"MEET MR. SHAW"

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 491, 27 March 1933, Page 5

"MEET MR. SHAW"

(Press. Assn.

G.B.S. BLQWS IN CHARACTERISTIC - INTERVIEW, GIVEN IN SAN FRANCISCO SHAVIAN SNAPSHOTS

— By Telegraph — Copvrignt).

(Rec. March 25.) San Francisco, March 24. Mr. iGeorge Bernard Shaw arrived on the United States mainland to-dia-y for the first time, with the - abrupt announcement that he "knew more of Ameriea than itsi inhabitants." • He toild a rnass' of interviewersi and • eameria.men that Americans elected their public officials because the candidate^ had their pictures taken with babies in their arms. Duxing a discussion of the Tom Mooney ca.-e (Mooney was convicted for participation in the Preparedness Day parade bombing at San Francisco in 1916) Mr. Shaw stated that Americans were romanticists in their treatment of the whole criminal system. "I hesitate to express an opinion .regarding Mooney. Generally I would aay to bury a man alive in a vault for 17 years is extremely foo'lish."

The United States, said Mr. Shaw, was a drinking nation because. it was an unhappy nation. "A sick man is given chloroform for an operation, but in your crowded cities when a men getsi sick from excessive hours of labour he takes* alcohol. Wait and See "I don't know how Hitler will turn out," he replied to a question. "The whole German people are in a state of suspense and chaos. Tbey are trying out Hitler like you are trying out Roosevelt. In four years I will be able to tell you about them." Mr. Shaw accused the American people of giving no thought to the qualifications of their officials. "Why," he said, "it was iRoosevelt's baby that got him elected." "But Roosevelt had no baby," an interviewer sad. "Well, that's serious. Then whose baby was it that Roo.sevelt was photographed with?" Other Shavian pronouncements were: — "Lenin was the greatest man sinee George Washington." "Six or seven civilisations have proigressed to oui* plane and then collapsed to the grass." "Man as a political animal is not capable of solving problems created by himself." Mr. Shaw proceeded to San Simeon as the guest of Mr. William Randolph Hearst before joining ship at San Pedro to continue his roundi the world cruise. (Hje came here from Honolulu.