ART OF TIMING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 85, 11 April 1938, Page 6

ART OF TIMING.

EVENTS IN EUROPE

| BRITAIN'S REFUGEE PROBLEM. (Ry XELLE-M. SCAXLAX.) LOXDOX, March 23. It is all a matter of timing. Success and i failure so often depend on striking the right | moment. In sport timing is extremely important; ask any golfer, ask a jockey. Hut this art applies to a much wider field; it is found everywhere, from international politics to record-breaking. > At tiie moment we are watching ("Houston's ] progress on his return record-breaking flight : from Blenheim, hut the Press hoardings of London are not plastered with hits name and ! triumph to the exclusion of everything else. IXot that his achievement is less than those I who have broken earlier records—it is far tureater —but at a moment when the attention lof tlie world is focused 011 graver matters his i flight falls into second place. His name and ! his progress arc not printed in streamer headlines, but occupy a minor paragraph at the 'moment. Perhaps, 011 Saturday, when he is idue to arrive in England, such things as Hitler, Austrian suicides, Japanese incidents and the ! bombing in Spain, not to mention Mr. ('hamberlain's pronouncement 011 British I foreign policy, may have slipped back a little | from the forefront, and Houston will top the ibill. 1 News and News. The relative value of "news'* is often bewildering to the man in the street. I remem-jlx-r a night, long ago, when the newspaper I j worked for was starved for news; nothing was j happening either at home or abroad, and the j scissors and paste department was busy rip- | ping out copv to feed hungry printers. A timid lliltle man came in with a long screed about the mild activities of an obscure but devout I group of people who were holding their annual Icamp in the neighlxiurhood. It was slapped in hurriedly, a full column, and the mild little man went home rejoicing. Hut next year, when he returned with a fuller account of their proceedings, and was given two lines, the explanation that the final acceptances for a big race meeting and a lighting speech by .Mr. Lloyd (icorge had prior claim failed to convince him. It lias been said recently that "Italy's necessity was (n-rmany's opportunity." That is to why to-day there are Herman troops on the Brenner Pass. Hitler has mastered the dillieult art of timing. Most of his moves ar» taken when his opponents are engaged else- | where; diverted by pressing local problems. ] And you may also notice that most of his spectacular thrusts are taken at the week-end. • The inarch into the Rhine, the march into I Austria are instances. Timing again. J It is the same with books and plays. Last night a new play, "Idiot's Delight," by the American dramatist, Robert E. Sherwood, was | launched at a moment when its topical interest will bolster its dramatic worth. It has had hi long and successful run in Xew York, and jit certainly should play to packed houses here for many months to come. The -ccne is just "somewhere in Europe." It concerns .an oddly-assorted <»roup of people assembled by chance in a hotel, probablv Switzerland, at a time when war is due to I break out any moment. The principal character is 11 tap dancer with a troupe of blondes. I his is played by Raymond Massey. who delighted his audience bv his skill with his team of blondes. There is also an armament j manufacturer and a mysterious Russian aristocrat, Trcnc. The play ends with the tap dancer and the Russian girl remaining behind 111 the hotel after the others have escaped, and they confess their love under a rain of very realistic bombs. It might be anywhere -to-morrow. Timely Books. It is the same with books. After the last war people wanted to forget the horrors they had endured. Xovcls about the war were most unpopular. then the years passed and the memory ol those bitter days became less acute. People could think of it. talk of it. even read of it. with a sort of detachment that before had been impossible. A new generation was growing up which had not experienced its shattering effects; they had been too young lo realise it. Many good books were written soon after the war. but they "flopped" for this reason. But when ten or fifteen years had passed and the sears had healed there came a

'spate of war-time stories, with crudft »n<l ter''rible realism, like "All Quiet 011 the Western j Frontand many others. For a while they '.were the vogue, and everyone who had something to say 011 the subject ltegun to write, hoping to catch the wave before it receded. A '.few were lucky; they had timed it right. But [■many were too early or too late. To-dav litt!" iis being written about the war of 1!> 14 IS. In-tead we have had a deluge from Kussia. •a later crop from Spain. Now those who can *pcak with authority about China are rushing 'into print. To-day there is a sad lift about the \ ienncse wait ye* we hear <-•> frequent I v on the wireless; they speak of a time that has I gone for ever. The new Viennese music will 'i no doubt, be stirring military songs, a tierI man top-dressing <m that oid cle«ance and '' grace. | I'!very day refugees from Austria, many of .them dews, are arrivinr in Knuland. oulv to : iie turned kick. v one member of .Parliament introdm-e<l a bill into the Hon-e ; providing that all f-uch refugees should be per- ' | mitt iml to remain and lie given British nationality. But thiis was rejected. Though tlio>e ] who can contribute something in art. science, j literal ure or industry will be permitted to I remain, it ir* imp<»cisjblc to harliour all the I victims of political persecution, when perseI cut ion is life all over Europe at the moment.