BRITAIN BEYOND THE SEAS.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18184, 22 September 1924, Page 14

BRITAIN BEYOND THE SEAS.

NO ANXIETY ABOUT THE BIBLE. iTBOM 01*2 OWK COSSESfOSDIXT.) LONDON, August 12. The Rev. J. 11. Ritson, M.A., D.D., has readied London after Li 3 40,000 miles tour on behalf of the Bible Society. During his long round there were only two untoward incidents — the railway ttrike in New Zealand and engine trouble in the Seythia, in the crossing from New \ork to Liverpool. To an interviewer of "Tho Methodist Recorder," Dr. Ritson acknowledged that- he felt a littlo tired, for he had been travelling and talking almost without respite since January. Out of the 10i nights spent away from home, 101 had been passed in motion either on sea or in trains. That, in itself is a pretty big strain on one svstem. The traveller thought he' must have averaged over two hundred and ten miles a day during the trip. The object of the tour, a a Dr. Ritson explained, "was to strengthen the organisation of the Bible Society in Australia and New Zealand. In these Dominions the branches of the Society in each State were independent of each other. We were able to link them together in two great organisations, which ill future will be national in character, one covering the Commonwealth of Australia, the other tho Dominion of New Zealand. Jt has been a very successful and encouraging tour and I gratefully acknowledge tho kindness, courtesy, and warm hospitality met with on "every hand and from almost every creed. In practically every city visited the Mayor and Corporation aecorded a civic reception. The Press, equally with the municipal authorities, went out- of their way to show appreciation of the work of the Bible Society. We. need have no anxiety about the position of the Bible in Britain beyond the scasj it lies close to the hearts of the best people in Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.''

"I conceived very favourable opinions of our fellow-countrymen in Australia and New Zealand, and have returned with a new and more sympathetic understanding of tho serious problems that, confront them. The gravest problem is that of population. As I traversed the vast, empty spaces of that wonderful continent, my mintl was continually setting over against their solitude the teeming millions of the yellow races. To preserve Australia as a white man's oonutiy tax the ingenuity and resourcefulness of its greatest statesmen. The race problem presents itself in the' Eastern Hemisphere in one of its acutest aspects. If Australia and Xew Zealand are to hold't.heier own, they must lift the civilisation of the yellow and brown races on to a Christian level."