THE NOBEL PRIZES

Hokitika Guardian, 4 December 1930, Page 7

THE NOBEL PRIZES

(Exchange). It is impossible not to he impressed with the high ideals that prompted Altred Nobel, the famous manufacturer of explosives, to bequeath the greater part of his huge fortune for such praiseworthy purposes as were selected by him, these including the foundation of the Nobel Prizes. These prizes, each of a value of several thousand pounds, are five in number, and are awarded annually for eminence in chemistry, physics, physiology or medicine, literature and service to the cause of international peace. The prizes are awarded on merit alone, without respect to nationality or sex. Recently tlie physics prize for this year was awarded to Sir O. Venkata Raman, an Indian, for distinguished work on light diffusion. Last week it was announced that the peace prize for the year has been awarded to Mr F. B. Kellogg, of the United States, the author of the pact under which the subscribing nations renounce war " as- an instrument of public policy. Alfred Nobel is a remarkable example of what we term a' “self-educat-ed” man He had neither university education nor even ordinary schooling, and in his early days he could, scarcely decide whether to follow his father’s footsteps or to become a poet. As a young man he assisted his father with research work on submarine mines and in the manufacture of explosives, to which the greater part of his life was finally devoted. In 1866 he invented dynamite—a discovery which was destined to have far-reaching effects. It must be understood that the invention of dynamite was not designed for purposes of warfare, but entirely for use of tlie industries of peace. The significance, which his invention came to possess in relation to war had the profoundest effect upon him.

No man could be more ardent in tbe cause of peace. It may seem incongruous that a nianufacturer of explosives should : devote his skill to the invention of still more powerful gases and yet be an earnest, even passionate, opponent of war. The reasons are however, not far to seek. A man of science is concerned primarily with the scientific ! viewpoint. He is not prepared, to sacrifice his pursuit on the chance that people and' nations may misuse the product of his brain. Further, he realises that if he does not carry on his researches or disclose liis inventions, other inventors will soon take liis place..

N o bel bad the financial sense that enabled him to exploit his inventions. Perhaps it was to ease his conscience that he said: “The day whetl two Afmy. Coi'pfl will be able to destroy each other in Oil© second, all civilised nations will recoil from war in horror and disband their armies.” The day when the wholesale destruction not only of armies but of peoples through the use of gases is possible, in the event of war, is not so far distant as not to be of direct personal interest to living communities. Forty years ago Nobel foreshadowed the League of Nations. He wondered why the rules governing a dispute between individuals should not he applied to a quarrel between nations in such a way that a preliminary inquiry should be made to determine whether the quarrel was justified. He further suggested that, before nations went to war, there should be a period of one year to afford them time for deliberate reflection upon the issues between them, and of course it could only be through the co-operation of nations that a principle of this kind could be applied. Throughout his life Nobel’s idealistic tendencies, firmly modelled on those of the poet Shelley, always governed his practice. The terms of his will surely showed that; and his knowledge of the Russian, French, English and German languages most certainly increased the breadth of his vision. It ig of more than passing interest to note that in 1926 the Peace Prize was shared by Herr Stresemann, Foreign Minister of Germany, and M. Briand, the French Foreign Minister,—a fitting recognition of the fact that to these statesmen the conception of the Locarno Pact was due. Such wellknown figures as Sir Austen Chamberlain, General Dawes, Rudyard Kipling, Sigrid TJndset, Shaw, Tagore, Rutherford, Yeats and Einstein have been honoured with Nobel Prizes. Mr Bernard Shaw, it may be recalled, returned the compliment by devoting the whole of his prize to the founding of a society for translating the best Scandinavian works into English—works which have long been considered classics on the Continent, but the British public is only now reading. Alfred Nobel was a great man, a poet at heart, and a man on whose mind the possibiltiy that dire consequences might accrue from his inventions weighed heavily.