OVERSEAS OPINIONS

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 86, 5 January 1935, Page 16

OVERSEAS OPINIONS

A Harvest of Intellect.. ,! “My job makes it necessary for me to read widely. My impression is that i never before has English literature been more representative than it is to- ( day of the different shades of opinion and experiences of our times. My feel- • ing is that in England now, in literature, economics, politics, in education, in painting, and, I think, in music and certainly in poetry, we are like a twisted skein of many threads of different ‘counts’ and hues. We are afraid to say what we think lest the gods should feel we are ‘cocky’ and send a blight on next year's crop. I venture ! to say that in this country at this time, t in writing and painting, we are havj ing a bumper harvest.” —Sir Michael I Sadler, speaking at the “Sunday Times” Books Exhibition. “Shis and Shims.’’

) “At a women’s conference some years ago a member got up and pointed out that the tyranny of man appeared no less in the laws of grammar than in the laws of the land. While the masculine personal pronoun had three distinct forms, he, his and him, for the separate cases of the singular, the femnine pronoun had only two, she and her. She suggested as a remedy for this gross piece of injustice that the feminine pronoun should be declined she, shis and shim. If I could recall the lady’s name, and discover shis address, I should write to shim and congratulate shim on shis ingenious and attractive proposal. Unfortunately, the public has been blind to its merits.” —Dr. P. B. Ballard, in “Thoughts and Language.” Japan’s Minimum Demands. “No plan will satisfy our people unless the following points are incorporated therein: — “1. Early removal of the disadvantageous restrictions of the existing treaties. “2. Abolition of discriminatory ratios. ( “3. Guarantee of national security, “4. Acquisition of autonomy in national defence. “5. The realisation of a logical disarmament regime through voluntary reductions on the part of Powers not most highly armed under the existing treaties, and the fostering of a situation in which no nation will be able to menace another. “What Japan is demanding, in the last analysis, is absolute equality in the right of national existence. And all we ask to that end is thlat the Powers now most strongly armed should carry out reductions of their own accord so that all the.nations concerned may enjoy an unperturbed sense o’ security.”—Captain Sekine, of the Intelligence Bureau of the Navy Department in Tokio. Making Munitions for Profit.

; “Competitive sales of arms to small countries which do not manufacture them, through agents of financially ■powerful concerns, have the effect, and must have the effect, of fomenting the demand they supply; of increasing, if not of creating, the risks of wiar, of prolonging war when it comes, and rendering it more deadly. And in the great manufacturing countries themselves the same vast interests may, and sometimes do, powerfully operate upon public opinion and public policy, in some cases by the control of the Press, elsewhere by other methods. Public opinion cannot always be relied on to resist the insidious poison of interested propaganda which the most honourable of armaments manufacturers deplore and, in their own actions, abjure, but which they Cannot eliminate from the system in which they hvork. It is for this reason that, in spite of all the difficulties and even of some disadvantages of substantial though, I believe, secondary importance, I believe that it is a vital necessity that the world should attempt—and that we should give a lead to the world in attempting—to abolish the profit-making manufacture of arms.” — Sir Arthur Salter.

Ribbon Roads. “At a colossal public expense, running into many hundreds of millions of pounds since the war, these great Toads have been constructed. They were planned and paid for with the express purpose of avoiding built-up areas. But now the Gilbertian situation has arisen where these same roads have themselves become the centres of newly built-up areas; already there are instances where it will become necessary to bypass the bypass. Bor some unaccountable reason people like to live on these new arterial roads; they say there is more ‘life’ on them. Naturally, this provides the mainspring of the speculative builder’s activities. It is true that under our present town-planning legislation the local authorities and county councils can prevent ribbon development; but little or nothing has been done. For apart from the fact that many of our local councils and county councils are partly constituted by builders and speculators, the building Jaws—as distinct from the town-planning laws—seem to offer every inducement towards ribbon development and no inducement towards lateral development.”—“The Obferver” (London). Share Out or Go Out.

“This is a world where in the long run we never keep for ourselves anything which most we love unless we share it with the whole body of the people,” says Dr. Fosdick, the wellknown New York preacher. “We want health for ourselves and our families,” he goes on. “Then we must share it with all the people. Epidemics know no boundary lines and scarlet fever is no respecter of social classes. There is no assurance of health for anyone save as assurance of health is shared with everyone. Behind the natural divergences of opinion as to the cause and cure of our catastrophe, there is among the competent schools of thought a clear agreement on one point: we thought that we could make more money for ourselves by producing more goods to sell. So we went on building more factories to sell more goods to make more money for ourselves, and all the time we kept forgetting that if we were going to make more money for ourselves by selling more and more goods, the whole body of the population must be more and more able to buy them. So forgetting that in our thirst for profit, we practised mass production without providing mass consumption.”

