OVERSEAS OPINIONS

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 302, 16 September 1933, Page 20

OVERSEAS OPINIONS

Wliere the Simple Life Pays. “The secret of Japan’s, superiority In competition with Western countries in the markets of the world is that, while the West has given'Japan the best means of manufacturing first-class goods and building the best ships, the West has failed to learn from Japan how to avoid extravagance and luxury and to live at a level that makes competition possible with the rest of the world,” says the Yokohama correspondent of the “Morning Post.” “It is this simplicity of life and general existence that the West must learn- n. it is to meet the situation. Such a prospect may appear retrograde in Western eyes, indeed like throwing civilisation back a hundred years; but this need not necessarily prove true, especially for a people who have had the advantage of a Christian civilisation for centuries; they ought, indeed, to be far more capable than such a poor nation as Japan of facing any sacrifice necessary to regain supremacy in the world of industry and trade.” Take a Holiday.

“Some people are making up their minds not to take a holiday this year, writes the medical correspondent of the “Times Trade and Engineering Supplement.” “They say that their -businesses are doing badly and that the worry involved in the extra expense would detract from any advantage they could hope to gain. ‘Why go away from home to worry? One can do that better in a familiar armchair.’ It sounds good reasoning. But the weakness of it lies in the fact that going away from home always changes one’s point of view. Going away from home is like leaving one world for another; the excitement of the new world at once throws our accustomed picture of the old out of gear. We no longer see our worries as we are wont to see .them, and a worry from a new angle is seldom so terrible as it seemed to be. Holidays from this point of view represent a flank inarch which puts the enemy at a disadvantage, and a worry at a disadvantage is a worry on the way to extinction. The gain, therefore, is solid; the price paid for it is less than was anticipated.”

Britain’s People “On tlie Land.” “There are only 7 per cent of our people on the land. The nearest to ns, Belgium, has 20 per cent., while Germany has over 30 per cent. If we put qjj extra 500,000 families on the land it would bring us up to 10 per cent, half of the next lowest in the world. Is that impossible? I can understand a Free Trade policy for agriculture, so that the farmer can buy cheaply when he sells cheaply, but I cannot understand the policy which is neither one thing nor the other by which the farmer is placed in the position of having to compete In some of his most essential goods against producers from abroad selling their butter, mutton, and lamb, their fruit and eggs, very much cheaper than he can possibly produce it here, while at the same time everything he buys is taxed. That is an imggsslble policy.”—Mr. Lloyd George. The Film in Russia. "Although Europe, as a Continent, shows the largest number of cinemas, 30,623, the number showing talking films is comparatively low, only 17,822 being equipped for sound. This high figure for Europe is surprising. For the country wlflch shows the largest total in the world, bigger even than the United States, is Russia. Whereas the United States have 25,688 cinemas (of which 16,607 are wired for sound), Russia can boast 27,570 places of film exhibition. An analysis of these figures shows clearly how the Soviet Government is fully alive to the possibilities of propaganda by film, both political and educational. There are only 8539 permanent cinemas in towns, and 4719 permanent cinemas in country districts, but there are 13,438 travelling cinemas In country districts and 820 in towns. After Russia, Germany has the highest number of cinemas in Europe—so7l, with England second with 4951.”—The “Morning Post’s” film correspondent Th® State of Shipping.

‘‘During 1932, vessels of a gross tonnage of 1.346,140 were broken up, the highest total on record. Only twice previously—ln 1924 and 1931—has the million mark been exceeded. The tonnage in existence in June last was 67,920,185, a decrease of .1,814,125 compared with June of last year. Of the total tonnage, 18,700,739 was owned in Great Britain and Ireland. The only countries showing notable increases in the twelve months were Soviet Russia (158,068 tons), Panama (148,621 tons), and Finland (88,407 tons). The largest decreases among the principal maritime countries were Great Britain and Ireland (970,936 tons), Germany (263,568 tons), Italy (240,765 tons), Holland (198,383 tons), and tne United States (.188,821 tons). Great Britain’s percentage of the world tonnage fell from 50.2 in 1901 to 27.9 this year, whereas that of the United States rose from 4.2 to 15.1. The big liners—those of 15,000 tons and upward—represent only 5.49 per cent.- of the total tonnage. Nearly 50 per cent, of such liner tonnage is owned in Great Britain and Ireland.”—“Public Opinion.” Parachutes for Air-Passengers.

“Practically all aeroplanes used for regular passenger transport have enclosed cabins, as have the majority of machines used for what is known as charter or taxi work. The essential feature of this form of commercial Hying Is that the first object of all concerned is the safety and comfort of the passengers. Every possible care is taken In the design, the construction, and the daily inspection of the machines. The pilots are men of great experience and also men of the highest possible skill, and the machines are in touch by wireless with various stations and receive the latest meteorological information throughout their entire Hight. That applies, of course, to the bigger machines. In consequence Hie number of accidents on regular air transport service has been extremely small, and in my view air transport is undoubtedly one of the safest forma of transport at the present time. It is obvious that the parachute is of no use in the case of an accident which occurs when the machine is taking off or landing or in an acci- ’ dent which might occur over the sea. ' Even in the exceptional case of a fire or breakage in the air, it is doubtful whether the parachute would really be of assistance.”—The Secretary of State 1 -fes AAa, fe*, Miisueas a£ 1

