Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, 16 August 1917, Page 14

Current Topics

A Franciscan Kaiser If one were so credulous as to believe all the stories told by some ministers of untruth who are- very active in New Zealand at present, the Kaiser is not only a Jesuit in disguise, but he also masquerades as a Franciscan or a Dominican when the humor seizes him. The Kaiser did not perform the ceremony of opening a church in the Holy Land, dressed as a Franciscan. The facts are that he was present at the consecration of a Protestant church in Palestine in 1898, and that by special arrangement with the Sultan he was able to secure a plot of ground which he presented to the German Catholics. Another Brilliant Effort We know now that the Kaiser is a Jesuitor was it a Franciscan he was last? We are reconciled to the fact that Monsignor Gerlach did not call on Carson when he escaped from Rome to Ballyhooley. But the latest revelation leaves us weak and limp from laughter. We give the news as we find it in the Roman letter to the Catholic Bulletin: "It has just transpired that a report has been circulated and an effort made to create an impression in high ecclesiastical circles in Rome that the Maynooth mission to China was set on foot and is being organised chiefly for the purpose of enabling a number of Irish priests to shirk volunteering as chaplains for service, in the British Army and Navy." What shall we do when Elliott hears of that We suppose, too, that Archbishop Walsh and Cardinal Logue were purposely born over seventy years ago in order to escape being called upon to serve as chaplains ! The Holy Father and Peace In his prison in the Vatican the Pope is quietly striving for the relief of those who are suffering through the war which he is powerless to stop. And his failure to bring about peace causes him unspeakable anguish of soul as he sees the sorrows and hardships accumulate year after year.. In a letter to the Cardinal Secretary of State he still expresses the hope "that the long-wished-for day is not far distant, when all men, the children of the same Heavenly Father, will once again come to regard each other as brethren. . . . May the Divine Redeemer in the infinite goodness of His Heart, grant that counsels of mildness will prevail in the minds of those in power, and that, conscious of their individual responsibilities before God and man, they will no longer resist the voice of the peoples for peace." For beyond a doubt the peoples do want peace. The war is not their war, but theirs is the suffering of it. May it be that when peace does come the power of rulers to plunge their subjects into wars for which they have no will shall have gone for ever. More About U-Boats Writing in The Saturday Evening Post, Henry Reuterdahl gives us some information about the German submarines which emphasises the fact that Americans look on them as a grave menace still. He says that the latest U-boats are 1800 tons, that they have heavily armoured conning-towers, which mount five low velocity five inch guns, that they are capable of a very high surface speed, and can travel 250 miles submerged. ° They operate from Heligoland as a base, and go round the north of Scotland to the scene of operations, some 100 miles south of the Irish coast. The run out and home is a matter of 2700 miles. This takes them nine days, and twelve are spent searching for ships when they reach the field of their activities. He does not minimise the danger as some writers are too much inclined to do. He says, "We must strip to the waist; we must help. ... The skull and cross-bones still floats free.". In view of the fact that the tonnage sunk during the first six months of the year is estimated at

