THE PEOPLE'S FORUM.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 291, 8 December 1937, Page 26

THE PEOPLE'S FORUM.

From Our Readers to Our Readers.

NATIONALISM AND BUILDING A BETTER WORLD

(To the Editor.)

We should all be grateful to the Rev. W. W. Averill for his eloquent eulogy of the men who died, or were broken in the Great War. He asks us as citizens, "Why do they have to beg for a fair deal?" and "What have you who remained done about building a better world, for which they died and bled?" These are tragic questions: The Great War was to have abolished war. Instead it has sown dragon's teeth amid the nations. The tragedy that confronts humanity are its divisions. Nationalism divides; with an intensity and bias, despairingly difficult to overcome. Language divides! —it is a screen through which one nation sees darkly the life and actions of other nations. Religion divides; there appears no prospect of real union even of Christianity itself, and communion is more remote with the older faiths of Asia. Commerce divides; each nation seeks with tariffs to penalise its neighbours trade. Is there any hope of remedy to dissolve these tragic differences among mankind? The basic cause of the world's troubles and suspicions is economic, yet nature's prodigelity, harnessed by science and mechanism, is sufficient to meet all reasonable needs of mankind, were there toleration to co-operate and plan for all. Art, literature and science have already broken the barriers that divide the nations. It is the material necessities of life that cause war and the alarms of war. It is fair distribution by free markets that offers the best path "to peace. The world needs another Peter the Hermit, not to raise the fiery cross of war, but to preach a common brotherhood of man. Our little New Zealand is only a pawn in world politics; but we can socially and economically "put our own house in order," and by example our part towards a better world. We can at long last give our broken old soldiers a better deal, we can better the economic conditions of our child-bearing mothers and their precious immigrants, and thus encourage our women to choose Nature's ways, instead of abortion's health-destroying paths. Our Government is about to introduce the most important measures of our social history— "superannuation and health insurance" —measures designed to bring health anfl security to al! our people from cradle to grave —a wider distribution of wealth in its best form. Is it j too much to ask all citizens to forget party differences and concentrate in helping our Government to place these measures on the Statute Book? On the question of defence there is harmony between the Labour and Nationalist parties. Cannot this harmony extend to the defence of our homes ajrainst poverty, disease, unemployment and old age? H. HAYWARD.

WAR IN SPAIN. \

Your correspondent, "Irish," meete my request for details supporting his attack on the Spanish Government with still more assertion and having no direct bearing on the point at issue. "T.E.D." endeavours to assist him. To correct some fallacies expressed by the lastnamed writer, I give below the state of the parties after the election held on February 10, 11)30, whilst the Oil Robles-Iverroiix-Sotelo reactionary Conservative Government still held power in Spain: Popular Front Alliance: Left Republicans, 81; Republican Union, 26; Esquerra (I/eft Republicans of Catalonia), 29; Socialists. 98; Communists, 16; other Left parties, 18; a total of 268. Centre Right: JJadical Conservative, 8; C.E.D.A. (Gil Robles party), 04; Agrarian party, 13; Lliga (Catalan Right), 11; Monarchist, 24; other Centre and Right parties, 55; total, 205. Niceto Alcala Zamora was impeached by the Cortes on April 7, 1936, and ousted from office. Manuel A/.ana was elected to the Presidency on May 10, 1936. "T.E.D." will therefore see how impossible it would have been for Azana to have interfered in the elections of the preceding February. Nor is it likely that a Government which had suppressed the popular uprising of Octot>er, 1934, with mass slaughter and torturings (read history of Asturias, 1934) would allow itself to be ousted in the manner alleged. Actually, at the time of the elections 30,000 Popular Front leaders and supporters were still held in the prisons, still awaiting trial for the most part after 14 months' incarceration. They were, of course, at once set free when the election results were made known. The results of this election were accepted at the time, even by the defeated Government, as a true indication of the feeling of the country. F. W. PATTON.

"Irish" considers me to be a trifle behind the times, but if I were to accept his unsubstantiated generalisations I should require a different outlook than one merely a trifle behind the times. When the Spanish Cortes met on October 1, 1937, Senor Portela Valladares, who was Right Centre Premier of Spain at the time the elections were held which gave the Popular Front a majority, declared in an important speech in the Cortes, "My first duty before you, before Spain and before the whole world, is to affirm the legitimacy of your authority. My defeat in the elections over which my Government presided gives' me the right to make this affirmation. This is my testimony as it figures in the records of this session and as it remains a landmark in the history of Spain." This statement will probably enable him to qualify for the all-embracing term of "Red." G. E. JACKSON.

Mr. E. J. Howard, M.P., asserted in his article of a few weeks ago that Germans, Italians and Moors (in short, Franco) endeavoured, immediately after the 193U election, to overthrow a democratic Liberal-Labour majority Spanish Government; and, in last Saturday's issue, he has these (words: "Unfortunately the Church has taken sides with Franco" But thjs correspondence has shown that the 1936 so-oalled Government was an anti-Par-liamentary, Communist-te(?Wrfeit minoI rity affair, directed from Moscow, and characterised by arson, sacrilege and murder. Therefore, as one of your readers, I ask Mr. Howard to substantiate his assertion or withdidw it. ' IRISH.

THE TEACHER'S WORK,

So "Parent" has set himself up as a great educational authority, and we teachers must, I suppose, hearken to his bewailings. He is very sure as to what we must teach. We are to make sure that mental, ethical, social and physical development ia Subsidiary (not "are subsidiary") to that which is highest and best. Here is where "Parent" has blundered. What he really means is that as long as the child's development conforms to his preconceived ideas of goodness all is well educationally. It does not matter what Dewey or Montessori or anyone else thinks! What the Rev. Woods thinks must be so very much superior. Evidently it does not matter if the child develops into a prig, a thief, a religious bigot or a good Anglican, so long as it knows the Ten Commandments and has a good theological grounding. Therefore we teachers are to put the fear of God into the' children. May I point out to "Parent" that no two men have the same conception of God or the same standards of goodness. No man has the right to inflict his or anybody else's conceptions or standards on the child, even if he is in contact with him for a whole 25 hours a week. Finally, I have yet to meet a teacher, and I dare say that I have met more than "Parent" ever will,' who did not realise the importance or magnitude of the job he has taken up. DOMINIE.