OVERSEAS OPINIONS

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 196, 16 May 1936, Page 20

OVERSEAS OPINIONS

Conservatism in Medical Practice. “There is no one in this House,” said Mrs. Tate, M.P., in the House of Commons, “who does not recognise the tremendous service to the public that is rendered by the medical profession, but there is also no honest person who would fail to admit that the medical profession have often very seriously erred in their willingness to grant any value to the work of the unqualified practitioner. Unqualified practitioners have been persecuted. We have only to remember the case of Sir Herbert Barker and the case of Sir Ronald Ross, who was qualified, but his discoveries were not wholly welcomed bj’ the medical profession at first. Enormous strides have been made in some respects. To what in the main is that progress due? First, to improved sanitary conditions. How much of our strides in medical knowledge are due to the work of the late Louis Pasteur? What sort of treatment did he get at Ihe hands of the medical profession? Anyone who reads the life of Louis Pasteur will not attempt to deny that the medical profession have not always welcomed help and discovery from those who came outside the ring of that incredibly strong trade union.”

Germany’s Two Grievances. “The German people to-day have two main grievances. The first concerns individual citizens and their families. The second concerns the nation as a whole. The first is the economic distress which the Germans share, although perhaps in an enhanced degree, with most of the western world. The second is the feeling that Germany deserves as high a place as any among the nations of the earth; that nothing less than complete equality with the most-favoured nations is compatible with her honour; and that the last remaining indignities or implications of inferiority imposed upon her by the victorious Powers at Versailles should now either be cancelled by the revision of that treaty or else be, as far as possible, frustrated and contravened by her own unilateral action.” —Dr. Maxwell Garnett, in the “Contemporary Review.”

“Let Us Make Our Position Clear.” ' “It may be that those who urge that we should disentangle ourselves from Europe have something in mind rather different, or very different, from what I have just described. They may be thinking of another situation when, owing to obligations elsewhere, our neighbours may become involved in conflict and may call for help in a quarrel that is not ours. That I believe to be a general apprehension. The people of this country are determined that that shall not happen, and that is the view of the Government. We agree with it entirely. Our obligations are world-wide obligations, are the obligations of the Covenant. We stand firm in support of them, but we do not add nor will we add one jot to those obligations except in the area already covered by the Locarno Treaty. Let us make our position on that absolutely clear. We accept no obligations beyond those shared by the League, except the obligations which devolve on us from Locarno.”—Mr. Anthony Eden. An Appeal to Hitler. “If, with the League Council adjourned and the’Locarno Powers dispersed,” points out the “Spectator,” "collective negotiations are suspended for some weeks, it is vital that those weeks should be devoted to some constructive effort. Certain elements in German policy can be tested. Herr Hitler in every speech repeats that he is offering Europe twenty-five years' peace. Yet in every speech he makes some attack on Russia, a leading member of the League of Nations, which he is proposing to rejoin. There can be no European peace that is not a general European peace. There can be no stable peace without the spirit of peace. The immediate interval, if interval there is to be, may profitably be utilised to elicit from Herr Hitler a declaration as to whether his policy toward Russia is one of peace or war. That is one point on which Herr Hitler has it in his power to give assurances that would do much to clear the air.”

Britain's Peace Responsibility. •■Difficulties are recognised, but they are recognised as difficulties to be faced and overcome, not to be accepted as excuses for shirking the manifest duty of endeavouring to rebuild upon broader and surer foundations. In the discharge ot this task Great Britain lias a special responsibility. The present crisis is one more manifestation of the age-old distrust between France ami Germany, of the clash between French' fear of aggression and German dread of encirclement. Great Britain, by tile favour of geography and history, is exempt from the evil inheritance which divides these two great nations, with both of whom she desires to live in amity. Her one interest in Europe is peace; and in pursuit of that interest if is her duty to lose no opportunity of trying to bring. France and Germany together in friendship witli ourselves.” —“The Times” (London ). Lady Snowden on Advertising.

