NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 186, 21 May 1941, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

WESTERN MAN'S FAILURE. Where must we look for the admitted failure of Western man in our time ? asks Mr Douglas Stewart- in a booklet discussing the future of Europe. He has immense wealth and power at his command. His civilisation is technically far above all others that have preceded it. He has resources of'knowledge and political experience that make the ancient thinkers and rulers appear as children by comparison'. That being so, why is he failing so tragically? Man is failing because he misunderstands his own nature and is neglecting its deepest needs. Ho understands everything except himself; ho can control everything except himself. We are not faced with famine or plague or any other natural disaster, except in so far as our own insane rivalry and hatred may produce some vast natural disaster as the accompaniment of war. We are faced simply and fundamentally with moral collapse. However surprising this may bo to the secular mind, it is not in the least surprising to those who have learned from the Bible and in the Church a deeper and more tragic truth about man than that taught by the popular thought of the opening of tho 20th century. This moral failure will continue unless and until men submit themselves anew to a religious discipline which will in turn create both religious vision and moral, power sufficient for our needs. NAZI WAR OF NERVES. This is the open season for Nazi menaces. By every channel that Goebbels’ ingenuity can devise the threats are being ' uttered, says the “Economist.” The barges are ready in the Danube and in the French ports; the Stukas are waiting in Sicily and along the whole Continental coast; the bombers are being loaded up; the submarines are being fuelled; the poison gas tubes rolled out; the invading divisions paraded. It is the most deadly Armada the world has ever known, and its and weight are daily being magnified by rumour and report, by artful suggestion and “neutral” comment. There will be no mercy for any of us in the onslaught—and still less if it should succeed. It is as well 1 that this should be realised. After the miracles of 1940, it was only natural that some grateful illusions should be cherished, and there were those in October and November who allowed themselves to think that the worst has passed, that tho. famous corner had once more been turned, ft is Mr Churchill’s greatness as a leader that, just as he never abandoned his hopeful confidence in the summer, bo has never relaxed his vigilant warnings during the autumn and winter. Causes for rejoicing have boon many: the brilliant offensives in Africa; the astonishing changes in American opinion and policy; the defeat of tho day bomber. But none of them affects the prospect that, for many dreary months to come, we shall remain on the defensive. Each of them swells the hope of ultimate victory; none of them alters the fact that wo can lose the'war in 1941.