THE CALL OF EMPIRE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 541, 12 February 1913, Page 3

THE CALL OF EMPIRE.

NEW ZEALAND'S DREADNOUGHT. London, Friday. At the British Navy League luncheon to Sir Joseph Ward to-day there was a distinguished gathering, including the Duke and Duchess of Somerset, Lady Ward, Lord Charles Bere3ford, Mr W. H. Long. M.P., Hon. Thos. Mackenzie, High Commissioner for New Zealand, Sir Newton Moore, Agent-Geneval for West Australia, and Lady Moore, and Sir Thomas Robinson, Agent-General for Queensland. Mr R. . Yerburgh, president of the Navy League, was in the chair. Mr Yerburgh, in proposing Sir Joseph's health, said that New Zealand's response in giving a Dreadnought to the Motherland was prompt, firm, and even magnificent. There was no name higher than that of their guest on the Empire's roll of honour.

Sir Joseph Ward., in reply, said that he was anxious to see the defence of the Empire removed from the sphere of party politics. In reply to the toast of his health, Hon. James Allen, Minister of Defence in New Zeaaland, said that the defence of Britain had for so long been felt safe that people did not perhaps realise that there was any danger. "We sometimes wonder," said Mr Allen, "if Britain i 3 quite awake to the dangers that beset her. This gift of a battleship is visible evidence of what New Zealand is prepared to do. I venture to say that New Zea landers are more patriotic than the people of the Motherland themselves." Continuing, Mr Allen said that the Dominion was prepared to make still greater sacrifices, but there must in all cases be permanent, and not spasmodic, sacrifices. Australia, Mr Allen added, was making a very great sacrifice, not so that she might separate herself from the Empire, but in order to consolidate it. It was not tu be supposed that any of the Dominions were as yet satisfied with the little they had done for the Motherland and for the Empire. The Pall Mall Gazette says that tbe luncheon to Sir Joseph Ward notably demostrated that after the Crown, the navy is the strongest link binding the Empire. The united defence movement was unmistakably developing. The Daily Mail applauds the offer of the New Zealand Government to defer the sailing of the battleship. The paper says that the offer adds yet another to the many deeds of patriotism which laid the Empire under a heavy debt to New Zealand.

LIMITING THE FLEETS. GERMANY AND BRITAIN. Berlin, Friday. The Budget Committee of the Reichstag haa considered the Naval Estimates for the year. They provide for an expenditure of £23,370,000. The Secretary of the Admiralty Admiral von Tirpitz, deprecated the continual dragging of England into the debate. Herr Jagow, discussing the Naval Estimates, emphasises Germany's good relations with the Powers, particularly with England. Admiral von Tirpitz, referring to Mr Churchill's speech in the House of Commons last March, declared that the proportion of 10 to 16 between British and German fleets would be acceptable for the next few years. His department would raise no objection to this course. (Speaking in the House of Commons in introducing the Navy Estimates last year, Mr Winston Cburchi'l, First Lord of the Admiralty, said that Britain's present standard compared with Germany's, was 60 per cent. superior in battleships and Dreadnought cruisers. That would suffice for five years if Germany did not alter her plans. If Germany increased her construction programme, Britain would meet it upon a higher ratio of superiority. He wisheJ to make it clear that any retardations or reductions in the German programme would meet with Britain's prompt response. Mr Churchill continued: "Contingent on the absence of dangers elsewhere, supposing both Britain and Germany toqk a year's holiday. Three German ships would not be built. Germany would save nearly seven millions, and would automatically wipe out five potential British Dreadnoughts. Germany would be no gainer by an increase nor a loser by reduction on the basis he laid down. It afforded a plan whereby, without diplomatic negotiations, bargaining, or restriction o p freedom, keen and costly rivalry could be evaded. Britain stood on the defensive. A surprise attack by Britain on Germany or anyone else was inconceivable. Apart from the moral aspect, Britain had no means of following up an attack, even if it were successful. A naval defeat would mean more to Britain than to Germany* or France, because the people of Britain were fed from the sea. Hence the necessity of British naval supremacy, which was not a matter of trade and commerce, but of ber very freedom. She must so conduct her affairs that no single navy would have a reasonable prospect of success against her." The speech was eagerly discussed in Germany, where the press comments on the proposal were generally unfavourable. 'Admiral Tirpitz's speech is the first official cognisance

HOW MILK IS MADE FROM THE SOYA BEAN.

