The Guardian AND EVENING STAR, With which is incorporated “The West Coast Times.” SATURDAY, MARCH 12th, 1921. THE WEEK.

Hokitika Guardian, 12 March 1921, Page 2

The Guardian AND EVENING STAR, With which is incorporated “The West Coast Times.” SATURDAY, MARCH 12th, 1921. THE WEEK.

On tht* first day of the weak, the Cambrian Society in Christchurch observed (.lie lirst day of the month, which was St. David's Day, the national day of Wales. In the course of an appropriate address at the Christchurch Cathedral a reference was made to the mental endowment of the Celt, and as a Celt is playing such a foremost part in the world's affairs just now, it will he of interest to refer to the text of the address which analyses very candidly the mind of the Celt, and gives some (due to the great mental gifts stored up in .Mr Lloyd (leorge. The ( eltic, the preacher (Kevd. Hubert Jones) went on to say, was endowed in the first place with a rare capacity to seize an ideal, to be fired by it, and to give his whole strength to its service, keeping nothing hack, when the battle has been fought, however, and all the sacrifices made, the Celt found that the aim had been too high lor achievement. The preached compared the Welsh with the Knglish people, stating that in conception the Welsh were supreme, hut the Knglish surpassed them in action. The Welsh success lay in the realm of thought and their failure in not relating the thought to the world of practical affairs. Tli,. Celt looked backward to the splendid prowess of the past, whilst the more energetic Saxon looked ahead, and carved out his own future, although he not invariably successful, failing sometimes to grasp his opportunities. The preacher said that it had been stated that nothing could lie more remote from the Cymric imagination than knight-errantry—yet it was a Welsh archdeacon Geoffrey, of Monmouth who invented the ideal character of King Arthur. Apart, from that altogether the fact that Arthurian legends formed a part of the Welsh national literature was good evidence that the race could appreciate prowess There was a second national endowment, said Mr Jones ; that of mysticism. A ' Welshman inherited that quality whilst an Englishman had to acquire it—tli,, traditional tales of Wales leaned invariably toward the supernatural The two endowments, the preacher concluded, should be preserved and put out

I common service. They should he the I common treasury of the nations.

I Having thus studied the Celtic charj actor as above delineated, it will be of I interest now to turn to Mr Harold Beg-

Lie's comments on Mr Lloyd George in person, whom he has reviewed in conj unction with a number of other interesting personalities who have occupied Downing Street rooms where the statesmen of Britain carry on the national work. In the opinion of Air Begbir the greatest crisis in history failed to produce any outstanding genius, any great figure dominating the national horizon. The politicians and captains were honest, painstaking, patriotic, but all of them were without the supreme quality. Aloreover, even the best of them did not make the most of their chances. The author compares their opportunities with their achievements. . The former were immense, yet through lack of imagination or courage or enterprise they did not grasp them. Ah l.lovd George approaches most nearly among his contemporaries to real greatness:—“No man of our period, when lie is profoundly moved, and when he permits his genuine emotion to carry him away, can utter sin appeal to conscience with anything like so compelling a simplicity. His failure lies in a growing tendency to discard an instinctive emotionalism for "a calculated astuteness which too often attempts to hide its cunning under the garb of honest sentiment. His intuitions are unrivalled; his reasoning powers inconsiderable.” Just as in physical appearance he is “a giant mounted on dwarf’s legs ’ so in spirit h 0 is “a soul of eagle iorce striving to rise above the earth on sparrow s wings.” Again “bciore the war he did much .to quicken the social conscience throughout the world; at the outbreak of war he was the very voice of moral indignation, and during the war lie was the spirit of victory. l*or all these, great is our debt to him. But he took upon his shoulders a responsibility which was nothing less than th t » future of civilisation, and here he trusted not to vision, and conscience, but to compromise, makeshift, patches and the future of civilisation is still dark indeed.” On Thursday w ( . had Mr Civile telling us through the cable that the people were becoming distrustful of Air Lloyd George! The confidence reposed in him by the London Conference, and the way the very world at large is looking to him in these hours of international crisis, suggest that Air Clyne’s opinion is fathered by bis 'own thought.

