CHILDREN'S OUTLOOK.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 48, 26 February 1941, Page 10

CHILDREN'S OUTLOOK.

NATIONAL ATTITUDE. '

FREEDOM IN AUSTRALIA. A Hungarian journalist imw living in Sydney, who in his world-wide! travels lias made a special study of the children of different nations, offer* a challenge to those of us who arc charged with the care and upbringing of the children of our own race.. Writing in the "Sydney Morning Herald ■Supplement/' he says: In these days of tragedy, when freedom and despotism are lighting the greatest battle the world lias ever seen, we look around us to lind something besides our present days to live for. And we find the children, hundreds of millions of kiddies the world over, the eternal future, of the human race, the next generation. Will they fail in the same way as we did? I«et us review, for the moment, the boys and girls of "white Europe," with their dreams, their ideals and their expectations. Can you appreciate and understand their points of view? That is the important question. Take lirst of all the Hungarian child. For him I should say patriotism comes first. It is a good thing if expressed in the right way. In the wrong way, as we know, it can mean war and despotism. The Real Glory. Hungarian boys and girls are taught from their early childhood that to die for the re-creation of Hungary is the real glory of life. In the schools, one of their prayers runs: Crippled Hungary is not a land. Whole Hungary is Heaven. As vre go into Xazi Germany and Fascist Italy the word "freedom" automatically disappears and in its place comes the slogan, "Conquer or die!'' To the German and Italian children, no matter what age they are, Hitler and Mussolini are more than the leaders of their nations —they are gods. The gods of war.

Czech, Serb, Russian and Slovac children, from a patriotic point of vie.w, dream of the uniting of all the Slavraces all over the world. This aim is even stronger in them than the love for their own country, which may be conquered by the stronger races, but not so the whole Slav race. The exceptions among the Slave are the Poles, whose hearts flame with the same feelings as Hungarian and Bulgarian youths.

Humanity is measured by heroism. To die for the country to the European child's mind is much more noble than to live for it. Naturally, there are other factors working against these sentiments. First of all, there is sport. To no one is sport so dear as it is to European children, perhaps because they feel it is a better form ot* lighting and is a contact with distant countries of the world. Lands Of Dreams. In the minds of the youth of the Balkans and Hungary there is another steadfast ideal: the English Constitution and Parliament. Many of these children are tired and hungry, and to tliem the British Empire arid the Uilited States are lands of dreams. English films have helped a good deal in that direction.

The European child is very self-reli-ant. The main reason for this is the poverty, also the fact that he lias to start his struggle for existence at a very early age.

The history of these countries is nothing but a list of crimes, mainly committed by their neighbours against them, and the children are impressed with the idea, that sooner or later revenge must come.

In the United States we find the children mostly hero-worsliippe.rs of great sportsmen. Their lives are more influenced through pictures than those of any other children in the world, for the reason that the. best films are made in America. Freedom In Colonies. The children of the United States enjoy great liberty arid breathe freedom as in the British Isles, but still I believe that nowhere in the world has the ideal of freedom for children such significance as here in Australia. That sacred word which has been so humbled almost everywhere in the old and new continents still stands unchallenged in this country. When I mentioned sport-loving children, I should have placed first of all tITe youngsters of the fifth continent. Sport and a healthy outlook on life are with them from early childhood to a ripe age. They are healthier than most children, for they lead on open-air life, and arc stronger, for they seldom slee.p in heated rooms as almost everywhere else in the world, where the winters are. colder.

So far as I can observe, their family life, however, is not so intimate as in the European countries. They spend more time in the colleges and are more rarely in the company of their parents than the children of the. Continent.

Australia and New Zealand must be paradise for a child, especially one living in the country. These children are not cramped within the walls of great cities; they can go on "adventures," they have their "hunting territories." This crossed my mind as I travelled through the vast Australian continent and over the. South Island of New Zealand.

Naturally, we find here, too, children in poverty and misery, an 4 orphans, but they are not born into a hopeless struggle; they all have possibilities. They have the chance and right to succeed when they grow up; they do not have to breathe, in the words of their elders, from the very minute they can understand, that there is "no chance to live—no, they are entitled to live under any circumstances.