The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1911. THE LATE CRISIS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 129, 22 November 1911, Page 4

The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1911. THE LATE CRISIS.

It is impossible for a certain type of politician to resist making' capital over the most grave matters, and it is easy to distinguish the mere politician from the statesman when he roars from tho housetops in derision of liis own country. It will be remembered that some loud-voiced patriot lately demanded to know from the British Prime! Minister why he had not mentioned the Tripoli matter in the House of Commons. It was, of course, obvious to anybody but an advertising politician that ''silence is golden."' An Australian politician wanted the Federal House to move a vote of censure on the armies engaged in Tripoli, and Mr. Fisher, who fortunately had the precedent of the British Prime Minister to follow, quietly "sat on" the advertiser. Probably Captain Faber, M.P., had never been really heard of until be "let the cat out of the bag" in respect to the strained relations between Germany and Britain, during which it was most difficult to prevent a great conflict. It is unfortunate that the healthy discipline of the Mother 1 of Parliaments cannot be exercised oil its members outside Parliament, although the general loyalty.to any I'ailianient would generally prevent a member from revealing- secrets. Captain Faber, M.P., lias accused the British Ministry of perfidy in desiring to break the entente with France; he has insisted that during the crisis the navy was unprepared. that the fleet was divided, that some forts wore futile, that the Admiralty was incapable of performing its business, that it didn't know where the Orman navy Mas. and so on. It is remarkable that a private member of the House of Commons should fie in possession of such intimate information, more remarkable that he should use it. and most remarkable that- it should be sent all over the world as an aecusa- """ I"' 1 - 1 -i Jiirijififiicy. There are tens ~f thousands „f p,. op | ( . Willing to believe any(hing evil, and the way little Britishers have dinned into the ears of the British and all other

nations the story of the rot of .John Bull and all his works becomes more sickening as time goes on. Tt is excusable that Germany should believe a British officer who suggests that Germany can have anything wo have by demanding it, and when a Briton accuses Britons of perfidy, why shouldn't the covetous foreigner believe the accusation? As we have seen, it became necessary for someone to say that the British fleets were doing their business as usual, although it is observed that the British Cabinet docs not rush into wild explanations every time a member makes accusations of inefficiency. Tn remarkable contrast to the political wind-bag whose happiness is in accusing his own countrymen of perfidy and worse, was the conduct of the British people. There is no doubt at all that the German people believed war imminent, and that its apparent imminence had a profound effect on the German nation, which was r.bjectly panic-stricken ana wholly disorganised. German credits wire upset, there were runs on the banks, there was general turmoil. Nothing happened in Britain, except that a few Little Britishers raved that the Geramns would encamp in Hyde Park in a fortnight and that nothing British was good. The British people smiled, and went on with their shop-keeping. The German Radicals are telling the world that the situation in Germany in September was critical, and "well-informed" circles insist that the stupendous financial confusion into which the nation was thrown was a mere trifle. It is not our purpose to suggest what might have been the outcome had the rival navies met, but merely to suggest that politicians who arc so ready to blurt out all they know (and much they do not) are a pest. Most politicians of this type pose as national heroes, but are, as a matter of fact, national scourges.

MINISTER AND CANDIDATE.

In the eyes of some people, the Minister for Agriculture cannot he trusted to discharge the responsibilities attaching to his position - without obtruding his political convictions or importing "electioneering" matter into any speech he might be called upon to make. We find that it has been necessary for the Stratford A. and P. Show committee to consider the expediency of permitting Mr. Mackenzie to open the show, "seeing that the Minister was a candidate for the neighboring electorate it might be considered an electioneering' arrangement." Happily the chairman took the s proper stand, showing that Mr. Mackenzie was being invited as the head of the Agricultural Department and not as Mr. Mackenzie, a candidate for "the Egmont seat. Probably if the Minister had been a candidate for a seat, say, in the Auckland province, there woufd have been not, the slightest objection heard regardingr the advisability of asking him to perform "the ceremony. Then the Taranaki Fanners' Union was apparently suspicious of the intentions of the Minister when he offered to address members on agricultural questions. From the report we published on Monday of the Union's proceedings it is clear that they could not trust him to steer clear of politics, aud so they carried a motion "that the hon. gentleman be heard on a date after the general elections." . A nice compliment, indeed! They do'not credit him with being a man of his word, for he clearly stated his address would be on "agricultural" matters, and anyone knowing the Minister can be sure that he would not dream of departing from his theme in order to further his own or his party's political ends. The executive failed, to distinguish between Mi'. Mackenzie, the head of the agricultural industry (for the forwarding and conserving of the interests of which the larmers' Union was specifically established) and Mr. Mackenzie, a political candidate. One would think the executive would have been only too glad to avail themselves of the opportunity |o hear a pian who is admittedly an authority on a subject of such vital concern to the farming industry, In the light of the pettifogging ami cavilling spirit' shown at the meet" it would not be surprising if the Minister did not proceed with the subject, though it would be a pitv to punish and disappoint the orcst of the farming community because of the narrow-mimb ed, ungenerous and discourteous action of the executive of the .Fanners' Union. \\ e notice that during the discussion Mr Maxwell stated: "The advent of a Minister to a district and the suggestion that his election would Confer an immense advantage on the electors of that district was imposing a most unfair handicap on the other candidate." We fail to see it. Any Minister or anv man has a right to stand for any electorate in the Dominion. And any electorate has a perfect right to elect' the candidate, be no a Minister or otherwise, whom it thinks ]> ey t littcKl to represent it in 1 arliament. There is no .compulsion about the matter; the decision rests entirely with the electors themselves. In talking m the way he did Mr. Maxwell (whom wc never suspected of entertaining such parochial ideas) is really reflecting on the intelligence and discrimination of the electors concerned. In any case Mr. Mackenzie did not eome to Taranaki altogether of his own accord, for lie was requisitioned from all parts of the electorate to offer his services. Wily his advent should be resisted, especially bv a man of Mr. Maxwell's calibre, is difficult to understand. It would. l,e quite a diffcient matter if the decision as to whether he should be allowed to represent the district did not rest with the electors.

