FREE AND TOLERANT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 219, 16 September 1939, Page 16

FREE AND TOLERANT.

BRITISH PATRIOTISM.

LOUD BIEDWOOD'S AD.VICI

LONDON, August 24

ilic Kent summer school for teachers, which reached it» majority this year, was opened at St. Lawrence College, Ramsgate, by Field-Marshal Lord Birdwood. Among the 300 teachers attending the school, which embraces eight courses under more than 22 tutors, arc students from Ceylon, Egypt and the Straits Settlements. Lord Birdwood said lie was astonished on returning to England, after 4o years spent in India and other parts of the Empire, to find that after 70 years of compulsory education there were still men and women in the country who could neither read nor wriie. I am horrified." Lord Birdwood continued, "to find that is still the case to-day. Recently 200.000 men have boon called up for militia training, and the officers tell me that while they arc delighted to find the men active, keen, alert and energetic, there are a great Dumber who cannot read or write their own name®;. I hope the Military Training Act will result in real comradeship between the men who are called upon to serve.

"It is not only the duty of the teacher to instruct children in reading and writing, but also to impress on them the essential part of patriotism. 1 mean patriotism with tolerance, not the patriotism shown by the German nation at the present moment; thev are absolutely intolerant. I believe the' German people are a most lovable people, but they are ruled by an autocrat who denies them any sort of freedom. Our Empire has an enormous moral influence. Let us sec that that influence is always directed towards tolerance, mercy and freedom. Try to make the children see that it is a privilege to belong to such a great Empire.'"