CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 285, 11 May 1915, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

r; i] ' SIT!' v;vi::. 1 - -V liic |;,.il for ti„. !Y,y 1 v ■' ' ,ii "< ;ll : ' ■■ • : " j.i'lj'iiii-ii!, (if (!>,. i-iHirl, ■ ' }f \ ; nr. i; ' ■■ : : : ! 'lc t : I > V (• r! I! ■" • •! !■ I i 11; 11 ~ : : ; ■■ < !y .-II ;i : ■ ' ■ ll' ; Liny iis(Til! ■; '■ l;:l 11 : I '<■'ml!:i;e Iho-c who i'o]]ow V.-111l inh<lv-( (he political l", j i. H i oi' tile en "dully 11 u• jiidyi] icnf. " r lljl ' 'I In' result of U„. ] ly . election will haw » very important bra'rin.i," oil the political situation. If the Covuriment lost- tin- scat, they can hardly cont'nuc in ollice. Tho stntptyinnt >i!H vccu aiiu.> ilial ii Government ghonlg

be defeated when Parliament meets a dissolution would follow. Thai might be the case, but the dissolution would not be caused by the defeat of the present Ministry, but by the defeat of the Liberal Ministry -which had succeeded it In office. if Mr. Masscy were defeated, hi* would resign. lie could not secure a dissolution if the Governor were guided by tlio recognised constitutional practice, since the. resources of the Legislature must be exhausted before that extreme step is taken. The Governor would have to be, satisfied that no stable Governmciit was possible before lie could dissolve the Chamber, and as a 'first step towards attaining the knowledge lie would have to ask the leader of the Opposition to form a Ministry. The position would be. the same if tlio Government resigned without incurring actual defeat, but merely because of inability to command a working majority. The other side would be called upon to o cupy the Treasury benches, and a dissolution would not come, unless this new Ministry were, defeated. Constitutional law is elastic at some points, but it contains nothing to justify the dissolution of a newly-elected Chamber when one only of the parties within it has tried to hold office. Few people would like, to see the point arise during the coming session, but it is just as well that the position should be understood. Tlie Liberals might conceivably defeat the Government, but they could not force a dissolution; the Reformers, if they went out of office, might be able to force a dissolution by defeating the Liberal .Ministry.

GERMANY'S OXK DESIRE. ' There is just one tiling tliat Germany has not, and, of course, wants it badly—so badly that, like tl'c dog in the fable, she is prepared to throw away all her substance, to obtain the shadow. This one desire, that is drenching the earth with blood, is known as "world supremacy." .Most of the nations are fully cognisant as to Germany's aim, but, apparently. there are some, like 'America, who do not seem to realise that tlx Prussian militarism in its present abnormal state can only lie satiated when it has the whole world at its feet. It is somewhat of a large order, but it obsesses the Kaiserian mind and its attainment is, from a German point of view, only a matter of time —if all goes we'l. Xapoleon bad a similar all-devour-ing lust of conquest and acquisition, but lie fell. Is the Kaiser likely to be more successful? Professor Rudolf Martin, a German savant, evidently considers that the achievement is not only possible, but probable, if not a matter of certainty. His opinion may be weighty in bis own land, but outside that he will be regarded as a visionary of a, hyper-patriotic type. The Russian army is to be encircled and taken prisoners; the Allies in the West are to be crushed, and England invaded and reduced to submission. All this after a two years' war, and then will come the alteration of the ma.p of Europe. Of course there is to be an indemnity of huge proportions in addition to the best parts of Eranee and lSolginm as spoils for the victors. As for Russia *ho is to be entirely dismembered, Germany taking the Baltic provinces and securing an entrance into every sea. The indemnity is set down as £0,000,000,000. Professor Martin does not err on the side of modesty, and a grateful Kaiser should see that bis prophetic savant has a reward commensurate with his ideas—plus the indemnity. Such is the trash that the Germans are being fed upon in order to take their minds oil' the terrible death toll, ami to open up visions of untold wealth in the future. If they like this sort of ludicrous jingoism. well and good, but surely they are having a surfeit of it! Possibly it may have the same effect as the tightening of a bolt on a hungry man, by divorting their minds from the physical pangs of hunger caused by short rations. Otherwise the professor may be treated with contwnpt.