CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 260, 1 April 1914, Page 2

CURRENT TOPICS.

SECRET DIPLOMACY. "We have passed in recent years through European crises the full gravity of which were not realised by our people until after they had passed into history," remarks .Mr. Austen Chamberlain, and he asks: —''Can you conduct democratic government on these pinioiplesV Can you rely that the whole of the people will rise to tiie height of a great emergency if there has been no previous, preparation of their minds, if they themselves have been unable to follow the steps by which you have been driven to the conclusion at which you ultimately arrive?" "For those who have watched even casually the course of our foreigu policy in recent years there can be only one answer to thcse-qucslions," says the Daily Xews. "They are an accurate diagnosis of a real disease, and it is satisfactory to have it thus plainly stated by a Front Bench politician of the standing of Mr. Chamberlain. The only promising remedy is the repeated submission of present and future foreign policy for facilities for debate." "If," ', says Mr. J. Ramsay Mac Donald, "wfa continue to assert our intention of capturing private property at sea in tiu\e of war, and if the foreign affairs of the Empire are conducted in padded rooms, and behind closed doors, with blinds drawn and shutters closed, so that no light can get in and no whisper get out, j big fleets are inevitable."

A CROP OF WILD OATS. Says the Wellington Post:—Thousands of overseas Imperialists who arc not keen for or against Home Rule will be dismayed by the revelation of a Tory Army. If society and political pressure—operating through that "sinister feminine influence" to which Mr. Hamar Greenwood recently referred — can divert British Army officers from their duty, before a blow has been j strrfck in civil war, and simply I on the presumption of something that might happen, a very evil principle is admitted, and one capable of indefinite i extension, vitally involving all parts of the Empire. Speaking in the House of Commons, Mr. Ward, Labor M.P., rightly compares the Unionist campaign in the Army with the Syndicalist printed appeals to soldiers not to shoot strikers. But the Syndicalistic method has one big merit over the other —it is not secretive and hypocritical. When did the cavalry officers find their conscience's drive them from their' duty at the thought of slaying conscientious industrialists ? The fact is that in recent years no party—not even the fanatical Suffragettes—has given a greater stimui lus to law-breaking, and class prejudice | than have the "constitutionalists" of : the "party of Union." ilr. Balfour was | wise to quit their leadership. His sucicessors have sown the heaviest crop of | "wild oats that their generation has : seen.

THE CHURCH OF THE FUTURE. | Questioned in Melbourne as to his view of theological tendencies, Bishop Mercer said:— "I am quite 'convinced that the church of the future will have to develop a new kind of Christianity, which, while maintaining the fundameniitls, will adapt them to the democratic I and scicntilic outlook of the d*y. The stroll",' points of the mediaeval church J should lie, and I believe will be, retained; by those I mean the leading conceptions I of spiritual society, developed so stron»,ly in mediaeval days. They must have I their place in these days, when the I social ideal of brotherhood bulks so largely. The emphasis on Ihe individual and his importance as such, which characterised the Protestant reformation, by no means contradicts tins ideal of a spiritual brotherhood, but rather furnishes for it its true basis and its ultimate goal. Jiy own philosophy is humanitarian in ihe broadest sense,'and f regard the church as being only one, though the supreme one, among many agencies bringing in the Kingdom Of God.'.ln my idea of ultimate salvation 1 include the animal world as well as that of humanity, and I regard the goal of existence us being self-realisation of centres of the will to live' through the development of the will- to love. If I |\uwe se.eineu. to criticise Australians on [ the score of evanescent emotionalism : and some lack of concentration. 1 have nothing' but praise for (heir quick sympathies, kindness and intelligence. Naturally, I do not regard the gambling j spirit as a good thing. I regard it as anti-social and subversive of the priuriplus of civilisation, insomuch as civilisation a.dv.inces just in proportion ,<i» we are able to eliminate the element of chance. We may not be able to eliminate it altogether, but the thing to remember is that one man's good chance means nmilher's bad chance, and tii.il is why g.mbling is ai-li-MK-ial and opposed to progress."

XKW ZKALAXIXS XAVAL XKEIK The naval correspondent ill' the London Wnhc. writ in;; mi February IS. said:--"There are indications (hat iJic Admiralty arc takim.; steps towards orK'nnisiii"- a naval force in (lie Pacific. 'J'lie llltl!) agreement with Xcw Zealand lias up to'now been a dead letter. Tin' battle-fruiter which was ihe. spontaneous jfii't of New Zealand in ili'o hour of iirv.it llritain's need has rejoined the Home licet since the t-.:-i;jilrtior. of lie:' world cruise, and ilie iwo modem cruisers and small deal rover lloiilla. which were to .have been despatched to (lie l'acilic. remain in Home waters. The jKiiiencc of tilt? New Z; aland (,'ovcniment has at last lieeu e\hausled, and pressure is bein;> brought to bear upon the imperial (iovernmcut to fulfil its obligations. Happily, there is a reasonable expectation (hat (lie First Lord of the Admiralty will shortly be in a position to make a sivli-faeiory announcement on (bis subject. The arranyemoais for the organisation of a Xew Zealand naval force are virtually settled, and Captain Herbert Marshall' lias just been appointed as senior naval oilie'er of tile division.