STRONG ENGLAND.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 165, 15 July 1939, Page 11

STRONG ENGLAND.

CONSCRIPTION MOVE

CAMBRIDGE STUDENTS' VrEW. REALISATION OF NEED. Conscription in Cambridge University, <»-■ apparently in the rest of England' " i,s ''•girded i.« un unfortunately liec-s -iiiv evil, Miid M r . R, i). sweet, who hiM just returned to Auckland after haviii" taken h decree at Cambridge Iniversitv. Hi' is the sun ~f the lute Dr. (i. liruiitnii Sweet, whose death occurred a short time ago. Mr. Sweet said that no one in England had regarded the introduction of eonscript ion with enthusiasm; and ihe students at Cum bridge shared the lack of enthusiasm. The student body.'however. whs contributing toward* "what thev considered was a necessity—imnielv a strong England. " *' Jt was true that the Socialist Club at Cambridge had expressed its disapproval of conipnls.Mv training, but. that did :i<»t represent a title cross-section of student opinion. Tho club, he explained, comprised perhaps :U)(> member*, while the total number of students at the university was something like 4000. That minority was the most vociferou-. "Minorities usually are," he added. A Silent Endorsement. Those who resignedly agreed with the Government's move did not express their feelings with the same enthusiasm as did the few who disagreed. People in England, he said, sometimes made the mistake of judging the large inarticulate whole by the small readyvoiced part. That was a fallacy. Speaking of the feeling in London about the possibility of war, he said that the atmosphere of acute and readily discernible tension was a tiling of the past. The people had become more or less accustomed to living on the edge of a volcano. It was when one was further away from the centre of things that one heard the word "tension" talked about. For example, when in Sydney he heard a good many people using that word as describing their own feelings and the feelings of people in England. There had been terrible suspense in England in September; but since then, what with one crisis after another, the feeling was not so acute, though the public generally had a greater realisation of the danger. Place of Universities. Mr. Sweet referred to the place that the great universities in England have in the nation's life. Coming from far New Zealand, he perhaps more than the young man living in England had realised what Cambridge stood for. Some had said that Cambridge was a place where young men went to have a lazy time. That might be true for some, but for the great majority it was a place for really hard work. But apart from the hard work done there, it had mi integral place in that intangible tiling called British tradition. The High Commissioner, Mr. W. J. Jordan, was an enthusiastic New Zealandcr. The New Zealand Club at the I'niversity, he said, was known as the Hei Tiki Club. When the club had a 'dinner, it was the custom to ask some prominent New Zealander to give an address. On one occasion Mr. Jordan had been asked to give that address. Jt was an address which showed Mr. Jordan's staunch support of his own country. Mr. Sweet said lie had met the Hon. W. Nash when the Minister of Finance was in England at the time of " the Coronation. Everyone had i formed the highest opinion of New Zealand's Finance Minister. Mr. Sweet is taking up medicine. He already has his H.A. in the Natural Sciences Tripos, which is part of that degree. When he returns to England in August he will do practical work in .St. Thomas' Hospital, London, returning subsequently to Cambridge to take further examinations.