Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LII, Issue 49, 9 December 1925, Page 22

Current Topics

What Mussolini Has Done Readers of that interesting book. The Lady Next Door, will remember how Harold Begbie exploded the legend of the superiority of Belfast, so long maintained by the British press. He told the naked truth about the ugliness of Ulster wherever it was Orange, and he paid a long overdue tribute to , the calumniated Catholics for whom British Fair Play had no fairness. Now, at a time when Mussolini’s activities in ridding Italy of pests of all kinds, including Masons ,are stimulating our old friends, the calumniators of Catholic Ireland, to defame the Italian Dace, Harold Begbie once more protests in the name of truth, and tells English readers' that he has seen for himself how much Italy has improved and how far cleaner her cities are than those of England, as a result of the Facist leader’s efforts on behalf of his country. Not only is' there less indication of vice in the streets, but there is a seriousness and sense of patriotism among the people which it would be well for England to imitate. '• Some Reforms Besides the institution of the Governorate of Rome, and the Podestd in communes having less than 5000 inhabitants, there will be ten Rectors, each charged with the task of supervising, under the Governor, a special department. An Advisory Committee will be composed of representatives of profess! "mal orders and trade corporations. It will number eighty, and its members shall be appointed by the Crown. The Podestd will be nominated by the Prefects of the Province in which the commune lies. He will be assist .A by a council analogous to that advising the Governor. The members of the council shall be nominated by the Prefect from a list of names sent in by the trade or profession to be represented. A reform of lie Senate, whereby ultimately it shall become a House of Faculties, mainly elected by trade corporations and professional orders, is contemplated. Parliamentary procedure, it i? suggested, should be altered as follows. Bills, after passing through the new department under the Premier for expert approval by the Cabinet, would be discussed in detail bv committees of the Senate and Chamber, after which one single general discussion and vote would take place in each House. Bills' rejected would not- necessitate the resignation of the Cabinet, this only becoming inevitable (except for new elections) should an explicit vote of no confidence be given by both Houses. Representation of corporations and professions will be introduced probably in place of the present system for local government purposes in communes with over 5000 inhabitants.

Energetic measures have been taken by the Government and the Fascist Directory as a sequel to the Florence disturbances. The local Fascist Directory'at l Florence has been dissolved, and -General Balb" has been appointed with full powers to reorganise local

organisation and purge it of unruly members. The Prefect of Florence has been retired because he failed to keep order. A Siennese Fascist Legion has been broken up. In Rome, where following the Florence disturbances a Fascist band invaded the headquarters of the Grand Orient, wrecking the furniture, the secretary of the Roman Fascist organisation has been dismissed. These measures have been favorably received by the Opposition press as an earnest of the Government’s firm desire to suppress violence and enforce discipline in the Fascist ranks. A “ Garrison ” Plot It has been stated by Mr. Kevin O’Higgins that persons in Dublin have formed a secret organisation for the purpose of combating anti-British trade tendencies in the Irish Free State, and that an ex-officer, who was canvassing, disclosed the fact that they were first going to concentrate on the new Shannon Hydro-Electric Scheme. It goes without saying that England did not enjoy having Germans called over to Ireland to do work which the British firms were incapable of doing, and it is only natural that the agents in Ireland should be inspired to hinder the progress of the scheme. This, together with the apparent duplicity connected with the Boundary Commission, is not likely to promote better relations .between England and Ireland, and of course it will all strengthen the hands of the extreme Republicans and give them useful material for propaganda. The Weekly Irish News reports that in the course of a recent speech at Waterford, Mr. Higgins, Minister for Justice, referring to the Shannon dispute, said he did not share the view that the rate offered by the contractors was unreasonable, and he disclosed the fact that persons' in Dublin have within the last month been canvassed to join or subscribe to a secret organisation “to combat certain anti-British trade tendencies” in the Free State. The agent, an ex-officer, said they were concentrating on the Shannon scheme, which they hoped to render abortive, after which they would “find further fields for useful enedavor.” Mr. O’Higgins denied that there were any anti-British tendencies. Other countries have been free to make offers which were advantageous. No rival proposals came from Britain. There was no sentimentalism in it. It was not development by French, Germans, Belgians ,or Americans that was objected to, but development would continue despite any force, secret or open. “Enterprise and development are in the air,” he said-in conclusion. “We have passed out from the ravine. The people know that they own their country and can make what they will of it. No amount of cant about midnight treaties can alter that.”