the otiikr fellows nigger.

There is n remarkable disposition anion" the wink! races of the earth to interfere with ''the other fellow's nigger." "Publie qmiion," which may he the opinion (if tl-.e llennondsey clerk or the Battersea draper, was not long r , mii(!l | at the, Xatalian's management of his nigger. As the Xatalian whites are outnumbered by ten to one bv blacks of superior physique, it seems necessary to say that they are capable „f ling their own race problems. We had, too. the Rlioilesian cases where indignant' peo])lc who had never seen a Kallir"talkeil wildly about the "equality of man" and all_ tlie rest of it. Keir Hardie butted in with some irritating remarks about both Hindoos and Egyptians, and not long ngo quite a lot of nice white people in both Britain, Holland and Oerinany wanted to manage the Queensland and Westralian aboriginals for the police and settlers in those States. We read now that Hie "cruelties are denied." It is perfectly true that in the white man's dealings with the black, whether it be in German South Africa. Java. India, South Africa or Australia, the black oftentimes sutlers, and in Australia. w here the wild black is naturally predatory, he often stop.j a bullet just as the white man stops his spear iVr boomerang. But the, "hideous crueltics" one so frequently reads about are generally the outcome of bushmcn's

yarns told to travellers with hungry note-books eager for sensations. One tribe of Australian blackfellows are much more likely to be hideously cruel to another tribe than white men to either, and in bush lighting with aboriginals the odds are not always in favor of the white man, who is ever a baby in Imsheraft compared to his black brother. As the white man pushes further into the unknown he must sull'er, and the black must sull'er, too, but it is more frequent to find the most amicable relations existing between two races who arc so utterly unlike as to have nothing whatever in common except the first law of self-preservation.

THE PLAGUE IN MANCHURIA. Two gentlemen who have been acting as | special correspondents of the Daily Express during a journey through Siberia, have contributed to that journal a striking article on the ravages of the plague in Manchuria. They obtained a great deal of information from a British officer of the Russo-Asiatic Bank at Harbin, which suffered very severely during the recent outbreak. Before the plague appeared, Harbin, the principal city of North-East Asia, had a population of 30,000 Europeans and 80,000 Chinese, and it is estimated that 200 Europeans and 10,000 Chinese lost their lives before the disease was conquered. Curiously enough, the violence of the attack was attributed very largely by the European residents to the prohibition of the sale of opium. Many of the Chinese still are obtaining opium surreptitiously, but it is of very bad quality, and the Chinese themselves believe that the plague is a form of sickness caused by smoking inferior opium. The coolies, who are unable to pay the high prices asked for good opium, supplied 95 per cent, of the victims of the disease, and as they are the smokers of bad opium, according to the Chinese, it is evident that the drug was the cause of the plague. Reasoning in this way, the Chinese at first refused to recognise the gravity of the epidemic, and consequently hindered the efforts of the Europeans to check it in the early stages. When the plague was at its worst large numbers of Chinese fled from the city and the neighboring villages. In order to prevent these terrified people spreading the infection. Russian troops, the correspondents were told, rode out to the afflicted villages and shot down the survivors in places where the disease seemed to have secured a firm hold. Whole villages were wiped out. but they were growing again within a few weeks, and Harbin itself quitkly shook off the evil influences of the visitation. The correspondents found the city bright and cheerful, and apparently busy and prosperous. Unfortunately, little was being done to improve- its sanitary condition and make it less susceptible to the ravages of the next epidemic that may overtake it.