VOICE OF THE NATIONS

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 199, 23 May 1925, Page 13

VOICE OF THE NATIONS

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

The East and Singapore. “I do not know how you interpret the Singapore base in Britain, but in the East it is a direct indication that, now that Europe is fairly free from larger struggles, attention is being turned to the Far East. The tragedy of the whole situation is that we who are in the East and you who are in the West are both going forward on the road we are travelling with our eyes open. We know where that road is going to lead—and there is no way out. No way—except one, and that is in Christ.”—Mr. J. S. Koo, a brilliant Chinese student.

An Imperial Scandal. “The attitude of the Post Office towards wireless has become, as Dominion cablegrams reveal, an Imperial scandal which one Postmaster-General after another proves himself powerless to end. The last report on that subject was accepted by the public only on the distinct understanding that a special business organisation would be provided to rescue that vital artery from the ligatures of red tape. There is no sign yet that this condition is being fulfilled or that an effective policy exists to raise the Empire which has the greatest need of wireless from the position of being the worst served by it.”—“The Observer.”

The Gold Standard. "It is true that the monetary conditions of the world are different todav from what they were before the war, and that the maintenance of the gold standard may for a time present some difficulties. But they are small compared with the evils from which the world is suffering as a result of unstable and fluctuating currencies. The gold standard has been subjected to a good deal of criticism in some quarters lately. Whatever the future may have in store in the form of some new standard base for a stable currency, the time has not come to select and experiment with any one of innumerable alternatives, to the gold standard. The world opinion in favour of the return to the gold basis is too overwhelming for any other course to be accepted for a long time to come.”—Mr. Philip Snowden.

The New Motherhood. “In relaxed moments one sometimes gets an inkling that the defects and handicaps, the inhibitions, the pitiable human failures, tragedies, and catastrophes from which the modern world is suffering may be largely traced to the need of a new estimate of motherhood in the mothers of men, since they are the master chemists of the laboratories where men are in the making, or, better, the master alchemists, since there must always be some magic in their art.”—Anne Sturges Duryea in rhe “Century Magazine.”

Imperial Wireless Short-circuited.

“Wireless, if vigorously developed, would enable us to prevail against the handicaps of time and space. It w’ould help all the nations of the Empire to talk to each other quickly and cheaply. It is monstrous that a few purblind stagnationists should be allowed to arrest the march of great peoples. ■ Let us get rid of them and their inertia. The Government as a whole will be required to sav why it is that -we are more hidebound, unenterprising, and unimaginative than any other civilised nation in making use of a medium of communication that offets greater opportunities to the British Empire than to any other’nation or group of nations in the world. And the British public throughout the Empire have the right to demand that the British Government shall indicate in exact terms what steps it proposes to take in order to wipe out the unnecessary slur on out practical business intelligence.”—“Daily News.”

A Port of Empire. “A hundred years ago the value of London’s imports and exports, taken together, did not exceed thirty-five millions. To-day they are nearer nine hundred million pounds. In 1860 no ship of ten thousand tons register could approach Tilbury. Now vessels up to thirty thousand tons can be berthed there. In 1909 the docks and tidal waters of the Thames were placed under unified control, and the new Port of London Authority boasts a building, seated on Tower Hill, which in its interior accommodation and decoration outrivals the Houses of Parliament. This great (though unpaid) post, Lord Devonport laid down after sixteen years’ unselfish devotion to duty. With a confidence and boldness of conception possessed by few, he has carried out dock extensions and developments which to be appreciated must, for mile atter mile, be reviewed by the eye. The expenditure oil the port under his direction runs into nearly twenty millions, and it has made the Thames an Imperial harbourage. ’’ —‘ ‘ Daily Express.” The Motto for Big Business.

“Business men must realise that the big business successes of the next twenty years will be made by men who conduct their busineses, first, last, and all the time, from the standpoint of service to the consumer. They must attempt to create and conduct great businesses that will be successful because they lower prices and raise wages at one and the same time, with the result that the masses in general will have increasing economic freedom. It is only' out of the soil of economic freedom, made possible bv businesses and industries that both raise wages and lower prices, that we can expect a generation of workmen to arise with the education and training that will justify their assuming the share in the conduct of industry which employees will increasingly demand and get.”—Mr. E. A. Filene, in his book “The Way Out.” Race Distinctions.

