PUBLIC OPINION

Hokitika Guardian, 1 February 1930, Page 3

PUBLIC OPINION

THE PRINCE IN HIS RIGHT PERSPECTIVE.

“There is a view that has sometimes been expressed to me,” says Mr Evelyn Graham in his bicgrapln of tlie Prince, of Wales, “that while His Royal Highness has been an idea Prin.e of Wales, lie lacks a certain something which he would need as a King. That view is, I think, largely due to the persistent newspaper fiction that lie is a young man. Tin Prince of Wales is no longer a young •nan : f lie is midway between thirty and forty years of age. Yet there is sc.iri.eiy a newspaper that will adini. this chronological fact. Fifteen year* ago they they started to write of him as a young man, and they have never bothored to change their type. Tin natural result of anyone for fifteen years reading about the Prince u,s a young ifian is to ascribe to him still the irresponsibility of youth.”

THE GREATEST QUEST. “Truth may order us to advance, bit it seldom prevails when, friendship’ and pleasant custom order its to stand fast. This situation is meritaide, as we realise when we note that mentally men are their habits, theii beliefs, their prejudices. For . men .t. give up a prejudice is to give up a. bit of their individuality,* and this the.' are naturally little . inclined to do. Fourth, it is very .difficult lb get'rid of our prejudices because they aio usually community attitudes, and the forces which created them in us usually persist and hamper our efforts to liberate ourselves False pride is a final source of difficulty in getting rid of prejudice. Necessity, 'often, forces us to make judgements without adequate knowledge. We must vote or not vote, for example, and if wi veto we must favour a particular candidate or measure. Having made our choice we like to think that it is a wise one; and false pride impels us to defend it, even at the risk of selldeception, by rationalising our position.”—Professor Clark.

DISENCIIA NTMENT. “Time was when the Christmas pilgrimage from Jerusalem to Bethlehem was impressive and picturesque, it -pile of being laborious,” ’ says a Scotsman report of last Christmas Eve. “The long stream of pilgrims treading the rough 'miles of road seemed to fit in far more with the time and the. place than does the manner of to-day’s celebration. The r ad which the Magi took when they followed,the star from Jerusalem to BeJilehem is no longer long and rough. It is beautifully asphalted. Nobody need walk. M’otor omnibuses will take anyone all the way—price, two piastres—in little more than ten minutes. No longer is Christmas Eve marked by the slow-moving procession of earnest pilgrims, loving the labour in anticipation of religious joy at the place of their Saviour’s birth. Instead of this, all from the Patriarch to the local fellah, from the be-spec-tacled American tourist to his hangeron the polyglot guide, join tho raucous and smelly procession of overloaded cars and buses.”

FRANCE AND THE COLOUR LINE

“If orr neighbours have suffered in their colonial expansion from excessive centralisation, there is* another section of colonial administration in which they have lately shown outstanding breadth and wisdom. I allude to their treatment of native races. They have discarded the colour bar, displaying no prejudice against black, or brown, or yellow blood. They have 'had Recourse '.to men of other • races as elements of military strength to an extent unprecedented in European history—to an extent, indeed, which alarms some critical observers of France conversant with tlie dangerous influence of mercenary troops in tlie later history of Rome and CarthaQe. With a people so self-centred as the French, it is strange to what extent they are unprejudiced, how ready they are to recognise merit and talent, provided it is found in one with whom there is no possible rivalry or competition, v —Lord D’Abernon.