THE WORLD IN CRISIS

Evening Star, Issue 21749, 18 June 1934, Page 3

THE WORLD IN CRISIS

CAUSE OF UNREST DIFFERENCES OF WHITE AND COLOURED RAGES DR NORWOOD'S PLEA FOR CHANGED OUTLOOK An inspiration to the large attendance in the Town Hall on Saturday evening, the address given by Dr F. W. Norwood, of the City Temple, Loudon, dealt mainly with the cause of unrest in many lands he had visited. The attitude adopted by the white races of the world toward the coloured races, an attitude based on a delusive feeling of superiority, was condemned by the speaker. The Hon. W. Downie Stewart, M.P., presided. It was a great privilege to have the opportunity of hearing such an interesting man as Dr Norwood, whose name and fame had preceded him to this city, said the Chairman, in introducing the visitor. Dr Norwood’s visit to New Zealand was one of wide interest, he said, for many reasons. He was an Australian, and took part in the Great War, the result of which gave Australia and New Zealand their freedom at a price. Was not everyone asking that he should live out his little span in peace? So it was that to men like Dr Norwood we looked for inspiration. He was an ambassador of peace, and in respect of his search for peace he was in a position to offer moral and spiritual leadership of a kind that had its origins in the high platform of Christian ethics and ideals. STATE OF CRISIS, “ Nobody will dispute that the world is in a state of crisis,” said Dr Norwood. “ Unless there werb crises there would be no progress. ■lt was Dean Inge, I think, who said that when Adam and Eve were living in the Garden of Eden. Adam said to Eve: ‘My dear, we are living in a time of transition.’ ” This state of transition involved the world to-day, continued Dr Norwood. The heart of the present crisis was not in Europe. We were on the crest of a great cycle of 500 years, which required only nine more years to complete, and which began with the fall of Constantinople. In 1453 there came to Europe a great surge of inspiration and invention. All the other islands of the world' had given up their secrets. In truth, the world was one, and it was no wonder that the inventions of the world and the Great War left us with a crisis.

Dr Norwood said he started on a world tour with the object of gaining a view of world affairs. From Australia he went with a flood of soldiers to the war, and ultimately to London. After ministering there for several years after the war, he said, he' set out on the present crusade. He traced the history of South Africa from the settlement of the white man, explaining the various positions and attitudes of the Boers, the immigrant Indians and Chinese, the Germans, the Bantus, and the poor whites. At the present time the position,of the actual natives, the Bantus, was a most unenviable one. They had been ousted from all but the lower grades of work, their places being taken by the poor whites, who usually were less competent, but who claimed higher wages. The black people of South Africa did not seem to be confronted by a very open road. Missionaries were doing fine work, but the training they gave the natives was of little use, as they seldom had the chance to use it. They could find no market for their produce, and it was little wouder that they sank below the level of those who had never been trained. “ When people say the missionaries are the cause of the trouble,” he said, “ I say they flatter them and are overrating their influence. It is the merchants and the men of commerce who are to blame. Unlike the missionaries, they reach the blacks in their thousands and entice them to the cities. The natives there see the motor cars, cinemas, theatres, machines, and the mode of living of the white 'class, and undoubtedly these facts are responsible for disturbing the people of South Africa.” Unrest in South Africa was prevalent, but no one should say that the dark race was inevitably inferior to the white. After all, we were a mechanised people, and few of us were of much use without machines of some kind. It was nonsense to say that the Bantu could not learn to work our machines, and we were being unjust to the blacks by preventing them from doing such things. However, he could not see any danger. in India the same sort of thing was going on, he said, and it was all very noli for Britons to say they had done a lot lor India; so they had; they had saved it from calamity and had given the country railways, but it was not what was wanted. We knew the ‘‘ stupid thing ” Gandhi was trying to do—ho was telling everyone to discard machines and go back to the old spinning wheel. But was it stupid?- he asked. Everywhere in India he was overwhelmed by the flood of youth who thirsted for knowledge. They clustered round to learn something, and they bombarded the speaker himself with questions. In this crisis there was wanted, not suppression, but largeness of mind. India was better under our eegis; Britain was bound to give her dominion status, and the crisis was God-given in a world of progress. China found itself in the control of numerous war lords who plundered and taxed as they wished. Every time some trouble occurred they marched up with their troops and put it right. At Pekin they burnt the Emperor’s summer house and its treasures, the result being that the people of China turned their wrath against the Emperor. What China was feeling after was something in its own culture. It had dissolved before the might of the white races, but did not respect them. China was in chaos, and we must take some of the blame.

“This damnable war system has made us a lot of lunatics,'' he asserted. “ .Japan may be a menace, but her course of development was inevitable. The Japanese wakened up in the '6o's at the impingement of white civilisation. They wanted to make the country safe, and to become educated and get religion behind the nation.’’ America, Canada, and Asia were also in unrest. Turning his attention to Australia and New Zealand, Dr Norwood asked: “ Don’t you think it is time we should consider tariffs in a rational way? Heaven’s blessing be on the crisis. There would not be progress without it.” Australia and New Zealand seemed to show up the crisis more than anv other countries in the world. “ There ought not to he any hanger in this world; it is a shame, it is a crime. We are in the midst of a great era. [ hope the British Empire will stand and weather the gale. 1 hope she will remain the great pacificator. It would ho a great, big, wonderful world if only wo were a little more

wonderful and would live in it like servants of God,” he concluded. The close of the address was the signal for an outburst of applause. Dr E. N. Merrington proposed a vote of thanks to the speaker and expressed the hope that Dr Norwood- would leave behind the conviction that it was by a new spirit that the world crisis could be met and overcome. Dr Norwood also thanked the chairman for presiding. The meeting opened with the singing of the New Zealand National Anthem and closed with the singing of Kipling’s 1 Recessional ’ and ‘ God Save the King;’ Dr V. E. Galway was at the organ.