"Some of you have admired my blue gown, but when I am in this blue gown In my own country your countrymen will not allow me into your parks or racecourses or public places. That is one illustration of the racial distinctions that exist in the Fast. And on the top of all .his impact, whether in the economic o- racial sphere, there is also a good deal of unnecessary mis’iders'anding largely due to the fact that the people of the East and the people of the West do not come together very much in a social way.”— Mr. J S. Koo, Oriental Travelling Secretary of the World's Studesit Christian FodertHom. I

“To Thine Own Self. . . .” “The fiction market is supposed to require of short stories a certain pattern full of ‘pep’ and sting in the tail. The scorpion, it is said, If sufficiently irritated, will sting itself to death. So will the short story when worried by the demands of editors. If the writer of the short tale submit! himself to the discipline demanded by the crisp and clear expression of hia genuine fancies and his genuine moods, he has submitted quite enough. As the untaught spider spins his delicate rosewindow and assures it against wind and rain by. sheer adjustment—not a tluead too many or too few—so let us writers of short tales try to spin out of our own instinct and vision the round and threaded marvel. If in it we catch some hopeful editor and hold him to ransom—all the better for ns; but if we don’t we have none the less fulfilled our being, and that is out real end in life.”—Mr. John Galsworthy, Our Debt to the Orient. “He who knows the story of transition from the prehistoric of the Nile jungle to the sovereigns and statesmen, the architects, engineers, and craftsmen of a great organised society, which wrought these monumental wonders along the Nile at a time when all Europe was still living in Stone Age barbarism, and there was none to teach a civilisation of the part —he who knows all this knows the story of the first rise of civilisation anywhere on the globe. Just so the discovery of South-eastern Europe by civilisation five thousand years ago. It brought things into the life of Europe which to-day are forces as constantly and insistently touching our lives on all that we do as the force of gravitation, the energy of coal, or the myriad modern applications of iron and steel. How far would the average citizen go in his day’s programme if he were to eliminate as of no more use the things which he has inherited from the early Orient?”—Dr. J. H. Breasted in his book, “The New Past.” Boosting the Church.

“The recent advertising convention naturally leads us to ask whether the publicity work of the Churches is a« well done as it might be. There is, of course, a publicity which is sacrilegious, and the advertising that consists of personal ‘puffs’ in newspaper columns is an abomination in the sight of the Lord. But the Churches must let men know that they have a Gospel to preach and men who feel called to preach it. When people see church buildings lacking paint, with ancient notices clinging to disreputable boards, they are encouraged in the belief that religion is dving, if not dead. Even Churches with a good conceit of themselves—and unfortunately there are such (generally half or quarter-filled) — seem to think that they have done al! that is necessary if they display outside the church a notice with the preacher’s name." — “Congregational Quarterly.” Britain in the Sudan.

"I should like to give a few fact* showing what Britain, has done, in a very short space of time, for this wonderful and extraordinary country. When Gordon went to the Sudan S 5 per cent, of tlie people were slaves. Twen-ty-five years ago the Sudan was still destitute. Between the early and the late ’nineties there were practically no children in the country and but few young people to such a condition had famine, slaughter and oppression reduced it. . . . We have accomplished a real piece of civilising work in the Sudan and opened the way for steady progress. The people live in peace, under conditions of order and justice, and the population is, as a result, Increasing rapidly."—Mr. George Renwick in the London "Daily Chronicle.” TJie New Forester.

“There is a movement in Canada which has produced a solemn league and covenant to save the forests. The new forester resolves, among other things, to plant at least one tree during 1925, and to do all that in him lies to conserve the trees now grow, mg. Coming from tne general to the’ particular, he undertakes to reflect before felling any tree that it will taka a mighty long time for another to grow. Lest this should not appear to him .a very fruitful meditation, he vows to direct his attention to the fact that If he leaves it to grow a little bigger it will be worth a great deal more. The next article in the new forester’s covenant pledges him to use up every bit of a tree which he does cut down, 'even the smallest tops and branches,’ not only to avoid the sin of waste, but to ciear away any rubbish which may feed a forest fire.”—■ London “Daily Telegraph.” China and Christianity.

"Christians are few in China in comparison with the vast population; but the Christian life is now’ recognised by non-Christians as having a richer content than anything which China has hitherto known. The recognition of this fact by the Chinese is one of the most important factors of the situation at the present day. In the earlier years of mission work in China, the main characteristic was the hard plodding of the European and American missionaries, with but little to show as the outcome of their work. But during the past twenty years the situation has been changing particularly rapidly, and the Chinese themselves faking a very much larger share in the work and its management.”—Dr. C. T. Wang, in the “Churchman.” A Job for Character.

“Without foreign capita! Mexico easf. not prosper, and President Calles has been bred in a political school that is suspicious of foreign captal and disposed to drive hard bargains with it. He must suit the labour factions; he must satisfy the peon demand for land aijd at the same time placate the haciendaiios; he must quiet the politicians wilh offices; he must put Mexico on a basis of enduring solvency, and he must keep on good terms with the army. H’s task calls for the arts of the politician and the wisdom of the statesman, and above all fo- character.”— Yorf-. Timas.”