-3,000,000 tons, excluding neutrals, the solution of the difficulty is still to be found. • , Lowering, the Age Limit It seems to be anticipated that' the Government will propose to lower the age limit for military service from twenty to nineteen, and already there are signs that such a proceeding will encounter determined opposition. It, is first of all a confession of weakness. It is tantamount to admitting that the manhood of the country has been taxed to its utmost limits and that we have to call on immature boys to keep the ranks filled. It is objectionable also on physicalgrounds, for it is well known that only strong men whose frames are set and hardened can stand the severe strain of the life in the trenches: indeed, from that point of view we think it is certain that if circumstances permitted,' the age should rather be increased than lowered. The moral aspect of the proposal is also serious. Parents have now no illusions as to the awful temptations to which the men are exposed on active service, and they, and all who have the welfare of the young at heart will be very reluctant to agree to a measure which will plunge boys, in many cases, totally inexperienced, into the danger of moral shipwreck. Already protests are raised in various parts of the Dominion against such a measure, which seems as unnecessary as it is unwise. In the East It now appears that the Russian Government protested against the action of the Allies both with regard to their intervention in Greece and their methods in substituting one king for another, the Provisional Government holding that nations have the right to choose their own rulers. We must remember that the Greek Church is powerful in Russia, and that its influence would not be lightly thrown in the scale against Greece. However, M. Venezilos is now engaged in reorganising the army, and he announces that he hopes to have 200,000 men ready to take the field in three months. The arrival of Italian reinforcements before Gaza is reported. General Allenby. who distinguished himself in France, has taken command of the British forces. Aeroplanes have been busy bombing the Turkish headquarters around Jerusalem, and it is stated that an aeroplane attack on the fleet at Constantinople had satisfactory results. The Turks have apparently been strongly reinforced in Mesopotamia, and the presence of General von Mackensen has been reported. Mr. Stead points out that as von Mackensen has never gone anywhere without something unpleasant happening immediately after, an enemy offensive may be expected shortly in Asia Minor. In fact, the retiring of the Russians suggests that the advance has begun. Monsignor Cattaneo This week we are able, through the kindness of a friend in Rome, to present our readers with a picture of the new Apostolic Delegate to Australia and New Zealand. Advices from Rome state that his Eminence Cardinal Serafini, Prefect of the Propaganda; has consecrated Monsignor Cattaneo titular Archbishop of Palmyra. By "invitation of the new Archbishop, his Lordship Dr. Cleary, Bishop of Auckland, was one of the consecrating prelates. Monsignor Cattaneo succeeded Monsignor Bonzano, the present Delegate to the United States, as Rector of the great, missionary college of the Propaganda within the walls of which students of every nation on earth are prepared for the priesthood. Monsignor Bonzano's appointment to the responsible position he holds in America has been crowned with success, and from Rome we hear that Australasia has reason to feel proud that his successor is to be her new Delegate. Our late Delegate now holds an office which practically corresponds to that of foreign secretary for the Holy See. Writing of him in the Catholic Bulletin, "Scottus" says: "Providence has afforded him many opportunities —in Italy, America, and Aus-

tralia—of acquiring that experience of men and things which is so indispensable to one who is to help in moulding the destinies of peoples. During his years in America he was brought into close contact with the Irish race and learned to estimate their worth. The experience derived across the Atlantic cannot but have ripened under the Southern Cross. From this point of view one could wish for no more promising asset in this crucial period of our country's history. And personally I have reason to look back with pleasure and satisfaction to the attitude he adopted nearly three years ago, when, on his way through England to Rome from America, three eminent Englishmen, one of whom is now no more, tried to use him as a vehicle for the spread of their newest pet theory that Irish freedom would be disastrous to the interests of the Church, and even injurious to the temporal interests of the Irish people." - Chickens Come Home to Roost Every day wo now hear new protests against the growth of immorality in this Dominion. And from beyond the seas the cry is re-echoed. The evidences of the want of self-restraint resulting in scandalous breaches of the laws of God are appalling. There is no need to dwell on the proofs we have of the havoc wrought by vice among our unfortunate soldiers who have been plunged by the war into the midst of temptations which they were no way prepared to withstand. It is enough to say that a more terrible foe than their enemies in the field is striking them down, and that for many of them death in the trenches were preferable to the consequences of their sins. Still less is there need to call attention to the plague rife in our midst here at home at a time when we ought to be doing penance in sack-cloth and ashes if we were not blind to all the lessons of the war. Over and over again it has been preached from the house-tops that no legislation will strike at the root of the evil. From America and England and Germany warnings are uttered regularly that nothing is of any avail but the fear and love of God. Even men who have advocated the secular schools are forced to admit their dire failure, and to recognise that without religious training the morals of the young people can never be saved from shipwreck. Grave men of every Church have condemned the system which, in spite of the testimony of our senses and of the evidences of awful results, is still perversely supported even by ministers of religion. The sentence of the secular schools of New -Zealand is written in the daily records of the police courts ; it is written in letters of fire in the annals of our expeditionary forces. And if commen sense and common decency have not lost their force, the time will come when the men who are responsible for maintaining that system will be branded as criminals. In a sermon preached at St. Paul's Presbyterian Church, Christchurch, on August 5, the Rev. J. Paterson told his hearers in unmistakable words where the cause of the rottenness lay. "The war," he said, "was teaching that there was no real uplifting of character in secular culture. There was a great warning in it for New Zealanders. They talked with pride of their secular education, but they were trying to build upon a foundation of shifting sands.- Unless in the hearts of men and rulers there was placed the fear of God there was not sufficient, force making for truth and justice." We endorse these remarks of Mr. Paterson, and recommend them to the consideration of our legislators. As we are going on at present New Zealand bids fair to rival France in its unenviable record amongst the nations. * Here a word as to the material cost of the unpardonable and exploded system by the maintenance of which the Minister always draws the plaudits of a clique of men too blind to see a danger which is overwhelming people who care for purity and decency with fear. The present cost of education — if any sane man will dare call it so — in this country is accord-

