The Progress of the World. 



H3 



disturbances in Belfast ; but he concluded, 

 " I cannot acquit statesmen opposite of 

 responsibility for open incitement to vio- 

 lence." One hopes that Mr Asquith is 

 aware of the responsibility attaching to his 

 own utterance. If " statesmen opposite " 

 are responsible for open incitement to 

 violence, the law should be enforced in 

 their case as relentlessly as in the case of 

 Mr. Tom Mann or any sedition-monger. 

 Mr. Gladstone did not hesitate to avail 

 himself of the unexhausted resources of 

 civilisation by putting Mr. Parncll and the 

 Irish leaders into prison. If incitement to 

 violence is a crime, then the Government 

 is responsible for the punishment of such 

 crime, no matter how highly placed the 

 criminals may be. If a Prime Minister, 

 speaking in the full responsibility of his 

 office, charges political opponents with con- 

 duct that is criminal, and takes no steps to 

 punish the criminals, he himself becomes, 

 however unwillingly, a partner in their 

 guilt and a passive accomplice in rebellion. 

 At a time when there is 

 The Mockery talk and danger of war and 

 of It All. international complication, 

 when we dream of Dread- 

 noughts and defence, it is strikingly absurd 

 to hnd that any idea of war or the need for 

 war preparations is absent from the minds 

 of the people of this country. We wonder 

 why the Army is not more efficient, we 

 make light of the Territorials, we allow 

 the National Reserve to be financed 

 by individuals more or less patriotically 

 sincere. And yet we are to blame for 

 it all. It has been reserved for the Dis- 

 trict Council of Sheringham, near Cromer, 

 to hold :i minor up to the nation, and to 

 show us the hollow mockery of it all. This 

 courageous council, although situated on 

 the East Coast, ex|)osed to (lerman attack 



should it come, forbade that Territorial 

 mananivres should be held there — because 

 it would interfere with the golf and disturb 

 the old ladies ! And how was this tender 

 and patriotic solicitude for the welfare of 

 the nation met by the British Government r 

 It arranged to change all the plans and have 

 the manoeuvres in Wales ! Comment is 

 unnecessary. Does it not make thinking 

 men and women wish for a period of strong- 

 handed dictatorship, when national necessi- 

 ties would stand before the tremendous 

 interests of the golfer and the bathchair 

 man ? 



_. In foreign affairs perhaps 



Mediterranean the most significant event 



^"<l is the manifestation on the 



Austria. ^ . • , 



part or .Vustria to come 

 to some arrangement with this country 

 with regard to naval construction. .We 

 have heard so much of the Austrian 

 Dreadnoughts that we almost imagine 

 them to be patrolling the Mediterranean 

 already ; and it is refreshing to learn 

 that there are responsible j)ersons who are 

 considering whether it would not be better 

 to abandon the grandiose scheme of naval 

 construction in exchange for a guarantee 

 from us that the Austrian coasts should not 

 be attacked. How the arrangement could be 

 made, or whether any arrangement is prac- 

 tical, is of less importance ; what counts is 

 that there seems to be a chance of friendly 

 ra/)/>roc/i('iiu'n/ with Austria. We are too 

 ready to forget Austria as a vital factor in 

 I'yuropean politics, blinded bv the more 

 flamboyant a|)pearance of (Germany ; but, 

 in reality, if Austria desires peace as cor- 

 dially as we do, much of the menace of war 

 will have been averted. Let no time be 

 lost in entering into friendly discussion with 

 Austria in order to see what can be done. 

 In any event, no harm can be ilone, and a 



