VOICE OF THE NATIONS

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 57, 1 December 1923, Page 13

VOICE OF THE NATIONS

SAYINGS AND WRITINGS :: :: OF THE TIMES :: ::

In Defence of comfort. “A person who tak'es an interest in ,What he oats and drinks, in his house and his furniture, who believes in comfort and means to have it, knowing that it can bo made tho foundation o’> which may be erected all the arts and crafts, the philosophies, and sciences, the frienships and little acts of kindness which give value to existence, a person who does this has some claim to be called civilised; he has begun to introduce reason and taste into his world, to rationalise his instincts, to master his environment.”—J. B. Priestley in the “Challenge.”

Will the Kings Come Back? “It looks as if we were about to see a revival of monarchy on tho Continent of Europe. At any moment we may htear that Prince Rupprecht has been proclaimed King of Bavaria. Hungary would restore the Crown of St. Stephen to-morrow if it did not fear ‘foreign complications’ ; it is only the same apprehension which prevents about half Prussia from declaring openlv for some Hohenzollern or other.”—Sir Sidney Low, in the “Weekly Disptach.” . Religion and Business.

“Practical religion may be defined rs tho observance by man of lus duty toward God and his neighbour. JWhat that dutv is. in detail, is a subject of bndless discussion, so that it would sometimes appear that a man knows better what religion demands of his neighbour than what it requires of himself. The religious man has to decide for himself what is his duty in these respects, learning from experience what seems blest for the circumstances in which he is placed, and following the guidance of a conscience quickened by his acceptance of the Christian faith.. In business, conscience is a bigger factor than the cynic will allow, and there is a good deal of practical religion displayed on the part of people who do not claim to be ruled by religious ideals.” — Lord Marshall, in the “Home Messenger.”

Function of the War Correspondent. “I verily believe that without our chronicles the spirit of the nation would not have maintained its greatness of endeavour and sacrifice. There are some who hold that to be the worst accusation against us. They charge us with having bolstered up the spirit of hatred and made a quicker and a better peace impossible. I do not plead guilty to that, for. from first to last po word of hate slipped into my narrative and my pictures of war did not hide the agony of reality , nor the price of victory.”—Sir Philip Gibb in “Adventures in Journalism.”

Desperate Remedies. “We are not of those who would despair of Europe because of .its terrible disorders, or of European civilisation because of its moral failures. None the less from day to day dangers increase and confusion grows worsji confounded. Desperate diseases provoke desperate remedies. Italy and Spain surrender even the pretence of Parliamentary liberties, ' and to-dav Germany establishes in turn a virtual dictatorship.” — “Manchester Guardian.”

The Influence of the Film. “Films reflect, and must inevitably reflect, the spirit and ideals of >he country in which they are produced. Wo have our own ideals, and naturally desire to see them perpetuated. British films have a valuable mission to perform in this respect, and, as l as been well remarked, ‘a powerful British and Dominion film industry will materially assist in propagating the idea) of Empire and in, cementing the bonds that link it together.’ ... The influence of the film on the future of the Commonwealth of British p< oples is not to be ignored by statesmen of vision.”—London “Daily Telegraph.” Carry On!

“As I see things to-day, you will be fcolish to count upon further remissions of taxation in the near future. We are not yet out of the wood. We have in front of us a weary, perhaps an exhausting, struggle, and you have got to set your teeth and go through with it as you went through bad times in the war.” —Mr. Neville Chamberlain, Chancellor of the Exchequer.

The Cornerstone of British Policy. “Somebody said to ma the other day that the British Empire never had any foreign policy except to keep the peace. I believe that is roughly true; at any rate, true for very many decades, if not centuries, past. Wo have tried to keep the peace; that has been the great object of British foreign policy, working not by force, not by powgr, but by trying to promote friendliness amongst the nations. . . . ■ I believe it is still the essential thing we should aim at. We now have in our hands an instrument for that purpose in the League of Nations, incomparably more effective than anything we have had before. We ought to do cur utmost to strengthen the League, and make it more and mope the cornerstone of our policy, for .unless wo can get rid of 'he war machinery, he idea of force and compulsion, I do not myself think there is any hope that we shall see a pacified and restored Europe.”—Lord Robert Cecil in a speech to the delegates at tho Imperial Conference.