Tiikkk is another great man of the times in the minds of the peopf. today. At the moment ho is dipping down over the horizon, going out ol aj> tion. no doubt, but bis words and bis deeds will live alter him. in tb ( . last number of the “Round Table an article on tbc American Presidential election end* with the following passage: -

•• ‘Government is a very simply tiling, after all.' Harding has said. But on tli,, day when the senator becomes president, above the tumult and the shouting on Capitol Hill, a small unattended group will leav" the \\ bile House. 11l their midst will be carried a man with snow-white hair, tossed back, distorted features, and emaciated frame a man with bodv broken and heartbroken in the service ol a great ideal —a man who knows that Government is not. a simple thing after all. That day lias now passed. On March 'ftli. the curious interregnum provided for by the American Constitution ended ; Senator Harding formally assumed office and Woodrow Wilson disappeared, from the stage of public affairs. His career has been remarkable it only for this. Seldom indeed, remarks a Sydney paper, have a few short years witnessed such a flow and ebb of influence; such a complete reversal of political fortune. At the outbreak of war, President Wilson was comparatively unknown outside America save as a scholar of aedemiac distinction. His personality was aloof. Neither his record of liis qualities were such as would make flint figure 4<o prominently before the world as. for example, the late Air Roosevelt. In the earlier years of the war his detachment came near to exasperating many sections of Allied opinion. When Europe was ablaze, when Germany was violating every law of humanity, was a man who contented himself with writing. Notes, with asserting abstract principles of ethics which fell upon deaf ears. You might as well endeavour by argument to restrain a mad dog. Shades of Washington and Lincoln, that an American President should tie found to declare that the nation was too proud to fight!

]>t T people did not then adequately recognise the difiiciilty of the part which l)r Wilson had to play. At that stage the majority of his countrymen had no desire to intervene. It was to them as much as to the German Government that, his Notes were addressed. His object was to bring the moral issues involved in the war clearly before them, and then to take advantage of the idealistic impulse which exists in the American national eharaeteir. Perhaps he may not always have worked consciously for this; perhaps in the end he may merely have gone with the current. hut wo may doubt whether any other policy than his would have permitted the growth ol that overwhelming sentiment which brought America, into the war. and enabled to put forth so united an effort. And as time went on his ascendancy grew even greater. The world hung on his lips; every word was weighed. The enemy saw in him the arbiter of their late; his iourteen points worn accepted as the principles on which a settlement should he based. Through his <>r rather his insistence ,tliu League of Nations bocame a practical possibility. The peace that was to end the great war was to lie a real peace dictated not by greed nor vindictiveness, hut by justice and the desire to avoid war in the future. The Allies had taken up the sword with most lofty moral professions; they had fought with clean hands; in the hour of viotorv they must remain true to their ideals. .President Wilson’s prestige probably reached its highest, point about tin* time of the armistice. At, the Versailles Conference lie was still the outstanding figure, hut already there were signs that his influence, was beginning to wane. He still championed as stubbornly as ever the cause that lie conceived to he right, and there is no lea- i son to enter into the controversy which j has arisen over the Treaty. Hut critics j have suggested that he was no match I for the practical diplomats with whom j he was associated, and that it he had j had the skill to detect, and counter their manoeuvres its terms might have been very different. It has also been 1

argued that to insist, as he did, on the- incorporation of the Covenant in the Treaty was a tactical blunder, and that his tendency to take matters into his own hands, as in the case of Finnic, antagonised many erstwhile supporters. Be that as it may, the tradition of his infallibility emerged from the conference somewhat weakened.

And the most crushing disappoint- , ment was still to come. He had car- j tied America with him into war, but ho could not carry her with him into peace. He, more than any one man, had given his life to the League of Nations, and his own country would have none of it. He had definitely and solemnly committed America to a course of action which she refused to adopt. The leader whose slightest utterance had been law a few months before now appealed in vain. The rejection by a huge majority of tbc Democratic candidate for the Presidency in November was morelv the last not in tho tinged' of disillusionment, the seal on the repudiation of President Wilson and bis policy. “The prophet has been dishonoured by bis own country. He has been swept by the tide ot aversion down from tho highest pinnacle ever momentarily attained by a statesman of modern times.” What was the reason of the downfall:' Alnny things may have contributed to it. America feared the foreign entanglements and limitations upon her sovereignty that might he involved in membership of the League. The Senate was piqued at President Wilson’s failure to consult it, and suspected him of Caesnrism. The Democratic party was unpopular as a result of its war administration. Perhaps, too, in the American attitude towards President Wilson there may have been something of the spirit of the Athenian citizen who voted for tlje ostracism of Aristides because fie was tired of hearing him called “The Just.” But the revulsion of feeling, whatever he its cause, has broken a great man. How great it will lie for posterity to judge. Some believo that lie will rank with and even higher than George Washington and Abraham Lincoln in the pantheon of American worthies. It- is idle to attempt to anticipate the verdict of history, but whatever he fiis mistakes and imperfections, he is the man of whom it can at least lie said, again in the words of the “Round Table,” that he “gave form to the loftiest political ideal that over captured the conscience of the world.”