THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING WORLD.
By EVELYN WRENCH.
/1HE extraordinary interest which the American public takes in British affairs. nowadays. is illustrated by the amount of news about the British Election 'which the American correspondents in London are sending to their journals. During the past three weeks several of the more important speeches by the Prime Minister and Mr. Lloyd George have been cabled to journals like the New York Times and Philadelphia Public Ledger practically verbatim. The eagerness with which Ameri- cans are following events is attributed by Mr. Samuel G. Blythe, the correspondent of the Saturday Evening Post, to the fact that Mr. Lloyd George is the British politician best known to Americans since Gladstone. Whatever the cause may be, the truth is that the American Press is spending sums of money on its cable service undreamt of not long ago and is second to none in the extent and accuracy of its foreign news. The writer recalls dis- cussing in New York sixteen years ago the lack of British news in the American Press with the late Mr. WT. H. Page, then editor of the World's Work, subsequently Ambassador in London. That distinguished journalist deplored the existing state of affairs. He always believed that the only secure foundation for British- American co-operation was a plentiful supply of cable news. How he would have welcomed the present enterprise of the leading American journals !
Electioneering is very much the order of the day throughout the English-speaking world. First came the Congressional elections in the United States, the result of which was to reduce the Republican majority in the House of Representatives to fifteen and in the Senate to ten. The Democratic success in the Eastern States was partly due to the unpopularity of Prohibition and the desire of many city-dwellers for an amendment of the Volstead Law so as to permit the sale of light wines and beer. On the other hand, it is instructive to note that American sentiment in favour of " wet " legislation is by no means universal and that the State of Ohio rejected a modification of the existing law admitting wines and beer on a referendum. Nevertheless, the " wets " believe that the modification of the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution will become a live issue at the next election two years hence.
It is not only in the United States that electioneering has been in progress. Both Australia and New Zealand are almost in the throes. The General Election in New Zealand takes place during the first week in December and the Australian election shortly afterwards. As in Great Britain, the political situation in Australia, especially in Victoria, is confused owing to the secession of an im- portant body of Liberals from the Nationalists. The indefatigable Mr. Hughes has been conducting a vigorous campaign in South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales, and is now making a tour of Queensland. In New Zealand, Mr. Massey, who recently celebrated the completion of his tenth year as Prime Minister, has adopted the slogans of economy in public services and increased production. His opponent, Mr. Wilford, the Liberal leader, also advocates economy, and urges the need for the development of national resources with Whitley Councils giving the workers a voice in the control of the industries. Mr. Wilford also advocates, according to the Times' Wellington correspondent, " the encouragement of the co-operative marketing of produce and legislation enabling the Government, the producers, and the importers to establish co-partnership with the shipping lines."
The famous manifesto appealing for the support of the Dominions in the Turkish crisis has had a curious reflex action in Canada. It has tended once more to focus attention on the dangers of a situation in which the Dominion might find itself involved without warning in a world crisis, and it brings up again the whole question of Canadian representation at the heart of the Empire. In his book, The British Empire and World Peace, Mr. N. W. Rowell, one of Sir Robert Borden's colleagues at the Peace Conference, urges that the status of the Canadian High Commissioner in London should be completely changed, and that he should become the intermediary between the British and Canadian Govern- ments. " Does not Canada's position now entitle her," he asks, " to request that her High Commissioner should deal directly with the Prime Minister or the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs ? " The suggestion has also been made that a Canadian Cabinet Minister should reside in London. If the latter course were adopted, the other Dominions in due time would probably follow suit. We should therefore have in London four or five Dominion Cabinet Ministers. In this event the forma- tion of an Imperial Cabinet—or whatever it might be called—similar to the Imperial War Cabinet would seem to be the next step. If such a Cabinet had been in existence during the Dardanelles crisis the Home Government would have learnt some home truths as to the Empire's determination not to be the catspaw of the pro-Hellenic Party here or elsewhere.
The present state of the postal service between Great Britain and Canada seems to require investigation. The Times' Toronto correspondent reports that British journals of October 14th and 16th were only delivered in that city on November 8th, a condition of affairs which might be tolerated in war-time, but which is disgraceful in peace. The lay public will be interested to ascertain exactly where the delay occurs. The Canadian Postal Department maintains that it is blame- less. The authorities at St. Martin's-le-Grand are apparently equally convinced of their innocence. In September, when the slow delivery of printed matter in the Dominion was criticized, they maintained that the delay " must have arisen in Canada." With almost daily sailings across the Atlantic delays such as these, wherever the responsibility rests, arc outrageous.
How many stay-at-home Britons arc aware that hitherto My Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty have been responsible for the administration of the island of Ascension—that outpost of Empire in the South Atlantic whose name conjures up visions for most of us of extra plump turtles destined to promote the cause of Empire by assuaging the pangs of hunger of our City fathers and their guests at public banquets ? For reasons of economy the island has now been handed over to the Colonial Office, and the personnel of the small naval station withdrawn. Ascension was first taken possession of by the British in 1815, when Napoleon was confined at St. Helena, and when the British -Government of the day was determined not to run the risk of a second " hundred days," and conse- quently occupied a volcanic peak arising out of the ocean 696 miles distant. The distance, especially when we remember a ship's speed in pre-steam days, calls to mind an alleged remark of the late Lord Salisbury. He is said to have declared that if we were to annex the moon the military authorities would be sure to argue that 'it was untenable unless we at once occupied Mars and put the Red Planet in a posture of defence 1
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