The Sun WEDNESDAY, JULY 4, 1928 THE GLORIOUS FOURTH

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 397, 4 July 1928, Page 8

The Sun WEDNESDAY, JULY 4, 1928 THE GLORIOUS FOURTH

THE Fourth of July: This is the greatest date in the calendar for the people of the United States of America. It is Independence Day, “the Glorious Fourth”—the day on which hundreds of exuberantly patriotic Americans will either be killed or maimed in and for the sheer joy of freedom. Such fatalities and maimings will be due entirely to the American manner of rejoicing. Though many representative Americans in the highest places can be silent when they like and particularly when silence is golden, from the Potomac to the Golden Gate, from the Great Lakes to the Gulf, “the pursuit of Happiness,” which is a cardinal principle in the Declaration of Independence, has to be and must be noisy. In the splendid land of freedom din is a delight. So, to-day, as on every Fourth of July throughout a full century-and-a-half (the document of proud defiance was adopted in 1776) there will be heard above the clamour of strange noises all over the happy States the explosions of fireworks and firearms which are the joyous implements that kill and maim the gay pursuers of Life, Liberty and Happiness. As Sydney Smith said of sudden freedom over a hundred years ago, “a nation grown free in a single day is a child born with the limbs and the vigour of a man, who would take a drawn sword for his rattle, and set the house in a blaze, that he might chuckle over the splendour.” But there is no rancour now on the British side of the Atlantic, and such bitterness of spirit as may exist on the American side about the causes of the ancient revolt is confined to blatant persons like Big Bill Thompson of Chicago and his kind. Indeed, British people in the United States to-day will take part in American rejoicings with perfect goodwill, but probably with enough prudence to keep out of the way of joyous explosives. The history of the great Republic is sufficiently old now to provide ample proof that the Americans are an industrious and acute people, keen for progress, keener for peace, keenest of all for prosperity. As regards their prosperous purpose, they have more reason than any other country in the world for rejoicing with exceeding gladness. The nation’s Treasury surplus for the past financial year was £.79,600,000, while the sum of national debt reduction was £180,000,000. Franklin and Washington, and all the other British heroes and sages of the American revolution, if their shades be permitted to revisit the haunts of their mundane activities, might well be proud of the rewards of their service for glorious independence. The Declaration of Independence was gained at a time when the population of the United States was less than that of Australia to-day. Now, the American population is greater than the white population of the whole British Empire. One need not ask what America has done so far with her freedom. The more vital question is as to what she means to do with it in the future. It is true that her statesmen are doing splendid work in the direction of securing the promise of world peace, but much more than documentary assurances Of universal liberty and hapiainess are needed, if war is for ever to be renounced and made an outlaw. What is freedom, if all are not free? Many nations need the co-operation of America in overcoming the blight of war in the past, and until the worshippers of American freedom are willing to play their part at Geneva the glory of America’s independence and glorious prosperity will he marred with the blemish of selfishness. THE “BYNG BOYS’—IN BLUE THE appointment of Viscount Byng of Vimy to be Commissioner of the .Metropolitan Police, in succession to Sir William Horwood, has aroused the indignation of the Labour Party in the House of Commons. Why was a police officer not chosen? Why was a man of 65 appointed when a man of 60 had just resigned on attaining the age limit? These and other questions have been asked of the Home Secretary. The appointment is an important one. The Metropolitan Police Force, watching- over seven and a half million souls, numbers over 20,000 men on its roll—-a number equal to the population of some of the larger towns of New Zealand. The command of such a responsible body is not one to be lightly bestowed. The retiring Commissioner, although some of the questioners do not seem to realise it, is a military man turned policeman. Sir William Horwood—the owner of a prodigious string of decorations —has filled many military appointments. He has, however, also had police experience and was an assistantcommissioner from 1918 to 1920. Lord Byng, on the other hand, has never controlled a policeman and never wielded the business end of a baton, but he has managed successfully to cope with the eontrol of an Army Corps and the Canadian Forces, subsequently making a success of an important Vice-Regal'position. These are qualifications that probably influenced the Home Secretary. After all, the position is largely an administrative one.

The age question is rather a difficult one to dodge. The Home Secretary explains it away by stating that he took the best possible man for the job. But as the position carries with it a salary of £3,000 (and presumably a pension), it is naturally a coveted one, and a certain amount of friction is to be expected ; in fact, the Labour Party threatens to bring its “heavies” into action before long. In the meantime Viscount Byng takes over, and there is little reason to suppose that he will not make as efficient an administrator in his new sphere as he has in two equally-diffieult roles.