The Southern Stations

Radio Record, Volume VI, Issue 42, 28 April 1933, Page 20

The Southern Stations

‘by

Proton

"TH trials and tribulations that be- '" set small countries endeavouring to foster national customs and traditional institutions, when they border upon gre great unsympathetic, aggressive nations, was the burden of Mr. J. T. Paul’s analytical talk from 4YA. It was explained tersely, yet very fully, how the doctrine of self-determination was responsible for the territorial alteration of the map of Hurope, when the Peace Treaty was negotiated. The talk dealt with Russia’s Baltic neighbours and the difficulties each had experienced with adjacent Great Powers. All had cause to eonsider Russia an enemy and a trial, notwithstanding the fact that various republies had concluded treaties with her, by which the parties undertook to refrain from interference and propagandist penetration. Finland, whose people are of Asiatic origin and conservative, has encountered severe antagonism from the Soviets, and similarly other nationals detached from Imperial Russia in 1917 have experienced an underground interference that has been most burdensome. Poland with the added difficulty of the corri-

dor, with Germans on both sides, and Russia fomenting discontent among all nationalities, has had wu particularly difficult task, and the position to-day seems fruitful for more trouble in the future, : 2 & T is a pity if listeners gathered from Mr. George Lawn’s very. informative talk (3YA) upon "China-Past, Present, and Future," that the principle of extra-territoriality exacted by foreign Powers has been a repressive measure by which China has greatly suffered. Had it not been for extrality China would have had little contact with organised modernism, Shanghai would never have been, Canton, Foochow, and Hankow would have remained mud-flat villages, and Sun Yat Sen’s "Three Principles" yould have been strangled in embryo, Although extrality was more than a hint that foreigners had no faith in Chinese ideas of justice, it was given effect to solely because of Chinese corruption, and only the most militant of meek antiimperialists can find an apology for flagrant depravity. It would seem there is little hope for Russia in the community of nations unless the principle of extrality is enforced in that benighted land of slavery to tyrants’ plans, es @ T willbe a pity, also, if from Myr. Lawn’s talk, an impression was created that the present Nationalist (so called) Government represents all China. Sun Yat Sen’s relatives and connections hold sway in four out of twenty-two provinces, and while it is eonceivable that the few score millions on the coast may eventually impose their will upon the hundreds of millions that have so far successfully resisted the light as seen by the implacable Doc. tor, it should be emphatically reiterated that China as a single entity has not existed since the revolution, The disgruntled students who learned democracy in foreign lands represent but a handful of China’s four hundred odd millions, and they have as much right to claim that negotiation should be conducted through them as have the few Bolsheviks who tyrannise Russia. A m e AS§ the 1983 season for contests in the noble art is just commencing. Mr. J. T. Burrows’s delightful talk upon "Boxing in Literature" was 4 timely one. It was said that 100 ‘years ago every gentlemen learned the science, and a proficient and fashionable teacher could earn £1000 a year. By 1814 the sport of boxing had in the estimation of the gentlemen of ‘England reached high-water mark. It is, therefore, natural that the sport should engage the attention of novelists and poets, and Mr. Burrows quoted freely Byron, Blackmore, Dickens, Conan Doyle, George Borrow, Masefield ‘and many more whose descriptions of ‘fights make some of the most stirring reading in our literature. Mr. Burrows said that many of his hearers would perhaps remark that the omission of certain writers’ descriptions of particular battles left his talk incomplete, but there can be few who wil not ugree that among the most. glorious epics are those given us by George Borrow and Conan Doyle,