A Rest for Science. “The application of science to human life has made the modern generation broadly incapable of amusing itself,” writes Mr. C. E. M. Joad, in the “Daily Herald.” “We have forgotten how to sing and play; we turn on the gramophone. We have forgotten how to walk; we get into the car or the bus. We have forgotten how to talk; we put on the radio, enjoying the cheap, standardised pleasures which are provided for everybody, instead of providing individual pleasures for ourselves. Science has multiplied our wants and increased the complexity of our lives. Increasingly we demand that everything should be done for us. Increasingly we live a ‘press-the-button’ existence. A drastic simplification of life would improve our health, our minds and our characters. If for a time we could arres.t this spate of inventions which multiply so embarrassingly upon us the means to the good life, we might have time to learn how to live.”

The Word Has Been Spoken. “The marshals and the admirals have spoken; the Cabinet is said to concur in their view; and consequently the Naval Limitation Treaty, which has been a relief and a safeguard to its signatories for more than a decade, is likely to be determined in two years’

time —at the end of 1936, when it would be automatically renewed if it were not previously denounced. The abrogation of the treaty—and the simultaneous lapse of the London Agreement—is not the less serious because it has been expected ever since the Japanese naval delegation in London have developed with commendable frankness their new proposals ; and it renders the present conversations not less but more desirable, and imposesupon ail concerned the imperative duty of straining every nerve to draw up a new statute of limitation in the place of the demolished treaty.—“ The Times.”

Cheap Money. “The money market may be said to be within approachable distance," points put the “Daily Telegraph” of London, “of that two-and-a-half per cent, for Government securities which we have not seen since the nineties of last century. A change in that situa-tion-can come only from a growth of confidence in other forms of investment. There is a deep-seated belief in the security of British Government stocks, and a shortage of these that is embarrassing to trustees and to institutions that have to maintain their assets practically at call. The lending abroad of wealth surplus to our own needs has met with sueh discouragement in the last few years that it is not likely to be resumed until there is a complete change in world conditions. British industry is thereby presented with an opportunity of raising at low rates of interest money required for developments that promise a reasonable profit.”

The Theatre in Russia. “The theatre is one of the most impressive of modern Russian achievements. The phase of crude propaganda is past, and to-day productions are expressive of optimism for the future. Classical comedy is popular,” writes “L.M.5.,” in the “Birmingham Post,” on his return from a visit to Russia. “We saw brilliant productions of Shakespeare’s 'Twelfth Night’ and Beaumarchais’s ‘Marriage of Figaro.’ Blocks of seats are reserved for workers from the factories. The audience look predominantly working class. The cultural level of the workers certainly seems high. The national minorities are encouraged to produce drama of their own, and theatres are set apart for the Jews and for the gypsies, where remarkable work is being done. At the school of drama we found a number of the students came from Central Asia. A fascinating experience was a visit to the children’s theatre. A permanent staff of artists and experts in education provides delightful spectacles for children of all ages. Performances are given each morning to audiences selected fromu the different Moscow schools.”

Men in Public. “Again, at one time or another, everyone in public life is bound to make mistakes. The more conscientious are the men who make them, the more profoundly will they be aware of the consequences of their errors. Only the cad or tbe bounder will treat his errors as a matter of indifference. But if everyone in public life who is guilty of making a mistake is to be pilloried in his own lifetime, and pelted with items of information which can only be derived from confidential sources, there is a serious danger that the conscientious and sensitive public servant may be altogether driven out of public life. It would be a bad day for any country if the responsibilities of its leadership were left exclusively to the bounder and the cad. What matters to the patriot is the success of his cause. The’ possession of this motive is, in fact, the point by which he is distinguished from the mere.adventurer. If people are to be expected to give generous and unselfish service to their fellow men, they should be spared unnecessary exposure to personal infamy and prejudice.”—“The Church Times.”

Art in Industry. “The extent of the power which is in the hands of industry to shape the minds of the people by shaping most of the objects which are around us, and thus affecting the very lifeblood of the nation, is becoming more and more recognised. Apart from these considerations there was a tendency in the early days of the use of machinery for manufacturers to treat their products more from the practical and solid than from the artistic point of view. As a result, we passed through periods of ugliness which we accepted either because we did not trouble about them, or because we were powerless to stop them. This is almost bound to happen whenever a new and revolutionary departure has come to stay. It is a kind of natural law that out of evil comes good, and for some time past there has been a gradual evolution from the lethargy and lack of discrimination in regard to design which had existed previously. Gradually deaf ears have begun to hear and blind eyes have begun to see. It is becoming more and more apparent that design and form are not inconsistent with the requirements of machine production.”—Mr. John A. Milne, C.B.E , chairman of the Council of the Royal Society of Arts.