AMERICAN ESSATS

Hokitika Guardian, 28 November 1927, Page 1

AMERICAN ESSATS

Air Gabriel AYolls is an American writer who spent some time in England. and his recent publication “Intimations” consils of short essays which he contributed to various journal

is subjects, says a reviewer, range

from marriage ti the idiosyncrasies of pipe-smokers, and from success to the attributes of a gentleman. Some of bis pronouncements seem a trifle obvious. Thus lie says that a distinction should be drawn between what is incorrect and what is untrue. When Dr Cook assorted that lie had discovered the North Pole, ho told a falsehood. Should Einstein’s theory of relativity ever be disproved Einstein will merely have erred. X asks me if I have met A . I say in all good faith that I have not. Afterwards it turns out that I have met him. Since my denial was not intended to deceive it is not a

lie. This is quite incontostihle, lnit it is hardly an addition to the store of human knowledge. Alanv ol the essays deal with inter-

national affairs, and Air AAolls is not entirely free from that dogmatism and conscious superiority which is characteristic of tbe attitude of some Americans towards Europe. Thus in discussing the question of war guilt ho distinguishes between the efficient and the final cause. The latter is to he found

in participation in rivalry in armaments. the formation of alliances and counter-alliances, and general preparations for war. Under the heading of efficient cause he assesses the degree of war guilt in the following order:—l. Germany; 2, Russia; 3. France; 1. England, tinier the heading of final cause the order is:—l, France; 2, Russia; 3. England; 4, Germany. But not a shred of evidence is produced to show why England, say. was more culpable than Germany. The facts programme that challenged the Rrijxiint in the opposite direction. The conclusion of the triple alliance, the increase in the military vote, the cutting of the Kiel canal, and a naval tish all indicate that Germany took long views. Austria-Hungary is passed over on the ground that a war between it and Servia. was a “regional inevitability !” Again, while Air AA'ells favours the cancellation of the American war deht it is .only on condition that the “war breeding” treaties are revised. “No good can conic of a simple annulment. Quite the reverse. Freed from its crushing burden Europe would promptly plunge into another orgy of wnrf.” The answer is that America was equally responsible for these treaties, and that the statement that if Europe had more money to spend there would be an outbreak of war is based upon sheer conjecture. Between 18/0 and 1914, despite racial nttd territorial grief* slices .there were tin wars In western op central Europe,