NATIONAL CHARACTER AND NATIONAL GAMES.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 282, 8 June 1917, Page 4 (Supplement)

NATIONAL CHARACTER AND NATIONAL GAMES.

.A.; the war goes on. thoughtful men and women are beginning to reali o that something far more precious than any of tho material interests at stake is involved in the result. Tue war, as one writer expresses it, is fundamentally a conflict between two incompatible views of human relationship, botlu personal and national, between two .v. reconcilable codes of conduct. At tlu beginning of the struggle the concrete l.sues loomed largest in our eyes those substantive facts of territorial adjustment, political domination, treaty rights, effective guarantees, and so on, that could he expressed in diplomatic terms and made the subject of peace treaties. The concrete issues still remam, and they must be explicitly dealt with in the formal settlement when the fighting is over. But we can now see that these issues are, in a sense, secondary—that they are the criteria, tlu tests, whereby the world may judge which of tiie two incompatible views of human relationships, which of the two irreconcilable codes ot conduct, shall prevail alter the war. Thnir determination this way or that will be the outward and visible s'gn of the victory of the Prussian or the Allied ideal ofsocial and intcrnat onal behaviour. Tho Allied ideal is. alter allowing for nonessential differences due to the past history and distinctive national traits and institutions of the nations ranged wth us in common hostility to Prns-siani-m. really the British ideal which we as a people instinctively adopt, even though we seldom trouble to analyse or define it. According to the same authority, there are three English words wnicli reveal at once the gulf between cur ideal and the Prussian ideal. They are "sport," "club,'' and "gentleman." For these English words, with their British signification, the German language has really no equivalents, and Prussianised Germany has no conception of the things they stand for. As Mr. Poultney Bigelow, a much-trav. elled American who knows his Germany well, remarked in a recent volume of reminiscences, such social clubs as exist in Loudon and New York are not only lacking in GeMiiiMiy, but arc inconceivable t.iere. A club, as wo Englishspeaking peoples know it, prc-suppo~.es personal dignity and equal.ty. Its characteristic atmesphere would be destroyed if as is the case in Germany, ii>vv:-y member had to rise and salute whenever a person of superior rank pa.'sed through the rooms. Only "gentlemen" (using tiie word in its wide sense, and quite independent of social position, rank or occupation) can, as Mr Bigelow points out, use tilings in common, and not abuse the privilege; but the "gentleman'' as so understood is not a Prussian conception. Hence in Prussianised Germany a club is an impossibility. Sport, as we think of it when we take part in games, or when we speak of a man as a "good sportsman,'' is equally beyond the comprehension of tue Prussian. These things, the writer admits, may seem to !>j trivialities, but he claims that as a matter of fact they go to the root of the matter. In them is to be found an explanation of that German habit of playing "tho road-hog" in Europe, and of that German " (rightfulness" which has disgusted the civilised world. Upon this point S'r diaries Waldstcin, the distinguished tumersity teacher, archaeologist and . tudent ot the fine aits, may claim to speak with some authority. He is an American by birth, If wa* a student in Germany, and he has held high academical positions in England. Writing in the December "-Nineteenth Century and After," on tho "social gulf between, the British and tae Germans, he declares that "Germans and Englishmen (including all English-spea'v-mg people) will never understand each ether until the >pint of our national sports and games iias entered freely into the German national mentality a", i character." Like Mr Bigelow, Sir Charles Waidstein noted the utter absence U social cqua!:tj in Germany. As a ttudent ne uas instructed to take off his hat and bow to an acquaintance in a way that would mark the individual's rank. This social gradation, though most marked in military circles, pervades also the whole of civil life. He, too. found non-existent in Germany the ideal of the "gentleman" as a fixed social standard, replacing in modem life the element furnished by chivalvv in olden days, and implying —in spite of the snobhishne-s ol a minority—the equahtv of tlu>c who Ivenave as "gentlemen." "It will," he observes, "readily be perceived I ow tiie German system len.'s itself to the blunting of the sense oi justice in the free intoreour c of men, how it counteracts the sense of social fair play, and how it must favour tl'.e development of truculeiice of lii.uner and character, ol the reign of tue hilly throughout the whole nation. For the differences of treatment do not end with the form of salutation, but extend to the tone of address ir speech and manner, constantly impressing the superiority of tiie one and the inferiority oi the other." This absence of social justice, this truculent*', :his t 'iidency to play the bully, all thee are sweentuated bv the absence ot

''sport'' in Gorman education. Sir Charle- \\';i!<.l>ti'i : i v.tys tnat he Ins >:ntctl i lit' siinu! ditt'. roncc between th-.i two clis.-cs of Aine-ioans of German i xtniction as there is between t!io Kn<c-li.-diinan :ind the German 'I lie one class—; leMimahly i-ouHst!n<: of rlio<-» iiuw 1-fMiui! ;is "hyplionat.-d" Anient • aris—was educated at schools which iin-J German nin.»tors or were conducted on German l'lifs. The other was educated Hi American sciiouh, With Hie Kll4li.Hi tradition of s|>orts and pastimes, played rii i to order, hut s|>ontaneou-iy and In'- the itself, nccordinf; -o rules o! jr.stiee and latf play. To ' 1 morally effeitive these ruLs ninsl lie e.-tahlislied liy the players tlieinselves, wherea- in Germany evarythin", ill i.he kind hits to he ivgubiM and ordered lioui aliove. The sen e nl fair pi i.v cannon he acquired hy a sin;,'e net <•: ih' will. It has i<i be 1 voiced in condi-

tions of freedom and be made a habit. Interference from without robs play oi its playfulness and spontaneity, eliminates the sense ot honour, and removes the discipline of sell-government. This, Sir Charles Wald-tem declares, the Germans have never understood, and lie believes that our best protection ijr-ain-st the horrible moral degeneracy which Germany has displayed, and which has made her the enemy ol civilisation, is to retain and foster in our educational instiluti ins and in our idult life our natonal games and pastilles.