Leading Articles in the Reviews. 



69 



THE INSURANCE BILL. 



There are two articles on the Insurance Bill in 

 the Fortnightly Riview — one by a writer signing 

 .himself "Auditor Tantum," who, under the title 

 of "The Insurance Bill in the Commons," dis- 

 cusses the part played by men and parties in the 

 House of Commons. He pays high tribute to 

 Mr. Lloyd George. He says that while he has 

 acquired another flowing feather to adorn his well- 

 jjlumed hat, the feather is not a little damaged in 

 parts when you come to look at it. The Front 

 Opposition Bench has avoided the Insurance Bill. 

 Mr. H.. W. Forster, who led the Opposition on the 

 question, was hopelessly outclassed by Mr Lloyd 

 George. Neither Mr. Austen Chamberlain nor Mr 

 F. E. Smith did any work worth speaking of. Little 

 individual glory has been won on the Ministerial 

 side. Lloyd George found the most useful ally in 

 Mr. Handel Booth, whom " .Auditor Tantum " com- 

 pares to an Airedale terrier keeping watch over 

 Mr. Lloyd George. .\s for the Labour Members, 

 their contribution to the general discussion has been 

 exceedingly disappointmg.' 



Mr. 'I". .\. Ingram, writing on the Act and the 

 objections that have been taken to it, thinks that it 

 was inevitable that it should meet with the opposition 

 it encountered, but thousands of people will bear 

 witness to the good it has wrought in their lives. 



Mr. Percy Alden, M.P., writes at length in the 

 Contemporary Revicio on "The State Insurance .Vet," 

 dealing chiefly with the provisions relating to insurance 

 against unemployment. He says :— 



Two things, however, are cerlain : (he first is that, as in the 

 case of Germany, a very larpe proportion of ihe woiking cKisses 

 may anlicipalc a real improvement in their social conditions ; 

 and, secondly, that the more glaring defects of the measure 

 will stand out in relief before the Act has been in operation 

 for many months, and that these defects will have to be 

 remedied. 



It would be quite safe to prophesy that within a year or 

 (wo something like three millions of men, both skilled and 

 unskille<l, will be insured against unemployment as compared 

 with the comparatively insignificant number so insured at the 

 present lime. 



WHY ULSTER WILL FIGHT. 

 To Dfci.ivEK Caiiiulics 1 kom Priesilv Tvr.\xnv 



Mk. L. Copk Cornkmkd contributes to the 

 National Rniav an article entitled " Home Rule — 

 the Real Issue." He says :— 



The real evil, as every Irishman knows to his bitter cost, is 

 that religious intolerance is habitually and rigidly exercised 

 .igainst koman ( atholics by the Koman Catholic prii-thood. 

 The Irish Koman t'alholic is tin- slave of the priest. That he 

 should l>c taught this religious dogma or that is another atlair 

 with which no one need interfere. But ihe priest claims all. 

 lie claims the body and the soul and the goods of hi-, people, 

 and enforces his claim with threats of grievous physical ill in 

 this world and the fires of purgalmy in the next. No man tan 

 marry without permission of the priest. If he takes to wife a 

 Protestant, the Church, under Ihe A'c Temeii decree, declares 

 ibc marriage null and void, and the chililren of it are denounce<t 

 as Inslards. No man can buy ur sell or hold a farm but by 



leave of the priest. No man dare vote but as Ihe priest directs. 

 No man can s.-»ve a penny more than the priest will spare him, 

 unless the poor wretch hoards in secret. There is not an honest 

 man who knows what Ireland is to-day who will not vouch for 

 the absolute truth of every one of these statements. 



Now if Ireland were wholly Roman Catholic, to confer Home 

 Rule upon her would be virtually to confer the power of civil 

 governance upon the Roman Catholic priesthood. But, as about 

 one-fourth of the population is Protestant, the iflVct of granting 

 Home Rule to Ireland would be to place the Protestant 

 minority at the mercy of a Roman Catholic majority. Hence 

 the outbreak of civil war will instantly follow upon the institu- 

 tion of an Irish Government. Amid the sh:.dow-dance of 

 politics : the vacillations, whisperings, intrigues, boasting, com- 

 plaints, false promises and confusions that have stupefied the 

 biow-bcaten British public, there has been at least one real 

 tiling, and its name is Ulster. There are (let us say) two 

 hundred thousand or so resolute men in northeast Ulster who 

 have made a last stand against the betrayal hy consent which 

 has been so smoothly proceeding during the last five years. 



PROGRESS OF FRENCH AVIATION. 

 Mr. T. F. F.^r.man writes in Blackiuood o\\ French 

 aviation in 1911. He declares that the French 

 War Minister in announcing that the experimental 

 phase of military aviation is closed, and the period of 

 the organisation of the Fourth \x\\\ has commenced, 

 made a statement of momentous importance to the 

 whole world. The utility of the aeroplane was mani- 

 fested strikingly in the autumn maiiceuvres In regard 

 to artillery operations. General Bailloud told his 

 officers to remember the 31st of .August, 191 1, be- 

 cause it is the date marking the greatest step 

 forward made for a very long time in the method of 

 firing : — 



Rising to the altitude of over 4,ocx) feet to ensure their own 

 safely, the aeroplanes flew over the enemy, and then, returning 

 to Froideterre, dropped written indications of the exact spots 

 where the shells had fallen, and thus enabled the artillerymen 

 to rectify iheir fire. The military umpires declared the attack- 

 ing force, though invisible, would have been annihilated by the 

 artillery. 



Colonel Bernard was so impressed that he affirmed 

 two batteries and one aeroplane are five times more 

 redoubtable than three batteries without an aeroplane. 



How rapidly aeroplanes have been improved 

 during the past twelve months is seen from the fact 

 that when the French military aeroplane competi- 

 tion was instituted at the end of 1910 there was not a 

 single aerial craft in any part of the world capable of 

 executing any one of the tests im(H)sed by the pro- 

 gramme. Vet of the thirty diftcrent types admitted to 

 the contest nine accom[)lished the five very difficult 

 tests. Mr. Farman predicts that as 191 1 saw the 

 definite adoption of the aeroplane for scouting, 

 cstafette duly, and as the auxiliary of artillery, 1912 

 will witness its advent in the battlefield as an inslru- 

 menl of combat. The bomb-dropping problem is, 

 however, complex. It is difticult to take accurate 

 aim. One of the best aviator.s in the world tried to 

 drop a wreath of immortelles on the wreck of the 

 Lihcrtt, but, though only sixty or seventy feet high, he 

 missed his aim by some fifty feet. 



