CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 235, 13 March 1915, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

GREEK POLITICAL CRISIS. I'l'a political crisis in dreecs is due to causes identical with those which disturbed political lif# in Roumania, until tin. death oi its previous sovereign; a people stronjfly anti-German, and a mon«»nn W f « U r amily tios inclin <-' to support Berlin, JJ was not to be expected that Greece would watch the tha aii? S "" S ' ° £ , hL ' r aueiun t ioo and Me Allied occupation of Asia. Minor whioh once owned Grecian sway without seeking to share the work and the reward, there are many thousands of Greeks in the region of Smyrna, and the repeated sufferings of these compatriots at the hands of the Turks have now united them by the warmest sym- ?, ath fri' t0 brethrcn in U>e -eninsula. lhe territorial aspirations of lloumania He towards Hungary, those of Ser--7 towards Austria, those of Bulgaria towards Turkey in Europe, but Greece &a s her dreams of Asia Minor where once tho Greek was lord of the soil. It is to tli# interest of the Allies to encourage these Grecian aspirations, as it is to tho interest of Germany to preyent any increase in the number of fetates combined against her and anv final partition of the Turkish Empire

ISI-o and 1915. Writing in the Contemporary Review Dr. J. Holland Rose, of Cambridge and' the author of several books relating te the Napoleonic era, contrasts the conditions ot to-day with those of a hundred years ago, and he draws a parallel between Napoleon and William If, Pan-Germans, ignoring Napoleon's brutal tieatnient of Prussia, have studied his combinations for the overthrow of Great Britain. "Napoleon had strengthened the French Navy, had all but conquered Egypt, and had set on foot designs for the annexation of th 0 Capo of Good Hope, Central Australia and India. Ho failed;, and the reasons of his failure intensely interested students at \\ ('ltpuliti k. I hey seem to have concluded that the failure resulted not so much from the impractibility of the scheme as from the lack of engineering and scientific adjuncts that might now picssed into the service." The German Emperor's order to his troops to take "Calais at all costs" serves to remind us that ports like O-stend and Nieuport entered largely into Napoleon's schemes for invading England. Napoleon's endeavour to arrange with Russia for a joint expeidtion to Tndia probably: suggested to William 11. tho policy*\\;hi?ii found expresion in the plan of the Bagdad and Ilcdjaz railways. The former line was to lead to tlie Persian Gulf, and thence, finally, through South Persia, towards India: the latter under the plea of facilitating the journeys of pilgrims to Mecca, was to convey Turkish and Anatolian troops within striking distance of the Suez Canal. Just as tlie Corsiean pressed on the Continental system tlie conquest of Spain and the invasion of Russia at one and the same time, so, too, the German Emperor, like liim a prev to pride and megalomania, strives to grasp both Calais and Cairo.

THE DTCim.TNGER. The German battle-ember Derfiinger, reported to have been seriously damaged in the North Sea fight, gained undesirod public notice before was even launched. The ceremony was to have taken place on June 14, 1915. There was a largo gathering to witness the

affair, and a rousing speech was delivered by General von Maekensen, of whoih we have since heard in the campaign in Poland. In ehristeneing th cruiser, he declared she was to bear the name of tbo Great Electors' oldest and most successful cavalry general. His victories and daring enterprises at Rathenow and l'V.irbellin, in Pomerania, and East Prussia, had made Baron George von Derllinger one of the nation's heroes and they prayed that the crew of this ship might emulate the great field-marshal's determination and concentration of purpose. "I commit thee, proud fabric of men's hands to thy element," ho said.The band played t'i e National Anthem, the blocks were removed, and the ship remained where she was. AH efforts, to move fier were without avail, ant Tin a short time the tide had ebbed, so that the launch had to "be abandoned for the day. It appears that tile cradles had skewed on tile centre way, and»ruptured part of the "seating," thus necessitating the digging away of part of the base of the slip, and rebuilding the way). A second attempt to put the vessel afloat ivas made a week later ( but this also failed, and it was not until July 1 that she eventually entered the water. The Derfiinger was undergoing her trials when the war broke out.