TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10048, 23 July 1910, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

TWO VIEWS OP ENGLAND. Mr (jeorge Bernard ' Shaw has several claims to distinction, not the least of which is that he has lived in England maDy years without discovering a redeeming feature in English character and life. The impression one gets of the avetage Englishman from "G.B.S.'s" writ-

ings is that of a person wallowing in sensuality, hypocrisy, and stupid ity. Mr Shaw's latest deliverance on the state of England is a public apology for living in such a shocking country. "The country is in a deplorable condition," he said at a meeting m London the other day, "and I publicly apologise to the Universe fnr living m it." There are ( ,times—such as when he gambols like a low comedian over the graves of Elizabethan immortals—when most Englishmen feel inclined to apologise to the Universe for harbouring Mr Shaw. It is a relief to turn from his unrelieved gloom to the opinion of a man like Lord Morley, whose knowledge and intellect make any pronouncement by him on the state of the nation a matter of importance. Speaking at the recent annual dinner to the Royal Academy Lord Morley mentioned that a "very distinguished traveller" who had just returned from some of the most important colonies, had told him that in the colonies there was an impression that the Old Couiftiy was failing. "I do not btlieve a word of it," said the Secretary for India. It was quite true that the political parties were in a position ot singular difficulty, but this was simply because questions involving great changes had come to the front.