POLITICAL THOUGHT

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 133, 8 March 1940, Page 4

POLITICAL THOUGHT

RESOLVES ROUND TWO MAJOR ISSUES "With the widening of the range of subjects' to which we apply reason there is, of course, a narrowing of the fields in which our phantasies have free play, and one of these is nationality. Perhaps the task of this generation, a task thiust upon us all too quickly and forcibly by the rapidity and power of mechanical invention, is to clarify the emotional and political issues, both as Individuals and as nations. Political thought in Europe to-day resolves round two major issues, nationality and the regulation of economic life. No nation now facing a crisis can consider these matters solved, nor can any of them impose their own solution upon another group with any prospect of permanence ancl success. A realisation of this should, strengthen us to resist the egoism and ambition of tyrants, as it should also humble us before the no less gigantic task of fashioning the terms of armistice and peace. The boundaries of our social and economic life are dissolving away as a result of man's increasing control over the forces of nature; the facility of contact in peace and in war will be a sorry gain if the minds of the nations are not prepared to consider the new responsibilities which improvement in communications in* evitably brings in its train."