ROTARY ETHICS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 569, 28 June 1933, Page 2

ROTARY ETHICS

*v . t r PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS g}EALS UNDERLYING WORIC OF PROMINENT WORLD " fYgures'. NATIONALISM AND BOLSpEVISM i . In an address to a large assem'blage of member.s an«i their sons at Monday's lunchpon, Rotayian J. D. Dav.ys, retiring1 president of the Rotorua Rotary Club, gavse an addrpss on , "A Study in Nationaljsm, Bqlshevism and ihe Rotary Ethips." . . .♦ He asked Jiis bearprs tp imagine ■themse'lves undertaking a sea voyage and to imagine tl^e recordings in a ship's log for two d'ays. On these days it was possiblp tbat a stropg gale would be in progress, the tempest h'ounding the ship across the Atlaptic. There would be much of grandeur and beauty in the clamour and surge of the turbulent waters, but there Avould also he terror if a hand were not on the wheel'and a captaih.-controlling the course towards a de^tined haven. This experience, hp said, Is •ah indication- of the turbulent world situaf tion of the, day. The harque of humanity is being scourged by tempestuous nationalists and raeial passiops, while the cross-swell of Bolshevism makes man's existipg civilisation, both Asiatic and European, reel.

A Born Leader. | »w. 1 One might attain some understand- 1 ing of the nature of these disturbing 1 influenees by a study of the world i leaders of the movements. Nationality ^ dated baek to time immemorial, while s nationalism was something new. A study of Italy revealed that in Mussolini it had ope who was thp build j of n leader, with massive hands, blaek 1 hair, straight nose, penetrating eyps . and of extraordinary strength. H.s father was a hlacksmith and he him- j self a stonemason until he later became clerk to two Socialistic organisations, from which posts he was discharged as top turbulent. He was later editor- of an Italian Socialist newspaper, and served during the war, returning wounded and a changed map. On his r,eturn, he foupd the country in a state of chaos and discontent .and ^iis passipn rose under the conviction that France and Britain had made the Versailles Conference a duel conference from which Italian diplomacy was excluded. In these cir_ cupistances, . he organised Fqscist bands composed of axmed men, mostly soldiers, aimed "tp.destroy the chronic infection pf disorder,' yrhich. had broken out throughout the epuntry and placed the Government in a state pf paralysed impotence. By his forceful nersonality and energy, he commanded much support and marched on Rome. Martial law was proclaimed against Fascists, but Mussolini was invited to comp to Rome by thev Kipg and a, few hours later he became the recognised power in Italy and has been so ever since. The Fascist Ideal. . Mussolini claims, that the tru.e conception t of Fascism is that of the nation as a living ideal unity governed by an elite with monarchy a.s its symbol. The aim lahour for the gre^t" ness and glor.y of the nation. He also claims that the citizen does not want democratic liberty but merely all the necessarips of modern life. llpre is x dictatorship as severe as I Bolshevism based on the idea of the nation as • above class, whereas j Bolshevism is based on class above nation. As in Russia, continued the speaker, the GQyernment control the press and the party control the Government. In Italy,"there_is a nuipher pf corporations including the different interests whp elect 800 representatives and from these the Fascist Grand Council, over whom Mussolini presides, elect 400 to act as deputies. In t-urning Fascist and not Bolshevist, Italy had been shown Britain, France and other nations as ca,pitalistic nations exploiting Italy. All classes are fused in a natinnal cause.

