THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING WORLD.
By EVELYN WRENCH.
THE announcement that South Africa will take part in the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley in 1924 has caused much satisfaction, for now all the Dominions will be represented. It has been suggested in South Africa that the services of Mr. Herbert Baker, -the designer of the beautiful Government offices at Pretoria, of Rhodes's house, " Groote Schuur," and many - other buildings in the Union should be secured. A committee under the chairmanship of Sir William Hay has been appointed, and the South African exhibit is to include a miniature ostrich farm, in which the wearers of ostrich plumes will be able to see with their own eyes that there is nothing cruel in the plucking process. It is to be hoped that the organizers of all the Dominions' sections will employ a little imagination in selecting their exhibits. Jars of golden apples, bales of wool, glass cases of nuggets and various metals are frankly boring to all but the expert. What we want is something which will enable the stay-at-home to visualize the life of the Dominions. The promoters would do well to employ a D. W. Griffith or some other moving- picture master of effects. Give the Londoner the chance of seeing a typical Western Canadian shack, with farm- yard complete; an up-country squatter's home in the Australian back blocks—tame wallaby, white cockatoo and all; or a Rhodesian pioneer's home, with his black domestic staff in attendance.
The Naval Committee of the House of Representatives at Washington has requested President Harding to summon a new Naval Armaments Conference to complete the unfinished work of the Washington Conference of last winter. The object of the suggested Conference would be to arrive at an international agreement for restricting the numbers of auxiliary naval vessels of less than 10,000 tons. New and larger types of sub- marine craft, for example, are appearing. Unless an agreement is reached, the Committee foresees that the United States Government will be compelled to launch a new building programme for auxiliary naval vessels. At the Washington Conference the British delegates urged that the construction of submarines should be forbidden, but the French would not consent.
The Child Labour Act which has been passed by the Hong-Kong Legislature may fall far short of our Western standards, but nevertheless is a great step forward. Mr. Basil Matthews, the editor of Outward Bound, sends the following comments on the Act :— " Many thousands of boys and girls—eight and nine years old—are taken down in droves or by wheel-barrow loads, in Shanghai and other Chinese centres, to the spinning mills on twelVe-hour shifts, for an infinitesimal wage. They are also set to work carrying in the coal mines, and on building jobs. This industrial develop- ment in China is assuming enormous proportions, and its evils hive become a scandal not only to the Chinese, but to Western factory owners.
The Child Labour Act is the result of a Commission of which Miss Pitts, of the Church Missionary Society, and the Rev. H. R. Wells, of the London Missionary Society, were important members. The chief provisions are :- 1. No child under the age of ten shall be employed in a factory or any child at all in dangerous trades (manufacture of fire- works or of glass).
2. No child under the age of twelve shall be employed in carrying coal, building material or debris. 3. No child shall be allowed to work for more than nine hours out of the twenty-four in any industrial undertaking, and not more than five hours continuously, while one day's rest in seven is compulsory. 4. No child shall be employed in any industrial undertaking between seven p.m. and seven. a.m..
-5. No child shall be allowed to carry unreasonably' heavy weights, no load to exceed 58 lbs." It was Mr. John Burns who once described Miss Jane Addams, who has come to Europe to represent America at the International Conference of the Women's Inter- national League at the Hague, as " America's greatest citizen." Even those who differed most widely from her attitude during the War—for Miss Addams was at that time one of the leaders of the Peace party in America— would be the first to commend the wonderful social work which she has performed. Hull House, in one of the poorest sections of Chicago, stands as a lasting monument to her life work. Its social and educational activities have not only had a profound influence on the civic life of her native city of Chicago, but have been copied in all parts of the English-speaking world.
The policy of the Federal Government with regard to the development of the Northern Territory—Australia's white elephant, it is frequently termed—has been an- nounced by Senator Pearce, Minister for Home and Territories, at Adelaide. It is proposed to extend the railway from its present terminus at Oodnadatta, where there is a rainfall of only five inches per annum, to the MacDonnell Ranges, in the very heart of Australia. If oil were struck in the Northern Territory, and there are many indications of its presence, the development of the country would be rapid. Oil or no oil, the Federal Government believes in the great pastoral and mineral possibilities of the MaeDonnell Ranges country.
Strenuous efforts are being made to help educated women to emigrate to the British Dominions. It is now announced that a pioneer party of fifty British women is to leave for Sydney, N.S.W., in February. The scheme is being furthered by the Society for Oversee Settlement of British Women, 3-4 Clement's Inn, London, by the Feminist Club in Sydney and by the Sydney Evening News. It is suggested that British women should, for a year or so after their arrival in Australia, take up household duties as companions and lady-helps in the country districts to enable them to make friends and become acclimatized before striking out for them- selves. Hitherto women, other than those classed as " domestic servants," have not received any help on a large scale. It is important to notice that the Sydney Feminist Club undertakes to help in providing employ- ment, hospitality and social introductions.
The Irish are proverbially a long-lived race, but surely the death of William Kennedy at Holden, Alberta, at the age of 120, as reported by the Times Toronto corre- spondent, establishes a record in recent years so far as an emigrant is concerned. For Kennedy faced the perils of an Atlantic voyage, and sought to make a fresh home for himself, at the age of 100. The person who reported Kennedy's death to the Canadian Registrar of Vital Statistics says that he has documentary proof that Kennedy was baptized on September 25th, 1802, by the Rev. John Richardson, parish priest of Enniskillen.
The polling for the Australian Commonwealth election took place last week and the position of parties in the new Parliament is as follows :—Nationalist, 27 ; Labour, 81 ; Country Party, 12 ; Liberal, 4 ; Independent, 1. The outstanding feature of the election was the smallness of the polling in Victoria ; only 50 per cent. of the electors voted. All the women candidates were defeated. Mr. Hughes's party, the Nationalists, who had thirty- eight seats in the last House, lost seats in several of the States. There were very heavy Labour majorities in Victoria and New South Wales. Mr. Hughes was himself returned for North Sydney, but at the moment of writing it seems unlikely that he will be able to form a Govern- ment unless a coalition can be arranged-
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