The Abyss That Yawns. “Much will depend on the course or action in this country. We are, as it were, between the devil and the deep sea. On tlie one hand, though all informed opinion recognises the need of a stabilised currency, we are not yet in a position to say at what, figure we can attach ourselves to gold. Me are still less able to do so now that the dollar is plunging no one knows whether. On the other hand, we dare not” let the pound follow in the wake of the dollar into the realm of uncontrolled inflation. Between these two alternatives our plain duty is to do nothing that will cause the European block that stands for a stabilised currency to topple into the abyss as it did after • the war.”—Mr. A. G. Gardiner.

As France Does It. “Year by year the French Government is making it increasingly difficult to sell anything but French manufactured goods in Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, French Indo-China, Madagascar and her other vast overseas possessions. It is a claim of French statesmen that within a few years France will be able to lead a life of economic isolation. All the rubber, coffee, oil, cotton and base metals re ; quired in the French market will come from her overseas empire. ■ Morocco — one of the granaries of ancient Rome —can provide all the wheat necessary to render France independent of the wheat-exporting countries. Time presses. The eleventh hour is upon us. - We have yet a chance to follow in France’s footsteps. Tn intrinsic resources the British Empire is three or four times as well endowed as the Empire of France. Determined statesmanship moving steadily in the direction of Empire Free Trade will not only cure unemployment in Britain, but bring back to us the prosperity we enjoyed in the early years of this century.”—Viscount Rothermere, in tlie “Daily Mail.” The Barriers.

“With our population of 660 to the square mile, drawing two-thirds of Its food supply from abroad and paying for it by exporting our goods and carrying on our great shipping tirade, we should have an entirely different problem. We should have greatly to reduce our population and lower our standard of life, if we were to live at all in the Sinn Fein world. It would, I confess, be no great consolation to me, if I lived through this process, that other enterprising modern economists were free to experiment upon the survivors. Let it be said that all these ideas are, in the true sense of the word, reactionary. Internationalism may have its setbacks, and when these come we must not pretend that failure is anything but failure—failure to be retrieved. But the whole stream of tendency will be to the breaking down of barriers, the pooling of wealth, inventions, ideas, culture, and nothing else can or ought to be recognised as the goal of civilisation.—Mr. J. A. Spender, in the “News-Chronicle.”

An Obstacle to Peace. A grave obstacle -to international peace are the great armament firms. Recently I made an exhaustive tour of those armament plants, and saw in design or manufacture prodigious quantities of lethal weapons being produced for most of the countries of the world. While the manufacture df such weapons of murder is carried on as a commercial enterprise, with the powerful backing of the bulk of the world’s Press, what chance is there of world peace? So, contrary to my expectation, and much against my convictions, I Jiave come to the conclusion that there can be no peace without police. A sad confession for a pacifist to make, no doubt, but inevitable. International peace is impossible without international police.”—Mr. Beverley Nichols. Wanted—a new Chivalry.

“There have been too often conditions in peacetime from which Governments and individuals alike have felt that even war would be a relief. It is probable that in the future, with elimination of the possibility of war as the result of the action of autocratic individuals, the principal causes of war will be economic conditions—intolerable monopolies that make the life of certain countries a burden; or dull stagnation, or the desire for further opportunities of commercial prosperity at some other nation's expense. The call' to-day is for a now chivalry between nations, for the humanising and Christianising of all' relations between them, for the gradual substitution of the idea of ‘Live and help live.’ The present situation is a challenge for the lifting of religion above ecclesiasticism, the raising of business honour above the vulgar standards of commercialism, the introduction on the plane of international' politics of the best that we know in individual life.” —Professor J. Y. Simpson in “World Politics and the Kingdom of God.” Oil Fuel and Coal Miners.

“In 1913, 1.300,000 tons of shipping used oil as fuel, whereas in 1932 nearly 50 per cent, of the world's shipping was using oil as fuel, thus displacing coal,” said Mr. George Hall, M.P., in the House of Commons. “It the railway companies in this country put into operation an oil-electric engine they could with 2.000.000 tons of oil do that which requires 13.000.000 tons of coal at the present time. If that should happen, it would mean that no fewer than 40,000 miners, who are now employed in the production of coal for the use of the railways, would be thrown, out of employment—displaced by oil.” The Immediate Problem.

“It is not enough to work for increased material prosperity or decreased hours of labour. The immediate problem is that of the unemployed, who have an enforced and unprovisioned leisure, spare time but no spare cash. To enjoy spare time one wants spare cash. It is not enough to provide (be unemployed with the means of entertainment and recreation, because recreation, as ordinarily understood, does not yield the satisfaction of steady work. Machinery has put a power- into our hands which, if we use it right, will enable us all not only to enjoy what we need in the way of material wealth, but also to enjoy every minute of time that comes to us, and will enable us to want to live as long as our hours last. Some of the happiest people I knorv arc the people who are never at a loss what to do next.” —■ Mr. A. Barraft Brown, the Principal of .Buskin College.