Turkey s' Plight. Quoting^ TurkeyT Rotarian Davys said that after the war this countiy was bled white by pestilence and rpduced to a population less than that of London. They were a beaten pepplp fq,ced by the armies of Qreepe and broken in prestige. A young Turkish agnostic officer, Mustapha Kemal, of Parisian culture and with German as wpll 'as Turkish militqry experience,. who, conceived the idea of saving fxis country, organised and disciplined the army and marched upon Constantinople, taking possession of the Gtoyernment. He later swept the Greeks out of Asia Minor and assumed the dictatorship. Two trends opposed him_Communism from Russia and the forces of Islam from tlie SlQslems. Kemal, however, held to his idea of a westernised Turkey and introduced the Italian criminal code, the Qerman coxpmercial oade and the Swiss civil code. He changed the fez to the howler hat, forhade polygamy, and introduced wpmen into a. European social atmosphere. He also imposed a tax of 27 per cent on the entire incpme of every citizen, made a modern city of Angora, built 1800 miles of railways, built and repaired 7000 piiles of roads and ipcreased the numher of factories fiom ! 130 to 2200 in ten yeaxs. By doing this Mustapha Kemal had risked everything to introduce to Turkey some of the gifts of modern western life. "Turkey has. jumped into_ t^e motor-car of modern material civiKsation, Mustapha KeniaVs hand is on the wh'eel an4 his: f o(p,t is on the apcelerator." Events in Russia. Referring to events Vfhich, had o^curred in Russia following the war, the speaker said that unless his heafers were able tp pqnsicier. the lives of those so different from their own it was not possible to. realise what thjs fiery piatiqnalisiji really yas. In Russia, a 17-year-old schoolboy keard one day that his brother, Alexander, had b.een seized by the secret police at St. Petershurg and dragged off to prispn. ..Theboy, witli io.iir, others, had bee engaged inaplotwith the intention of throwing a bomb at the Czar. A few days latetr Alexander was hanged. Burning with rage and hate, his younger brother began to prepare

his life-work of organisine a , • «ian worker and the amiv nI I smash Czarism, but the whok ' of capitalistic states and ,pf , ^ tatorship. It was one of tw r romances of the world" 43^^ ; Vladimar Lenin sat int&Ster Palace at St. Peter^l prem.e dictator over RUssia T following year from the Tfw-Mosco-jv his will had a p'owerS no Czar had pver wieldqd By lopking into the history flf« sia • and • then of Lenin, amiS? the qu|Sti0„pl what ed to, the world would hefounii 1! the Czar, Bpitain, France"; 2 and Belgiuni realised that thev? make more money by manufak! goods in Russia by cheap lab0flr1 by selling Russia goods inaSl tern Europe by dear money t„ second half of the 19 cenL i number of western-owned fai lsapt from 9900 to 39,000 and J ers from 46,000 to 1,700,000. S were long and wages low and atteJ ed str-kes were crushe'd by'|^ of Cossacks. By 1914, there ^ million factopy workers s.eething , discontent and the lot pf a was, 110 better. Eveiy "peasant i could mareh was dragged into aa efficient and ill-equipped army Lenin's Chanre.

After being imprisoned and 5^ Siberia and having been banishedfr Russia on his releqse, Lenin saV chance to capture Russia for the ep. towards the end of the war, ^ the army .suffered indescribable'suf ings and began to melt away j mutiny, the country was.s'eizedi disputes and bread shorta Following a hitter struggle ^ Reds and iWhites, the Reds, or* sheviks, succeeded, and Lenin bees dictator. He imposed pure- Communism being true to Marxian principfe, dered requisitions of proportiom peasant grain as payment fpr teoj The peasant's position hecame de^ ate and an ecqnomic policy by h in 1921 gave them. free competi "markets, causing money to circuj hanks to re-start and much of fc capitalistic tschnique to be resto Although State direction of transj and industry still remained. Bolshevism is a strong fighi faith with a world programme W has achieved many vietories. Its is of a diametrically opposite ch ter, a collectivised man, living co tively a collectivised existeneO,lectively thinking, feeling pd ins ing. Gandhi's Sacrifice. Stating that time would not pei him to fully discuss China, Ma; Gandhi, Mr. Davys briefly traced early life of tbe latter in Engl where he studied for thebarandc ,n contact with m.odern custqna. was called to the bar and latpr to Soutb Africa, where he formei Indian ambulance detacbment da the Boer War of 1000 strong, Hel became a leader there of an Iii movement for freedom andietntsi India leaving hehind a law pra worth about £3000 a year. Onan in his own country, he discardei acquired European customs, ,d® ing the western mechanistic ffl tion as Satanic. He gave up all customs and dedicated himself w ly to the service of his people. Concluding, Mr. Davys said t® had endeavoured to place befois hearers some realisation of whai strong forces of natio.nalis.111, istic civilisation, with a crossf of Bolshevism meant in the wori day. All the men he had spote had made the guiding pnncipl | their lives service to their felloi J and that, he said, was the great] ciple of Rotary. The service ot men, . however, had been ua, whereas Rotary called fpr natiqnal service^. it called for | to mankind in general andffli plication lay the solution of toi world difficulties.