NOT DIPLOMACY—DECEIT

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1046, 9 August 1930, Page 29

NOT DIPLOMACY—DECEIT

FIELD-MARSHALL SURVEYS A CHANGING WORLD THE AGE OF SCIENCE Field-Marshal Sir William Robertson opened the new buildings, which will greatly increase the accommodation at Rydal School. The extension has cost approximately £30,000, and together with the school hall, built in 1900. with which it is in character, constitutes three sides of what will eventually be a quadrangle. It was from the cloisters facing into this oxien space that the opening ceremony was performed in the presence of perhaps as large a gathering of “old hoys” as has ever assembled within the school precincts. About 180 “old boys” were said to be present, dating their school days at Rydal from as far back as ISBS down to more recent years. It is claimed that, with the single exception o£ Ounclle, Rydal now has probably the best workshops to be found iu any of the public schools of the country. The Age of Science

Sir William Robertson addressed the main part of his observations to tlio boys. Changes and developments of the greatest magnitude, he said, were now going on all around us, and in a few years’ time, if they made good use of their -time while at school, they would have the opportunity of sharing in achievements which both in scope and attractiveness had never yet been equalled. Unexpected and Car-reaching discoveries were being made every day in the field of science, and every new wonder seemed to pave the way for still more startling and marvellous results. For instance, distance was being eliminated by the airplane, wireless was facilitating intercom se between different parts of the world in a way surpassing the wildest flights of imagination of 10 or 20 years ago; railways were with difficulty holding their own against more modern methods of transport; and the difficulty would become greater in proportion as we increased our supply of light and fuel and power by some less

antiquated method than that involved in carrying lamps of coal about from one end of the country to the other. Telegraph poles would soon be sold as firewood. Without either poles or wires we could hear what people were staying at the other side of the world, and apparently we should soon see what they were doing. That, perhaps, would not be an unmixed blessing. (Laughter.) Other planets, so tar outside our range, would soon be brought into verbal communication, if not actual personal contact, for, after ■all, our ideas of what we called the laws of nature had so often been utterly wrong in the past that we should hesitate to pronounce anything impossible in these days. As in science, so in religion and in the political sphere tho whole position had been revolutionised. Before the war Europe was an armed camp, and the aim of the nations was to be ready to fly at each other’s throat on any provocation or none at all, and they used to intrigue against each other to bring about the downfall of their neighbour. They called it diplo macy. Well, it was deceit. Today the nations must find some other way of composing their international differences than the futile, barbarous way of butchering. Today, Sir William continued, the trend of public opinion was clearly in the direction of closer co-operation, and a United States of Europe for some purposes was already appearing on the horizon. At no lime before was it so important that boys should be diligent in their work at school, but if they asked him how they were best to prepare themselves for those attractive possibilities he did not know that he had very much to say. There was no secret road to success which he had ev»r heard of yet. As a rule, when a man achieved a great thing people said: “He is a genius." He would remind them that, as a rule, his success was due to hard work and resolution. He would also remind them that they were not placed there by accident, but for the express purpose of helping to develop this world on the lines according with the wishes of its creator Besides such matters as punctuality, perseverance, truthfulness, respect for superiors, they must have due regard for the interests and feelings of others. What Success Means

Success did not mean merely getting money. It might not mean getting money at all. It certainly did net mean thrusting people aside and tramping on anybody who got in your way. Unless -they had due considera-

tion for their fellow-men they would never win their esteem, and if they did not do that they would never enjoy success. Everywhere in this coun try they would find memorials erected to the memory of the men and boys who gave all they had to give—their lives—for the country, and on mosi of those memorials would be found the words. “ Their name liveth for evermore.” “Now.” said Sir William, “that is success. That is real success, and you will search those villages and towns in vain to find a memorial erected to the memory of a war proii teer. And that is failure.” Concluding. Sir William advised n*s hearers to try to live up to the prin ciples the boys and young men of Greece undertook to observe on join ing the Greek army in the lime of Lie Greek Empire. These were: (1) T will never disgrace by sacred shield” I will never do a mean thing; (2) i will dever desert the comrade placed by my side"—l won’t let my frienn down, and (3) “1 will fight, aided and unaided, for my altars and my home” —1 will stand up for my religious con victions and my country, and, in gen eral. 1 will so live that when 1 die l shall leave my country greater and not less than 1 found it. “If you boys can remember some ot these things, and try to live up to them,” he finished, “you will, when you have reached my time of life, be abie to look back to today and say that the day these buildings were opened was not only a red-lei ter da»for this school, but was a red-letter day for yourselves.”