The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. SATURDAY, JUNE 10, 1933. QUESTIONING YOUTH.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 135, 10 June 1933, Page 8

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun.

SATURDAY, JUNE 10, 1933. QUESTIONING YOUTH.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that we van do.

Anyone reading the cabled accounts of the debates at the Oxford and Cambridge Unions might imagine that a sudden wave of pacifism and disbelief in the Empire has swept over the undergraduates of these two universities. Such, however, is far from being the ease. Oxford carried a motion to the effect that under no circumstances would this House fight

for King and country, and Cambridge that this house had no faith in the conception of a strong united British Empire as the mainstay of world peace. Yefc one feels sure that if England were in peril Oxford would send her sons to the front as she sent them in 1914, and one knows that Cambridge will continue to supply servants of Empire in distant parts as she has always done in the past. But the resolutions are in a measure indicative of changes of opinion that are coming over tho youth not only of England, but of the world.

First a ■word should be said about the special conditions at these two most famous seats of learning;. The Union Societies at both universities consist of undergraduates interested in polities and literature. Anyone desiring to introduce a motion writes it down in a book, and tho decision is left to the Committee. The aim of the Committee is to choose a subject likely to lead to a good debate, and for that roason controversial subjects are given preference. There is generally a strong element among the undergraduates desirous of protesting against anything that savours of music hall jingoism, and these young people, it must be borne in mind, arc at an irresponsible age. The result is that the motions are often worded in a provocative style. The Oxford motion about

not fighting for King and country created a sensation in England. The explanation was advanced afterwards that the real intention ■was to protest against a spurious patriotism which ■ confines itself to flag waving and foolish boasting. Some of the speakers probably felt that the phrase "King and Country" hadoften been used to cover designs not representative of either, and in any case they flung down a challenge against the insanity of Avar which has moved from cHivalry to chemicals, and which threatens under modern conditions to destroy all kings and all countries.

The Cambridge motion seems to have been a, protest against an exaggerated nationalism. It expressed a disbelief that the British Empire was the mainstay of world peace. That it has been a stay of world peace cannot be denied. It presents in itself a miniature League of Nations, and shows how States enjoying the most complete self-government can form a. Commonwealth designed, while recognising the interests of each component part, to promote the interests of the whole. India, with its many differing religions, castes, tribes and languages, is a League of Nations within the British Commonwealth, arid provides in itself a proof of the genius of the British race for ensuring peace by the just treatment of all, as well as by toleration and understanding of all sorts and conditions of

men. The British Empire, like the Roman, has been a great factor in promoting the peace of the world. The Cambridge motion, however, expressed a desire to see old loyalties widened and implied an increasing faith in common bonds of interest among all nations. The President of the Manchester University Union said that instead of a youth demanding to be conscripted into an army, and burning to suffer and to die for the Fatherland, he would prefer to think of cleax'-eyed youth demanding to be conscripted into social service and burning to live for mankind. It might be replied to this that first things must come first. When the guns begin to sound, social service must give way to military needs. Just now, however, the guns are silent, and social service calls. Addressing Oxford students subsequent to the debate, Mr. Lloyd George told them that resolutions of this kind were apt to be swept away when war came. If peace was to be maintained, preparations must be made beforehand.

It is worth noting that the Oxford Union, by 750 votes to 138, declined to rescind its previous motion, in spite of speeches by ex-members urging that the motion be expunged from the minute book. Youth asserted its independence and individuality. It resented dictation by outsiders. Oxford, however, was supported by similar resolutions at tho-Universities of Manchester, Cardiff, Glasgow and Leicester. The President of the Oxford Union took the unusual conrsei of: leaving the chair and leading the opposition

to the motion for • expunging the original motion from the minute book. He explained that no slur was cast on the memory'of the dead.of 1914-IS.. On the contrary, he added, speakers on both sides of the House were concerned, and deeply, concerned, as to how to honour one of tho most solemn pledges that have ever been given—a pledge to those men that they were fighting in a war that was to end war. So impressed was the mover of the motion by this declaration that he asked leave to withdraw it, but the House would not consent. The large vote at Oxford, and the endorsement of that vote by other universities, together with the Cambridge resolution, must not be taken as evidence of any real disloyalty. After taking into account the irresponsibility and love of extremes characteristic of student life, we may, say that they are in a measure symptomatic of a new spirit in youth, which, however mistaken it may be in its expression of opinion, is seeking what it regards as Avider ideals.