Mr. MacDonald on Lord Birkenhead

At Liverpool, recently, Mr. MacDonald made a few caustic remarks concerning certain literary activities and, although he

mentioned no names, nobody needed telling that he referred to Lord Birkenhead . The speaker said he had “missed several press opportunities,” meaning that he had re- ~ fused to write well-paid articles for certain papers “He thought the whole idea of selling one’s >. x name, and it was nothing else, was absolutely ' : detestable. If you can write nonsense, superficial, commonplace, stuff without style or distinction, and just put your name to it, and if you happen to be the Chief Hangman of your generation, you get £IOOO an article for it; whereas if you were a poor journalist you would nob get a guinea.” The Irish Weekly News, commenting on this, remarked that the Earl of Birkenhead is not, of course, “the Chief Hangman of his generation”; but he was the head of the English legal system. He wrote reams of “superficial, commonplace stuff without style or distinction”; Mr. MacDonald spoke by the book, no doubt, when he said that the “Contributions” thus characterised were paid for at the goodly rate of £IOOO an article. But ‘the poor journalist,” even in his poverty, would not put his name to the ‘pot-boilers” published over the signatures of Lord Birkenhead and other more or less eminent cuckoos of the newspapers in England. ft was time that someone who will be listened to spoke frankly about the kind of “enterprise” favored by the new class of press “Napoleons” in Great Britain; and Mr. MacDonald knew his subject, as he has always been, and is, a working journalist. The Belgian Bishops and Socialism The Catholics and Socialists came to a cornypromise upon which the present administration of Belgium is based. The Bishops, while recognising this, condemn Socialism because of its doctrines, many of which are opposed to the Gospel and to the teachings of the Church on the dignity of the soul and the dignity of Christian men and women, on the essential laws of- the conjugal life, and on the respect due to universal justice, and to the fraternity of peoples. They explain that the compromise does not change the respective programmes of the parties or effect their doctrines, but. has been arrived at as a basis of administration. Hence a prudent confidence in those who have agreed to govern the country is not to be confounded with a compromise of doctrines. In conclusion, they say “Never has Catholic organisation of social action appeared so necessary as at the present hour. “Socialism has aided and may still aid in redressing certain abuses against which we protest with the same energy and at least with as much sincerity as its partisans do, but it is not capable of placing social order upon a solid basis. The Real Remedy. “What is wanted is respect for all rights —for the rights of labor and for those of capital as well, the harmonisation of siiy j rights in professional organisations suppor- ... A ted by law, the substitution of the reality of nature for the individualistic dreams, and

f: ; a universal suffrage aiding in consolidating order and peace, at an equal distance of the ||| two branches of the alternative with which V the political parties threaten us: anarchy '! or dictatorship. . . “The day upon which the work-givers’ organisations and the Christian workingmen’s instead of arranging themselves into classes tearing each other to pieces, will unite, in mutual confidence, to set up the economical society upon the foundation of the Gospel, the social question will be solved and peace re-established.” The Locarno Pact The central part of the Pact which is going to patch up the Treaty of Versailles, unless it becomes yet one more monument to the folly of the statesmen of this age, is the Treaty of Mutual Guarantees. Subsidiary to this are four treaties of arbitration between Germany and her eastern and western neighbors, two treaties of guarantee between France and Poland and France and Czechoslovakia, and a draft collective Note from the former Allies to Germany, defining their interpretation of Article 16 of the Covenant. Signature was formally affixed in London on December 1. It is anticipated that they will become part of the public law of Europe in the New Year. None of the treaties become operative until Germany enters the League of Nations, so that, in addition to formal signature, special meetings of the Council and Assembly must be held to elect her. The Pact itself is not a complete denial of the right to fight. Warfare is legitimate in four cases (which may be described as specified instances of self-defence), but in three of these cases the party ’which thinks N itself aggrieved will be the judge of the facts and of the urgency of making war on its own account without the sanction of the League or of any other international authority. The danger implicit in this loophole is great or little according to one’s belief in the loyalty of the Powers concerned in carrying out the other and guiding principles of the Pact. These provide for the submission of “all questions of every kind” (1) to normal diplomatic procedure, (2) to judicial procedure, under either an arbitral tribunal or the Hague Court, (3) to a Permanent Conciliation Commission (where (1) has failed and (2) does not apply), and. lastly (4), if all these methods' fail, to the League. Warfare becomes legitimate only three months after the failure of (3) (and then only against a State which has already attacked), or in the event of some flagrant contravention of the demilitarisation of the Rhineland, sufficient to threaten an immediate breach of the peace. Great Britain and Italy undertake to support these provisions by force of arms, compulsorily, at the dictate of the League, and on their own appreciation of the facts if time does not permit the calling in of the League. Similar provisions apply in the East, except that the guarantee is supplied by France instead of by Great Britain and Italy, that it is unilateral and does , W- not operate to the advantage of Germany, v who will have to rely upon the Covenant alone.

