THOUGHTS FOR THE . DAY

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 31, 31 October 1942, Page 6

THOUGHTS FOR THE . DAY

Comments—Reflections Intercession.

0, God Who sayest, behold, I make all things new; fulfil now Thy word in the world. Instil into it a new sense of the brotherhood of the nations. Give them new ambitions, not to destroy, but to strengthen, not to dominate, but to serve, that we may see fulfilled the saying that is written, "The Kingdom of the world is become the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ.” Amen. * • * What we require in order to conquer is audacity, and yet more audacity, and always audacity.—Danton. “Lord Woolton, Minister of Food, when he launched a new "no waste” campaign at the opening of a "Save bread, save convoys,” exhibition in London, advocated these table rules: ‘Don’t break a roll or piece of unbuttered bread; cut it—then if you leave any it can be used in the kitchen. Don’t, cut and butter bread in quantity : put the loaf on the table and cut it only as required. Don’t serve butter or jam on to your plate; spread it direct on your bread.’ —The exhibition showed how every half an oz. of bread wasted every day by every one in the country means the waste of a whole shipload of wheat every 12 days, or a convoy of 30 ships a year. The main purpose was to indicate that stale ■bread can be made into appetising food. —“The Times.” London.

“I could not help thinking of the eternal difference between the mentality of countries that are sea-minded and countries that are land-bound. The R.A.F. are mariners of the air; the Luftwaffe are soldiers of the air. The German at war is a man in boots, tramping over other people’s gardens ...The seas are no man’s tidy garden, and they cannot be bludgeoned into submission. They impose their own discipline, are moody, can be ruled but not dominated, and yield only to men, not to masses. They do not belong to nations, but to everyone, and God help us if they should be ruled by those who do not understand freedom.” —Miss Dorothy Thompson, American Columnist.

“However impotent some of the nations may appear after the war, nothing could be more helpful in putting them on their feet again than a sound international exchange system. Naturally there must be collaboration in preserving the peace and in preventing aggression, but any economic collaboration beyond setting an example in the way of ever-rising productive power is to be matched with consuming power, and beyond providing an exchange system that will permit the free exchange of goods and services under free play for supply and demand between all nations, small and large alike, will prove impractical and inimical to the best interests of all concerned. The war will have been fought in vain if at its close the victors and vanquished cannot quickly enjoy full employment for all their peoples in- peace-time pursuits, and if they cannot quickly join in the operation of an international clearinghouse association for ideally facilitating free trade with each other and all the world.”—From “Beware of Orthodoxy,” by A. Grant McGregor.

“Modern science, which is a byproduct and an essential part of the people’s revolution, has made it technologically possible to see that all of the people of the world get enough to eat.” Half in fun and half seriously, I said the other day to Madame Litvinov: ‘The object of this war is to make sure that everybody in the world has the privilege of drinking a quart of milk a day.’ She replied: ‘Yes even a pint.’ The peace must mean a better standard of living for the common man not merely in the United States and England, but also in India, Russia, China and Latin America—not merely in the United Nations, but also in Germany and Italy and Japan. Some have spoken of the ‘American Centurv.’ I say that the century on which we are entering—the century which will come into being after this war—can be and must be the century of the common man. Perhaps it will lie America’s opportunity to supp<" the freedoms and duties by whicli tin ommon man must live. Everywhere the common man must learn to increase his productivity so that be and his children can eventually’ pay to the world community all that they have received.”—Mr Henry A. Wallace. VicePresident of the United States.

“I suggest that the United Stales, the U.S.S.R., and the British Commonwealth, with the United Nations, should announce that henceforth they jointly and solely take charge of all aircraft, and all flying, that the Usque ad Coelum, (ownership of air above any particular piece of ground) doctrine goes, ami that in future they give themselves the right to fly withersoever they like, and that no one anywhere on earth shall fly without their consent. Thus there will be a watching force to see that nowhere in tlie world shall a nation secretly build up tin ail - force for mischief. It would, of course delegate to countries their own internal organization for local flying Where we make a difference from the League of Nations idea is that, here we will be creating, right at tlie beginning. a force of transcending power that no one can challenge, instead of a debating chamber that had no force at its command. 1 do not for one moment lay it down that at tlie right, time our present enemies should not come into tlie get'eral scheme. The idea is world co-operation and not penalization. It is high time witli the resources at our command that we protected ourselves against n world war every generation. Here in our hands wo have the instrument so to do.” —Lord Brabazon, in a recent lecture. ,

Overdue. She’s overdue these three weeks past, And every day they thought her last: Her skipper’s gone, n fireman dead, Her mate below witli a broken head, Her forehold leaking, her steering-gear Smashed and battered beyond repair, Iler cargo shifted; her wireless gone. It seemed that ship and crew were done. Such tlie havoc the U-boat wrought. Yet now lip-Chnnnel she limps to port. Eight men in their sodden dungarees Who’vc fought with dentil in tlie outer seas. —l. Shiptoii, in “The Navy.”