NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 261, 4 August 1928, Page 8

NOTES OF THE DAY

Apparently the b£st thing to do with the Hutt Road from Wellington to Petone is either to leave it severely alone or make it a main highway in approved statutory language. As it is, it is neither one thing nor another, although it functions sometimes as a city street, a suburban road, or a main highway. In all cases, however, it is to the benefit of the Main Highways Board exchequer, and to the disadvantage of the City’s. *** ' ♦ The split in Jugo-Slavia provides us with a glimpse of the instability of Europe-under-the-Surface. Jugo-Slavia represents an attempt by international political surveyors sitting in Peace Council to make arbitrary boundaries compelling people of diverse views to live in the same enclosure. There was the same trouble when .Getmany tried to tcutonise the French provinces of Alsace and Lorraine. There seems likely to be similar trouble between Poland and Lithuania. In the meantime the intensity with which the rival factions in Jugo-Slavia arc at present regarding each other s movements is of less importance than the intensity with which France and Italy appear to be regarding each other in the same matter. 1 rouble in the Balkans invariably means trouble in Europe.

Thursday’s debate in Parliament on the subject of military training furnished another illustration, in addition to many we have already had, of the inability of the Labour-Socialist to sec things in their right perspective. Mr. Holland’s party had observed,, no doubt, the remarkable international expressions of anti-militarism evoked by Mr. Kellogg’s proposed pact for the outlawry of war. They hid probably argued that if peop/e were prepared to condemn war in this wholesale fashion the abolition of such things obnoxious to the Socialist mind, as compulsory military training, should follow as a matter of logic. Had they faced the realities of the case, they would have seen that while there is apparent in the world an inclination for peace, and even a willingness to make an academic gesture against war “as an instrument of policy,” there is a long road to travel yet ere swords are turned into’ploughshares and fighting ships abandoned. The nations of the world still insist that they shall be able to defend themselves if attacked, and, such being the case, it would be imprudent to abolish military training. It would also, in the Imperial sense, be unpatriotic. If we believe in belonging to the- British Empire, then we ought to subscribe to our keep, so to speak. Either that, or we should get out. What have Mr. Holland’s party and those who think with them in these matters to say to that?

However much the Holland party condemned militarism, they were prepared to compromise in the matter of military training by agreeing to sonic kind of voluntary system. The compulsory idea, they argue, is un-British. Here again they have been unable to get the right perspective of the question. In Britain the Imperial defence forces, naval and military, arc equipped and maintained by the State, at the public’s expense. Everyone subscribes to their upkeep, even Jhe overseas Dominions. Here we have no standing army, but we have laid it down as a principle of citizenship that everyone should be trained to assist in defending the country in case of attack. It is a public duty. We may train much or little, according to the exigencies of the case, but whatever we do should be the common lot. That is fair. A voluntary system would not be fair, a Moreover, it would be a negation of the community principle which the Socialist himself holds to be part of his creed, namely, the equitable distribution of community responsibility. The trouble is that the Labour-Socialist is not taught to think in terms of the community, but of his own political class. He has no sense of national proportion. Whatever is opposed to the narrow principles of his class must be wrong. Yet other political parties have nut hesitated to experiment with Socialist ideas when there appeared a reasonable prospect of benefits to the community as a whole. J hat is because their perspective has not been distorted by class-conscious prejudice. "