WORLD’S PROBLEMS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 August 1938, Page 3

WORLD’S PROBLEMS

BRITISH PARLIAMENTARY SYSTEM. MEANS TO A SOLUTION. The view that the principles adopted in the British Parliamentary system might well be adopted as a means of solving the world’s problems was expressed by Mr Winston Churchill in a speech at The central principle of civilisation, he said, was the subordination of the ruling authority to the settled customs of the people and to their will as expressed through constitutional means. In Britain they had achieved a very high degree of the blessing of civilisation. “In this respect for law and in this sense of continuity,” Mr Churchill continued, “lies one of the glories of England. More than that there also lies in it an important part of British strength and safety.” Mr Churchill asked why the same principles should be found serviceable in the organisation of this anxious world. It was their hope that the nations should link themselves together in a. larger system to establish a rule of common law for the bepefit of all. It was vain to imagine, however, that mere declarations of right principles could be of any practical value unless they were supported by those indispensable qualities of civic virture and manly courage, and by those instrumentalities of force and science which in the last resort must be the defence of right and reason. “Civilisation will not last,” declared Mr Churchill, “nor freedom and peace be preserved unless a very large majority of mankind unite to defend these ideas and show themselves possessed of a constabulary power before which barbarity or atavistic forces will stand in proper awe.”