Personal Observations

Radio Record, Volume V, Issue 4, 7 August 1931, Page 6

Personal Observations

POWERFUL talk was given from 3YA on Thursday when Dr. P. Stanley Foster spoke on the Rotary movement and its hopes and aspirations. Personal contact between influential men of various countries must inevitably lead to a better understanding and, if the movement continues to grow, should prove a valuable factor in the movement toward world peace.

Dr. Foster did well to remind us, as Britishers, that to other nations we are both foreigners and aliens, having habits and customs which are both strange and incomprehensible. Too often do we regard the people of other nations as "foreigners" on a. plane decidedly lower than that occupied by ourselves. How impatient do we become because an hon~ est beef steak is not easily procurable in Paris. But do we go out of our way to provide an equally honest dish of snails or frogs’ legs for our own French visitors? The geographical position of New »Zealand makes international thought difficult. The best way of cultivating international thought is by travel; this is not possible for all, but good newspapers, the wireless, and other adjuncts of modern life all tend to break down international barriers and to permit a peep at other countries and other lives. Dr. Foster is himself very well travelled. Speaking of his impressions of the U.S.A., he analysed this vast country’s complicated "make-up." Having regard to the tremendous mixture of races here represented, is it any wonder that America can compare equally well with the best and with the worst of the rest of the world. It is true that Americans cultivate an accent which jars and they have a sense of humour of the custard-pie order; nevertheless, they are among the most hospitable people in the world, and they can show us all points ‘in the fields of both sport and business, Dr. Foster’s experiences in France were as happy as in the U.S.A. He found the French people with whom he came in contact hospitable, sympathetic, and responsive. In view of the common report that the French are openly hostile to Britishers, it is pleasing to record that the speaker received many letters from France expressing sympathy and personal anxiety when. the news of the disastrous Hawke’s Bay earthquake became generally known. As Dr. Foster concluded, personal contact is worth all the reading in the world. Greater and closer contact of individuals would do much to: nullify the evil and dangerous propaganda of some of the world’s popular newspapers. This’ in turn would turn to nought the mach-' inations of international financiers, gamblers and seekers of power; in fact one can almost foresee the time when the dirty little money-grubbers, who thrive on, and hunger for, the carnage of: war, : would have to provide such a war entirely by and between themselves. Then, indeed, might we truly believe in "Peace on Earth, Goodwill towards::Men."