The ODD ANGLE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 134, 9 June 1942, Page 4

The ODD ANGLE

(Bv MacCLURE)

• REDEMPTION On Sunday night five of us sat playing cards—for matches. Dead ones. It had come to that on account of the shortage. There was a time when we played for money; we had a use for the money we won; with it we bought petrol, clothing — all sorts of things. Now, with no money to play with and no use for any money we might win, little faith in the much-uscd pack we play with and none in each other—we hnd dead matches suit us better. So engrossed were we in the play, that the Hon. W. Perry had a full minute's start with his broadcast National Service talk before we realised the fact. Now "Bill,' as you know by now, is no orator — not that oratory cuts much ice these days; for that you can blame our own Cabinet Ministers without going further afield. Mr. Perry's speech had, however, one redeeming feature. He quoted from a great book that in the early part of the last Great War was read by all —or nearly everybody, anyway— and to-day should be not only read again, but many of its burning sentences framed and displayechon every available space if we would win this war. They don't print books like that nowadays. "What is more, it is very unlikely that anyone would be allowed to say 'such things as its author had the coinage to say. And more unlikely that anyone would have the courage to print such caus-| tic criticism of the powers that be.

• HITTKIt, BL'T S.AI.I'TAKV * The book quoted by Mr. Perry was Oliver's "Ordeal By Battle," the edition mentioned by the speaker being the (April) 1915 one. Since then, however, the book was revised and reprinted in January, 1916—after the evacuation of Gallipoli. Much had happened in those grim nine months: Russia had suffered serious reverses; Bulgaria had joined Germany; gallant little Servia and Montenegro had been crushed; and, as I mentioned, Gallipoli had been evacuated. As well, a Liberal Cabinet had fallen; a Coalition Cabinet had taken its place; Britain had been torn with dissension over the Conscription issue, and the new Government had courageously decided for conscription. Naturally, this revised edition, written at the end of one year and five months of war, had much to say that was bitter reading for Britain's complacent folk; much to say that hurt the flag-wavers and the cheap smailsouled armchair optimists of that period. And it had a lot to say that applies not only to what remains of that very same group today. but also to the Government hush-hushers, the "don't talkers," the big-stickers, the suppressionists, the liberty and freedom crushers. • LEADERSHIP On Sunday last, for inspiration, the Hon. W. Perry sought in this great book for inspiration. In Oliver's "Ordeal By Battle" he found it. Unfortunately. Bill is, as I said, no orator. Had he been, he could have chopped out three-quarters of the hooey and bunk with which he smothered the author he quoted from and voiced more of Oliver's message. Bill spoke of the "crucible of war"— but he did not think fit when speaking of "the spirit of the people" to quote Oliver's words in that selfsame chapter. Here they are, words that should be repeated from the North Cape to the Bluff: "The nations of the world have one need in common: leadership. The spirit of the people can do much, but it can't do everything Leadership is our greatest need, and it is there that the party system has played us false. To manipulate its vast and intricate system there arose a great demand for expert mechanicians, and these have been evolved in a rich profusion." I'll say they have — and you've noticed it, too. But you've never noticed much else — except the cost of all these wondrous magicians which is included in the income taxation we're paying to-day. "Democracy is by no means invincible," says Oliver. Not, that is, just because it happens to be democracy. And when it is less than democracy, I leave it to you to measure up the degeneration that has taken place in national ideals.

• ALWAYS AX ALTERNATIVE There is one chapter in Oliver's l\ook that alone could he read with advantage by our party leaders today. It is titled "The Paralysis of a Nation." Let me quote a single passage: . . . Before we get rid of a bad Government or (if the phrase be preferred) of a Government unsuited to the occasion, we must have something, they say, to put in its place. But when a surgeon nas to deal with a case of paralysis, and finds that the mischief is caused by a bony growth which is pressing on the brain, he proceeds at once to remove the bony growth; he does not stop to ask himself: 'What am I to put in its place?' And we are dealing now with the paralysis of a nation. There is always an alternative Government, though it may not be clearly visible till the old one has disappeared. How can we see the sun till the fog has blown away?" I cannot quote more on account of space. But I do wish the Hon. W. Perry had—instead of the stuff to which we have become accustomed in thesd Sunday night broadcasts.