INTERNATIONAL SITUATION

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 15 January 1931, Page 3

INTERNATIONAL SITUATION

PLEA FOR CO-OPERATION

RESPONSIBILITY OF TEACHERS Selling out the international situation as lie viewed it in a stirring address before the Teachers’ Summer School, Air E. Milner, Rector:' of Waitaki Boys’ High School, showed how important was tile role of the teacher in inculcating into the young not oniy a love of country, but also a sense of duty in co-operating with the peoples of the world, reports the “Press.” He took some pains to give his version of the truth about the Singapore base, as well as to define the attitude of European nationals as he saw it. SINGAPORE BASE

Air Alilner set out first of all to dispel what he considered a wrong impression about the Singapore base. This project was affirmed by Australia and New Zealand, he said, the Dominion having agreed to contribute £1,000,000 towards its cost in instalments of £125,000. He was not criticising the efficiency of the base, but he was criticising the arguments advanced for its justification. 'They found public men defending the base because of the alleged malign designs of Japan. On such grounds had Sir Thomas Wilford justified it on the floor of the House, as well as in London. Arguments about Japan’s purchase of land near the base were advanced to imply that Japan objected to the base, and would appropriate it when a suitable international imbroglio should occur. He had felt that this Japanese bogey existed only in the minds of would-be alarmists and hysterical journalists, and so wrote to the secretary of the Singapore Rotary Club asking for information, as it had been stated that Japanese agents had bought 10,000 acres on a promontory overlooking The site, and another 10,000 acres in the immediate vicinity. The reply was that there was, near the base, a rubber plantation of 10,000 acres owned by a Japanese, this having been purchased in 1906. It was stated further that relations with the Japanese in Singapore were of the best. ATTITUDE ABOUT JAPANESE “If you teachers took a census jyou would find that the bulk of your classes will believe that the Japanese are a treacherous people,” added the lecturer, “even when we are doing all we caij, to encourage trade relations with them. This was the fashion of pre-war days, which still exists, and we have been led almost to slander these people. But Japan has played the game since signing the Washington Treaty in 1922.. The terms of all subsequent pacts have been scrupulously observed.” Air Milner went on to explarp that Japan was not concerned with the exclusion of her nationals from Australia and New Zealand, for this had been done in a legitimate way, though they felt bitterly the exclusion by America in 1924, because this was done in such a way that she regarded it not so much an economic bar as. a spiritual stigma. Beyond the borders of Japan and her colonies there were not more than threequarters of a million Japanese domiciled- The solution of her population problem lay not in birth control, nor yet in intensive agriculture, but in the wonderful development of industrialism. The remarkable progress made by Japan in this sphere.,' afforded the sole solution of the problem of racial congestion, but, in order to carry on her industries, she must have access to. the raw materials of Manchuria, and it was clear that Alanchuria was the focal point of Pacific policy of to-day. FUTURE OF CIVILISATION Leaving Japan, Air Milner went on to postulate the belief that only by cooperation between the two great white races, Britain and America, could the civilisation of the world be saved. Some would say that the resources of the British Empire were sufficient, but Britain could not stand alone. Foolish men generalised about the great continent called the United States, and the failings of its people, but they must give the Americans credit for having a stratum of idealism. Aloreovcr, in their teaching, teachers must be prepared to give a fair and square hearing to other countries. H. G. Wells had recently drawn attention to exaggerated Nationalism as a weak point in our system. while the London “Times” cited, as the greatest lesson the war, the necessity of teaching the civics of other countries. Certainly New Zealand wanted her children trained to love their country with an intense patriotism and to tell of the Empire, but teachers should go further and teach also of other nations. The orientation of the mind should he in the direction of international co-operation. THE EUROPEAN SITUATION

Turning to the situation in Europe, Air Alilner described Germany as being goaded by France’s attitude. Her one thought was national security. To-day the attitude of France was by far the most menacing in Europe—much more so than the chauvinism of Mussolini. When people were inclined to “down” Germany and “down” Italy they should think of the cynical attitude of France. Pleading for support for the League of Nations, Mr Milner named the British Empire as its chief bulwark. As a signatory New Zealand had agreed, in 1923. to interpret the constitution of the League in this land. It was the formal duty of teachers to see that our young people were not brought up in the narrow manner of former years. Ihey must strive to get the atmosphere of broad humanity in their schools with out being sentimental. In tlie British Empire they had some kind of prototype of what the future relations of States must be if civilisation was to endure, and teachers had an important function to perform in building up an international relationship of peoples.