An Appeal Against England Mr. O. G. Esmond, T.D., who was recently in Geneva, issued to the Irish press a statement in which he says: “I am in a position to confirm the statement in the Journal de Geneve last Sunday, that the Irish Free State will soon be obliged to appeal to the League of Nations for the protection of the Irish Nationalist minorities in the area known as Northern Ireland, which is still under the authority of the British Government. “Although since the passing of the Gilbert Murray resolutions by the Third Assembly, the League has been recognised as the general protector of minorities, it has hitherto refused to intervene when appealed to by minorities whose right to League protection is not specifically stated in some Treaty or understanding. “Consequently, it is not possible for the Irish minorities to bring their case directly before the League themselves, which makes it necessary for the Irish Free State to intervene and appeal to the Council on their behalf, under Article XII of the Covenant. Reasons for Appeal. “The main reasons for this appeal are as follows: The Belfast authorities have organised a secret army estimated at 45,000 men, the ranks of which are open exclusively to anti-Irish elements, and the sole, and openly admitted, object of which is to terrorise and suppress the rights of the minorities'. “The existence of this army, which is openly subsidised by the Imperial Government, is in direct violation of the AngloIrish Treaty of 1921, in which there is the understanding that the Belfast Government shall have no power whatever to organise or control any military force. Disfranchisement. “Secondly, the Provincial Legislature has passed a series of enactments for the purpose of disfranchising the minorities and eliminating them from the local administration. They began by abolishing the system of Proportional Representation, and proceeded to re-arrange and ‘ gerrymander ’ the electoral areas with the same object. These laws have been so successful, and have been carried out so thoroughly, that the minoritieswho number between 400, and 500.000, or just over one-third of the total population of the area —have been practically completely eliminated from the local administration, their members have been removed from pubile positions, and their Parliamentary franchise reduced to a farce. The Treaty. “It is the contention of the Irish Free State that these laws are in striking violation of Article XVI of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, which laid down that the Parliament of Northern Ireland should not make any law so as either directly or indirectly to give any preference or impose any disability on account of .religious belief or status. “The continued suppression of these minorities. accompanied as it is by grave violation of the Treaty which was registered at

Geneva last year, would inevitably lead to" - serious trouble between Ireland and Great Britain, were the matter not brought before the League, ll “It is hoped by this means to obtain protection of the elementary rights of these populations, which the Irish Free State is both morally and legally bound to defend,” ■ The German Centre Party According to Dr, Wirth, the time has come for a radical re-organisation of the German Centre Party, the traditional bulwark of Catholic political influence in the Fatherland. He says it is necessary that a strong leader shall arise and stake his reputation and personality on a fight against reaction. A movement to preserve the democratic spirit and to appeal to all German Democrats must start within the Party. It is expected that such a campaign would have strong support among those who opposed the steam-rolling of the tariff and tax Bills through the Reichstag. According to the Irish Catholic three important elements have already rallied to Dr. Wirth’s aid. The first is the Catholic Youth, representing one of the strongest and most intelligent youth movements in Germany; the second is the Baden Centrist organisation, under the leadership of Monsignor Schofer; and the third is the Catholic Workers’ Organisation, which . is powerful in Rheinland and 'Westphalia. Another factor that is expected to permit Chancellor Wirth to make headway is the death of Dr. Peter Spahn, former president of the Reichstag and leader of the Centrists for many years. Dr. Spahn was a member of the Reich for thirty-three years and regarded as a mouthpiece of his party. His tendencies were known to be reactionary. In sounding his call for a new policy Chancellor Wirth is quoted as saying : The politics of the last weeks have been raw and primitive. If to-day there were new elections in Germany, the results of the Hindenburg elections would not be the same, I believe the political situation in Germany needs clarifying. The Catholic Centre must again throw its pivotal influence with the parties of the republic and the democracy.