Most important among the recent achievements of the syntheticchemisty is the production of cow's milk from the soya bean. The method has beGn announced as

tbe invention of a group of German chemists who have already perfected several methods of obtaining free nitrogen from the atmosphere and have dona other scientific work of great value At the same time another method has been worked out by a Chinese scientist who received his scientific education at the Pasteur Institute in Paris and has now established a factory in that city. In each case some details of the process are kept secret, but the scientific world accepts the results.

The new product'contains all elements and particularly all the qualities of natural cow's milk. The molecules of the soya bean are broken down by a chemical process and then built up again in different combinations and the ressult is milk. In this process there is an enormous economisation of nature's resources which is the prime object of those who are seeking to reduce the -cost of living by chamical methods. It means that we get our milk direct from the vegetable instead of calling in the tremendously expensive services of the cow to convert the grass into milk for us.

A cow requires about an acre of pasture, to support her. She only converts sixty-three per cent, of the food she consumes into nourishment and she does not convert more than five per cent, of the total into milk. The average yield of a cow in milk is forty pints a day. It is estimated that the same amount of milk can be made from one-eighth of an acre of soya beans. The soya bean is the uily pea of China and Japan, where its cultivation dates from the earliest times. Its extraordinary nutritive properties are well known to scientists, but its use by Europeans is hindered by the fact that it has a very unpleasant taste and does not agree very well with the Western digestion Its nutritive value may be judged from the fact that it contains 33 per cent, of proteids as compared with 20 per cent,, for ordinary beef. It contains 17 per cent, of fat as compared with 5 per cent for the beef. The superiority of the soya bean over beef lies chiefly in the fact that it contains only 10 per cent, of water as compared with 72 per cent, for the latter. In Japan soya flour is mixed with rice and left to ferment. This produces a broth which takes the place of extract of meat. The soya bean is particularly valuable as a food for diabetics on account of the small amount of stanch it contains.

The bean is very hardy and easy to grow. As nitrogenous fertilisers can be obtained artifically from the atmosphere to promote its growth, it should in combination with the chemical processes described here go far toward solving the food problem of the world Cows' milk is the most indispensable of all oar foods, for children in civilised communities are practically dependent on it, although adults may have many othsr meats and vegetables to choose from. The London Lancet states that English scientific men have investigated the milk made from soya beans in Germany and reported that it possesses all the properties of milk except that of producing butter. Despite this drawback the cream from this artificial milk is more nourishing and the other ingredients are declared to be more digestible than the case in and other derivatives of natural milk. The new product is obtained without difficulty and with uniform success now that the experiments which have been carried on for three years have been perfected. The bean is ground to an exceedingly fine powder and mixed with a certain proportion of water. The mixture is shaken up with tremendous rapidity and force, causine a rearrangement of the molecules of the bean and a close assimilation to the composition of cows' mlk. The bean is remarkably free from water and the mixture of water with its particles under high pressure brings about a great change in its nature.

Treatment of the bean powder at a high temperature and the addition of certain substances destroy the peculiar taste and odour of the original bean and at the same time produce the natural flavour, odour and colour of milk. The process is a very elaborate one and many of the features are kept secret, as the inventors naturally wish to get a good Btart in the commercial race.

This treatment is really a process of digestion similar to that which takes place in the human and animal body. Digestion is a process in which water is alternately drawn into ths molecules of the fuod, driven out and then drawn back again. The artificial milk possesses many great advantages over the natural product. In the process of manufacture it never comes in contact with the human hands while cows' milks, of course, inevitably subject to that dangerous contact. It is manufactured in a scrupulously clean place, whereas milk is gathered in places where the presence of dirt is absolutely unavoidable. The artificial milk is even more free from germs than the cows' milk before it is drawn, for investigation has shown that bacteria exist in the fluid within the cow's body. After the artificial milk leaves the factory it will be easier to keep good and germfree than the natural product. The Lancet estimates that the artificial milk will be a great benefit to the poor., as it may be produced at six cents a quart, which is one-third less than the prevailing price of cows' milk in London. The cheese made from it Will be obtainable at a correspondingly reduced cost.

, The Chinese scientist who is working on the same problem at Paris is

makes even more products from the soya bsan than the German chemists. From it he makes milk, cheese, butter, oil flour, and several other products.

He has established his factory with twenty-four assistants and workmen, all of whom are Chinese. The beans at present come from his Some of his poducts are aleady on the European market.