A Dream of Morrie England. “My dream is an England in which every family will have a. house fit to live in, fit to bring up. children in. No young people would be tarred from matrimony because they could not get houses to live in, and as I cannot bring sunshine and fresh air to the houses I must take the houses to whore there is sunshine and fresh air. In car>fcr words, I must spread the population. These gigantic cancerous blocks like London and the other great cities have grown up because there was lack of an intelligent town-planning policy. The nation is now awake, to the need of spreading the population. Great new roads are lieing driven through, country districts. Many industries can with economy be moved into the country. This must he. done. Cottages must be built. Communities must be established, and I foresee an England where people will be able to live and bring up their children in quite different surroundings and under quite different conditions from those of the slum and the public-house jof to-dav. Sir W. Joynson Hicks, Sjitish Minister of Health,

What Gold Cannot Buy. “Many a workman to-day gets a higher wage than I was ever able to get as ‘profit’ when I was an employer But no higher wage, no income, will buy for men that satisfaction which of old —until machinery made drudges of them —streamed into their muscles all day long from close contact with iron, timber, clay, wind and wave, horse strength.”—Mr. Sturt in his book “The Wheelwright’s Shop.” t' False Economy. “No figure is more to be pitied than that of the man who doos his work consciously and deliberately less well than he can do it; and that is what sweating makes of men. .There is no law that protects agriculture from the consequences that follow sweating in other industries. This is true of the labourer; it is true also of tho farmer, who may be tempted to seek in low wages the substitute for enterprise and' efficiency.”—Mr. Sturt in “The Wheelwright’s Shop.” A Matter of Business.

The cash value of the lowering of our trade wall to British-made goods in the fiscal year 1920-21 amounted to £.'8,779,000. Now during the same period the cash value of the preference afforded to Australian goods in Great Britain amounted to only £257,000, or 8,522,000 in the Motherland’s favour. If these avenues of trade were transferred to a foreign country and the preference were on an equal reciprocal basis, Australians would be given an extraordinary advantage in such foreign markets.” —Mr. S. M. Bruce, the Commonwealth Prime Minister.

The Continent of peace. “I am from a troubled continent. This is a continent at peace. I cressed the frontier last night—the most remarkable frontier in the world—thousands of miles without forts and guns or soldiers or barbed wire to protect it. Your gigantic lakes lie along the frontiers, with r.o Dreadnoughts to hurl defiance at each other. There is no frontier in Europe that has not been crossed and recrossed scores of hundreds of times fcr generations, for centuries, by hostile armies intent upon slaughter and destruction. Yours, is the continent of peace,, and in God’s name keep it the continent of peace.”—Mr. Lloyd George in an American speech. Mr. Massey and the League of Nations “I would like to say how much I sympathise with Lord Robert Cecil in what has recently taken place. For years past ho has given practically the whole of his efforts and the whole of his energy and the whole of his ability to . tho business of the League of Nations, from the commencement right up to now. I know that he must have been disappointed with some of the criticisms, at which I am surprised myself, and with some of the misrepresentations —which are worse than criticisms—that have been given utterance to by men who ought to have known better. In saying that, I am bound to admit that I have never been quite an enthusiastic supporter of the League. But with regard to what has taken place, my own opinion is that too much was expected from the League. The idea that was created was that the operations of the League would prevent war. I never thought for a moment that the prevention of war by the League was possible. The League was initiated to promote peace —peace by arbitration, peace by conciliation, or peace by bringing to bear public opinion. I believe a very great deal of good had been done by the League, and it ought to get credit therefor.”—Right Hon. W. F. Massey in a speech at the Imperial Conference.