THIS TERRIBLE WORLD WE LIVE IN

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 306, 20 August 1932, Page 4

THIS TERRIBLE WORLD WE LIVE IN

Being the Brief Impressions oe the Man in the Street on cttrrent aefairs He had been intensely moved, said the Man in the Street, after reading the accounts of the Meat War at Potawa in which Mr* Coates had played such an Homeric part. So far as he could gather, England expected every man to pay his duty, a preposterous c idea to which Messrs. Coates aiid Bruce had haughtily extended the . *,***• ****** vfrozen muttoxi. * * * * The Ottawa spokesman had explained that meat was now the crucial question, but while his butcher denied that it was as bad as that, after his experience with the breakfast chop that morning, he. could quite understand that it was likely to be a bone of contention. * * * The main difficulty appeared to be that the unfortunate precedent set . by Mary in having only a little lamb, was being too closely followed By everybody else, with the result sthat the British lion was defying the Scriptural injunction and refusing to lie down with Canterbury or any other ■lamb. * * # With all this concentration upon meat, the cables had lately read something like a technical argument at a butchers' qficnic. He remembered many stirring battles over meat, ineluding the celebrated meeting between Cuthbert, his wife's cat, and a ; gentleman friend who was in pos- , session of a pound ,of defunct sausages, but he had seen no sterner struggle than that offered by Mes- j srs. Bruce and Coates. ♦ ♦ * -On Monday, for instance, he had j read that the two doughty champions ! had been elosetted with the British j delegates from nine till five, and that j when it was all over Mr. Bruce had 5 rushed off to the golf links to forget s his troubles. The eable had not j stated where Mr. Coates had rushed : to, but wherever it was he probably • had a strictly vegetarian counter- | lunch. * •: Another meaty cable had described i a j.rotracted conference between the j British Ministers and Messrs. Bruce j and Coates, the only break being for \ a short walk across to the railway i station to say farewell to Lord Bes3- I : borough. He did not know much \ ; abeut Lord Bessborough, but he knew ; I that these short walks were niost in- i Mgorating providing that the hostel- j ries were not too far apart. * * * Following the short walk, the cable recorded, the stern fight had been resumed until all parties had decided to sleep on it. He remembered that after the last short walk he had taken, the fight had also been resuined, but in this case, possibly as a result of the short walk, he had been the only party who had slept on it. His wife had been more annoyed than ever when she had discovered that he had been asleep for some time and had not heard the final remarks of the station before closing down. * * * He had been interested to learn I that Jews from all over the world were holding a conference at Geneva, and had protested against the antiSemitism of Herr Hitler. Jews, the cable stated, had supplied 17 per cent. of the German army during the war and 12 per cent. were now dead on the battle field. He had not thought that the Jews were as deep . in the bully-beef business as that. : However, the conference had declar- | ed Herr Hitler a menace to the j ! Jewish peace of mind, and he understood that a world conference pf j Scotsmen shortly to be-held at Glas- S gow, proposed taking the same action | in regard to street collections. * * * i Mr. Stanley Baldwin had very j truly remarked, in the course of a speech at Ottawa, that nowadays j statesmen had little time to think. ; They were oceupied by a multiplicity of detail, tending t'o lose all sense of pioportion, perspective and direction. He supposed this was all right for statesmen, but the ordinary citizen usually got 24 hours without the option for that sort of thing. * * * He noticed with regret that Sir Malcolm Campbell refused to race on the Ninety Mile Beach because there were gullies in it and nothing would induee him to take a gully ai a speed of over 200 miles an hour. He was pleased to notice that the A.A.A. Safety First and Women and Children Last campaign was having such good effects, but at the same time he wondered whether Sir Malcolm had ever heard about the Taupo Road where he understood several people had already attempted gMlies and got away with a fine. * * * The* New Zealand Shop Assistants, ho was glad to see, had settled their dispute and had been the first to take the silly out of conciliation. He had not previously been aware that : the New Zealand shop assistants had ar.y disputes ; they had always appeared to him to be above this vul gar brawling, which, together wita his keys and a few coppers, they usually left to the customer. Per* ; sonally he would as soon endeavour to argue with a traction engine or Mr. Forbes as a New Zealand shop assistant (f emale) . In the presence of these magnificently aloof creatures, he always felt like the unfortunate Hudson sailing into a sea full o icebergs. It was true that he ha occasiona.lly encountered one ivn° had her melting moments, but his wife immediately left off dealing a the shop. * * ♦ Talking of disputes, however, M* variably reminded him of his and before proceeding further Wi What was at present a painful suP ject, he felt that a brief visit to tna hourn from which no commercia_ traveller ever returned, was vel* plainly indicated.