CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 147, 8 November 1912, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

THE ALBANIANS. Thousands of Mussulman-Albanians, the cable advises, have donned the Servian colors and transferred their allegiance to the Servian flag. This must not be' regarded as evidence of rats leaving a sinking ship. The Albanians throughout their long history have served many masters. "Who are these Albanians?'" asks a recent writer, and he answers his own question, in part, as follows:—"Thev are the purest descendants of the ancient Pelasgians, and therefore first cousins to the ancient Greeks. They gave to the world Alexander the Great, and under Pyrrhus, King of Epirus, shook Eome to her foundations. Conquered by the Roman legions, the Albanians survived in their primitive bloodthirstiness. They made common cause with the Sultan Murad in the great war of extermination against the Serbs which ended in the battle of Kossovo Polie of 1448. But when the Turks wanted to exterminate them they found a nut much harder to crack than they expected. Under Scanderberg, they fought like lions, and whon at last, on the death of their hero, they had to give in, they merely acknowledged the Sultan as suzerain. Some adopted the Islamic religion, but many preferred to emigrate to Italy and Sicily. The. Italian Premier Crispi was a direct descendant of the old Allbanian immigrants. But in Turkey, too, there were several Albanian Grand Viziers. During the wars of Greek independence a great number of them fought on the Greek side, and at Souli the entire population—men, women and children, all Christian Albanians—threw themselves over a precipice rather than submit to the tyrant Ali. Pasha of Yanina. Yet this monster himself was an Albanian." Possibly the chief interest in the "walk-over" to Servia lies in the fact that those who did so are Mussulmans as well as Albanians. The Malissori, who also are Albanians, arc followers of the Cross, not of the Crescent, and at this hour are with the Montenegrins busily boxing up Essad Pasha in Scutari.

GOVERNMENT BY COMMISSION. By a vote of nearly ten to one the city of New Orleans (U.S.A.) has decided for the commission form of government. Like many another community, New Orleans (says the Outlook) has suffered under the failure of the aldermanic system, accompanied by the activities of unscrupulous bosses, to give proper government to its citizens. At last the old political ring has heen partly broken; but not entirely. It still will try to elect an "organisation Mayor and Commissioners." But its more comprehensive power has certainly been broken. In Galveston, where the plan was first tried, Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth and Austin in Texas, Mobile and Montgomery in Alabama, as well as in Shreveport, Louisiana, the New Orleans people have had a chance, close at hand, to see just how the commission form of government works. At first there was a feeling that the plan might work ill because a yet stronger control over the city would be given to the Mayor and four commissioners than to the Mayor and 16 aldermen. But conditions in New Orleans, led the people to feel that, even if the new form of government might mask a possible danger, it would be more than ffset in the chance quickly to fasten responsibility for wrong-doing. Hence the vote of nearly twenty-four thousand in the affirmative, and of only twenty-one hundred against the innovation. New Orleans will now be governed by five Commissioners, including the Mayor. As previous to this action only a few cities of over a hundred thousand population had adopted the commission form of government, the New Orleans plan, if it works well in a city of nearlv three hundred and fifty thousand people, will impressively refute the theory of the opponents of commission government that the plan is good only -for small cities.

SPEEDING UP,

The efforts of the Admiralty to speed up the construction of the 'vessels required by the British naval programme are achieving good results. This year has been an exceptionally busy one, and the output of the dockyards, in which New Zealand, of course,' has been very keenly interested, has been big. Writing under date September 7, the London correspondent of the Melbourne Age remarks that ominious signs of hurry and pressure are seen at the navy yards. "Overtime" work has become a daily necessity at both Portsmouth and Devonport. Ships ;partly constructed are being got off the stocks a month earlier than the prearranged date in order to make way for the laying down of others in advance of the usual time. New designs, involving elaborate calculations and estimates, are feeing prepared at a rate which effectually disposes of the traditional "Government stroke." The autumn holidays of responsible officials has been curtailed this year—an innovation hitherto unimaginable in the Admiralty. The several ship-building firms which do contract work for the navy

and armor plate and gun works, show a similar condition of tense activity. Details of the construction decided upon for the four battleships of the 1912-13 programme are of course being kept secret, but it is known that each of them will be larger in dimensions and heavier in armament than the powerful new class represented by the Monarch, the King George and the Iron Duke. Within a few years the displacement of British battleships has been increased from 16,500 to 25,000, their speed from 18»/ g to 21% knots, and the more effective portion of their equipment from ten 0.2inch to ten 13.5-mch guns. The 25,000ton Iron Duke has been improved upon in several respects m the designs prepared for the latest Tessels of the same class. _ It is reported that one of their most interesting features will be an armored upper deck, intended to serve as • protection against aerial craft using explosives.