt, a great navy-builder, has a forceful music which demands reprinting (as a further reminder to the politicians}:— "Pitt resto in that old sanctuary in which so many of our great men lie, and over hw body stands a monument graven by canning hand. It depicts the Great Commoner standing as he used to do when First Minister in the land, his hand outstretched, and it seems to betoken that though not with u« in the flesh he bids us 'Be of good cheer, work together, and be not dismayed.' " These are Words to linger in the memory— words to stimulate the best patriotism. Lady Stout, in a letter published to-day, accuses The Post of The Right "a wilfully hysterical to Starve. tirade against women" because this journal has dared to apply plain language to the criminal vandalism of Lohdon's frenzied Suffragettes, whose lawlessness and wanton mischief must be working the' public up to take memorable reprisals. These window-smashers and maildestroyers are euphemistically described as 'political offenders" by our correspondent, who believes evidently that they have ample warrant for their senseless persecution of the public. Lady Stout has introduced much irrelevance, which does not help her case, and some of her suggestions are palpably unfair to The Post. Wo have not attacked craay Suffragettes as women, but as insufferable nuisances. We do not see why the fact of femininity should safeguard a woman from censure for maJiciouß damage and other deplorable unwomanly behaviour. As for Mrs. Despard, we cannot grant that her eaintiinees, with or without a black mantilla in place of a hat, at Whitechapel can condone her incitement to lawlessness at Whitehall. Indeed, the more saintly she ia in one capacity as the friend of the poor, the greater is the onus on her to eet a good example outside tho slums. Our comment was not concerned with Lady Stout's philanthropic Mrs. Dcspard, but wjth the Airs. Despard of 'the holy war," as our correspondent terms the conduct of tho outrageous sisterhood, the Mrs. Despard of the indomitable devotion" to claw-hammers and brick-bate as arguments for votes. Hence there is no occasion for Lady Stout 6 remark :— "Evidently there aro men \p New Zealand' who have been whipped in competition with women, and whose enmity makes them forget that f they owe their existence to the despised sex." Happily, we have never been claw-hammered nor stoned by militant, women. But, even, if we had been, We ehould still admire the sex, which has not been assailed in these columns. We have not blamed Woman for the excesses of the Suffragette. In .a contemptuous reference to the House of Commons regarding the Act to check the infamous white-slave traffic, Lady Stout says :— "We all know that the Bill is inoperative without women's votes, and that tho House of Commons would never have allowed the Bill to pass unless the members had known that it would bo a dead letter." This allegation does not square with the cabled reports of the Act's operation. The news from London is that exploiters are retiring to Paris, to the dismay of that city. Within a few w«eks the Act has wrought consternation among the "bullies." It has been commonly supposed that if the boys of Derry had Fighting Derry. their way with Home Uule they would send it. along with the Pope, to a place from which no traveller returns to make trouble again on earth. But this judgment must now be revised. A campaign for Uio Londonderry City has Mj»a fought with Bmaatng thoroughntM

while the Home Rule Bill was receiving its finishing touches in both Houses, and has resulted in tho return of a Home Ruler. It has been a great fight entirely, and should eurely receive a place in song^ and etory ac a counterpart to the gloria of the famous siego. Which side can claim the patriot who, having left the country for his country* good, came back to do it another good turn by recording a voto at tho imminent nek of arrest ? Was ho risking hie own liberty in order to "set ould Ireland free, ' or merely tliab he might fanten her fetters the more tightly ? As our cabled report doe* hot answer the question, We can all offer him etrictly unbiased congratulations upon his reaching a Deity polling-booth instead of the Derry gaol. Another gallant <.trugale r against fate was les« fortunate. The Unionist who was. tern from a nick bed in- order to vote had no occasion to evade the minions of the law, but tlio inexorable rider on a pale horso intercepted him before he cotdd offset his purpose. The flick Nationals who were accompanied to the poll by priesta prepared, if necemry, to administer the last Me* en route, appear to havo been more fortunate. Death, who is supposed to exercise a fine impartiality in human affairs, cast hie only vote in thia contest on the side of the Nationalist*. Their triumph, by a majority of 5? votes, is a memorable one after co fierce a tight. Oddly enough, the number w exactly tho «ame as that by which ■Lord Hamilton retained the seat for the Unionists three years ago. The seav ha* never been a safe one for either party. Lord Hamilton's last victory being the only occasion in twenty years when the majority exceeded a hundred. Of the victory that the Nationaliete have now won, we can only say that it counta for two votes in favour of the Coalition on a division in the House of Commons, and that it proves both parties in Ulster to be ia deadly entneet. Mr. Henry Willie, Speaker of the New .™. *« • , ? outh Wales" Legisla?T %?- lsh , tive Assembly, has conMr. Willis, fessed that he has , smiled (behind the scenes) at his own role of dictator. Fortune made him a minor edition of that great Larl of Wai wick, the King-maker, "Last of the Bai'ohs.% .When The a r' rived an New Zealand a few weeks ago on holiday after his very busy days, in Sydney, Mr. Willis remarked playfully that he was as Alexander, looking for new worlds to conquer. Therefore he has sized up the Canterbury Plains iifirom the express train, apparently) and has announced that the land is inferior to some of the territory of New South Wales. This may be true, but the iudament reads quaintly after the hasty trial. Also, Mr, Willis took a run through a' part of Wellington, glanced about him, and was ready with an oracular utterance for a Duttedin interviewer. "The city of Wellington," he said, "is, I consider, unworthy of this great Dominion. The position is unattractive. Besides, large business concerns which must occupy sites in the city in the future will not have elbow room." Then the incorrigible jester waxed waggish about one "advantage"— "people will be able to step from the twenty-fourth story on to vacant land at the back, which will be not half the height of the front portion of the building." What did Wellington do to Mr. Willis? Was he not happy at the New Zealand Club's luncheon? The nonsense spoken by the visitor cbuld be allowed to pass as a piece of broad humour,- except for the fact that the fame of Mr. Willis in his Warwick part ensures wide publicity for his statements, whether jocose or serious or half-and-half. He invites Aua* tralasia.to behold a Wellington huddled against scarps, -clinging desperately to horrid precipices. He did not explore Te Aro Flat, he did not observe the scope for farther reclamations, he overlooked Evans Bay, and failed to see extensive areas of comfortable building land within easy reach of the waterfront, the best port of New Zealand. Mr. Willis seems to havo made his survey from a closed cab within one little strip of Greater Wellington, but he gave his words wings to fly over Australasia. This was not fair of Mr. Speaker.