ing to the latest report £1,704,000. It is costing the country three times as much to-day as it cost seventeen years ago, and twice as much in proportion to the population. And if the number of children was to-day in the same proportion to the population as then, there should be 1800 more attending schools now than there are. ' That the children are not there is one of the effects of the system itself. It costs £l2O to educate a child who remains to take advantage of the High Schools. As a matter of fact only one in every thirty children go on to the High Schools at all, and parents who cannot take advantage of these schools have to pay for this minority. The Otago High Schools—take only one example — cost the State £9379 for the year, and this was payed by parents who in most cases derived absolutely no advantages from the schools in question. And what are they paying for? They are paying for a system which is not education at all. The money levied from them is going to support schools condemned by statesmen who are willing to look facts in the face, and by ministers of religion whose Gospel does not altogether consist in bigotry, as being utter failures in so far as the preparation of children for becoming worthy members of society goes, and as positive stumbling blocks where the welfare of their souls is concerned. Only those who have no regard for the welfare of the Dominion can consistently support such schools: to all who believe in God and in a future life they are nothing short of an abomination. Francis Ledwidge Lord Dunsany tells us that he had long looked for a star in the same part of the sky, and that he found it where he looked for it when Francis Ledwidge raised his voice in song among the Irish peasants, among whom alone, he,says, "was a diction worthy of poetry, as well as an imagination capable of dealing with the great and simple thing's that are a poet's wares." This new' poet is kin to John Keats in his Greek sense of light and beauty— limpid beauty of words, exquisite beauty of ideas, delicate beauty of art. His muse does not build unsubstantial, aery fabrics in fairyland: to quote Lord Dunsany again, it is a "mirror reflecting beautiful fields ... a very still lake on a very cloudless evening." We limit ourselves to a few extracts from much that clamors for quotation: A Little Boy in the Morning. lie will not come, and still I wait. He whistles at another gate, Where angels listen. Ah, I know He will not come: yet if 1 go, How shall I know he did not pass Barefooted in the flowery grass I The moon leans on one silver horn, Above the silhouettes of morn. And from their nest-sills finches whistle, Or stooping, pluck the downy thistle. How is the morn so gay and fair Without his whistling in the air? The world is calling, I must go. How shall I know he did not pass Barefooted through the shining grass ? Growing Old. We'll fill a Provence bowl and pledge us deep The memory of the far ones, and between The soothing pipes, in heavy lidded sleep, Perhaps we'll dream the things that once have been. 'Tis only noon and still too soon to die, Yet we are growing old, my heart and I. Across a bed of bells the river flows, And roses dawn, but not for us; we want The new thing ever as the old thing grows Spectral and weary- on the hills we haunt. And that is why we feast, and that is why We're growing old, my heart and I.

April. And I will meet her on the hills of South, And I will lead her to a northern water, My wild one, the sweet beautiful uncouth, The eldest maiden of the Winter's daughter. And down the rainbows of her noon shall glide Lark music, and the little sunbeam people, And nomad wings shall fill the river side, And ground winds rocking in the lilies steeple.