PUBLIC OPINION

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20951, 2 November 1939, Page 11

PUBLIC OPINION

THE PRESENT WORLD CRISIS

As expressed by correspondents whose letters are welcome, but for whose views we have no responsibility. Correspondents are requested to write in ink. It is essential that anonymous writers enclose their proper names as a guarantee of good faith. Unless this rule is complied with, their letters will not appear. PAYING AS WE GO (To the Editor) Sir, —If a bridge is expected to serve for forty years, is there any good reason why its whole cost should be met while it is being built? If a war, lasting a few years, is expected to make the nation safe for forty years, is there any better reason for immediate payment? It is necessary to remember that costs are always comprised of human service and natural materials. Any money that may be used to facilitate exchanges will cost practically nothing and will be of no consequence. Practically our whole population is normally employed in catering for our peace-time wants. If a large part of the population is utilised for military service and another, and far larger part, for supplying those in service, the strain on the remaining portion may well be found unbearable if required to supply all the normal wants of society without aid from other communities. Moreover, if those on the one side are aided by supplies borrowed from neutral States while those on the other side refuse such aid, then those refusing to borrow may find themselves at a ruinous disadvantage, and the policy that has no soundness in theory might well prove fatal in practice. Certainly it would be impossible for us. We must send a force overseas, and our wonder-working Reserve Bank could no more supply an overseas force than a promissory note could feed a horse. Men overseas must be paid in sterling, or in French currency purchased with sterling, and almost all their requirements must be purchased with sterling. When we cannot pay for the most necessary imports, cannot transfer our property or our money, cannot meet our most ordinary requirements abroad, how, pray, are we to equip and maintain a substantial overseas force, so costly to maintain in modern war, without borrowing the needed sterling? Will our financial geniuses kindly answer that question?—l am, etc., J. JOHNSTONE. Manurewa, October 30.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —Just at the moment the v/hole world seems to be in the melting pot. Strife has begun of which none can see the end, and it is well worth while to take stock and see just where the British Lmpu’e stands m this matter.

Ever smee the close of what was called the Great War, British foreign policy has been solely in. the interests oi peace. Tne Versailles Treaty was by no means an ideal peace settlement, but present-day critics forget that those who drew up its various clauses lacked the opportunity to discover how they would work. English representatives did ail they could to diminish the huge indemnity France demanded irom Germany, but they were overruled.

England sponsored and took a leading part m founding the League of Nations. The formation of mat society was an nonest attempt to settle international questions without resorting to war. 'That this laudable ideai was not achieved was not the fault of England. She could go no furtner than the other members would let her. The same remarks apply to the disarmament business. England disarmed more than sne should have done; otners hung back and the end was a fiasco. Public opinion was against war in any shape or form. An goes to show that in statesmen and people alike, the desire for peace predominated. With what patience England and France nave borne the trickery of the Nazi regime tne last lew years is well known to every newspaper reader. A stand had to be made and a definite course of action decided upon. England and France were called to act, and they have done so, carefully counting the cost, which will be tremendous, and for which there will be no compensations. And 10, all the whole wide world acclaims the call and approves the acceptance thereof by England and trance. Nothing so convincing has ever happened in the history of the world. Just consider and ponder these facts. India’s many nations pining for selfexpression and governments, stirred with non-co-operation movements, guided by a supernationalist, stop their agitation. Realising that India's only hope is in England, Gandhi calls off all opposition and Princes offer their resources.

Egypt, but recently hunting British officials, breaks off diplomatic relations with Germany. Iran does likewise, while Turkey ranges herself as close to the Allies as she can. Arab and Jew in Palestine cease fighting each other, stop their contentions and declare themselves on England’s side. Roman Catholic Portugal and what is left of Roman Catholic Spain look to England to secure freedom of worship for Roman Catholics in Central Europe. Christian and Jew, Moslem and Hindu, pray for the success of the arms of the Allies, and those prayers arc backed by the approval of the governments of two continents. And what of Russia? The entrance of that Power into the fighting arena may well be the beginning of the deliverance of her people. For Russia is a country tightly shut up, for none can go in and none can come out; and it is a country without a soul, for the reason that the people have been denied access to that which makes them men—no church, no preacher, no Sunday, no feastday, no ceremony on the high days of life; nothing but drab statistics, wearisome propaganda and unremitting toil for insufficient food, bad housing and ragged clothes. Every chance traveller through this unhappy land of Russia remarks upon the apathy of the masses, their mute animal-like patience, the hopeless look on their faces and their aimless walking to and fro. But before deliverance can come to Russia’s proletariat, that country must be opened, and the now moving army may do iL When Israel cried

to the Lord in Egypt, God sent Moses to deliver them. When Israel sighed by the rivers of Babylon. Persian Cyrus was called of God to let them go to their own land. And it is quite possible that this is the great day of deliverance, and that England j and France are the Gideons to wield the sword of the Lord. “For the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth."—l am. etc., C. E. KNIGHT. Dunedin, October 26.