■ [ have often heard men say, particularly my blunt-spoken fellow county men of’ Yorkshire,” says Lady Snowden in a speech reported in the “British Advertiser.” "that their goods advertise themselves, and that there is, therefore, no need to spend money on other forms of advertising; but my reply has always been that they must at least let it be known at intervals that' their products continue to exist or their trade will languish. How can purchasers buy goods unless they know about them? After that, quality does, indeed, count and must be maintained ; else faith in advertisement withers, and once blighted, seldom returns.” “One Cannot Be Sure.”

“Let us make no mistake. ’ points out “Scrutator” in the "Sunday Times.” “failure now—whether by Hiller’s fault or that of anyone else is no consolation —will set us on the highroad to war. Our politics will be dyed through by military and strategic considerations, and the image of Peace will wear the frowning accoutrements of Mars. We may, indeed, hope devoutly that the combination against aggression that will be formed without Germany will be so strong as to make war impossible, because it would offer no chance of success to an aggressor. But one cannot be sure.”

For (he Modem Marthas. “The housewife is often the last person thought of by those who build today,” said Sir Kingsley V ood, at the opening of the Ideal Home Exhibition at Olympia, which breaks all records this year by the number and interest of the exhibits. “Gloom and drudgery and kitchen cruelty have been too often the lot of the Marthas of Great Britain We want not only our new houses to bo real homes, but we should avoid in the building of them the spoliation of our beautiful countryside, the erection of barrack-like buildings, or bungalow monstrosities. 'With new methods and the adoption of labour-saving devices, more can be done for the convenience and efficiency of the home. Even the Englishman’s last refuge, the fireplace, is being challenged to-day. The revolution has swept through the kitchen, letting in air and light and increasing space with a host of ingenious devices to save time and labour and to lighten the modern Martha’s task. The Ideal Home to-day is more realisable than it has ever been.”

The “Little Sins.” “There are all the usual pitfalls which await all who are honestly trying to do their best,” says the “Nursing Mirror.” “Casual habits of extravagance, a growing tendency to unpunctuality which upsets everybody else, a fatal trick of procrastination which eats at the root of efficiency—these are not big faults, but they are very trying ones. Then there is that desire to speak about oneself and lack of interest in others, which more than anything else causes general unpopularity ; there is that love of gossip which, if unwatched, may degenerate into spite and unkindness; there is that enjoyment of pleasure which may grow into mere frivolity and restlessness. We have not, most of us, very terrible faults—the worst forms of envy, pride and covetousness do not beset'us, but as it is ‘the little foxes which eat the grapes,’ so it is the 'little sins’ that spoil us.”

The Tight Little Island. "It was Napoleon who said that Antwerp in the possession of a hostile nation was like a pistol held at the head of Great Britain,” said Mr. DuffCooper, Secretary of State for 'War, speaking in the House of Commons. “The result of new inventions is that that menace is greater than it was before, because to-day it is a doublebarrelled pistol. It is not only a base for shipping and submarines, but is also a taking-off ground for aeroplanes The invention of flying, so far from rendering us more immune, has robbed us of a great part of our immunity. The sea, as Shakespeare said—

“ ‘The silver sea. which serves it in the office of a wall,’

serves no longer in that office. More than ever we are part of the Cqptinent of Europe; less than ever can We rely upon any special advantage from our insular position.”

Mr. Lansbury on Peace. “Those who desire peace should urge the Government to take Herr Hitler at his word. I cannot see what else Europe could expect. No mobilisation by France or ourselves is needed, except a mobilisation of common sense. Those who desire peace must unite in giving a decisive call to our Government to. support the demand for a new Peace Conference —this time a real Peace Conference. Secret negotiations, secret pacts, all that must be abandoned. These are no days for any of us to succumb to the deadly enemy of fear. The British Parliament and people possess a real opportunity to lead the world away from barbarism. The new Peace Treaty must be one which gives equality both in regard to armaments and economic development to Germany, Italy, France and the rest of the world.” —Mr. George Lansbury. in a letter to the Mayor of Poplar. .

John Bull’s Right Ann. “At the time when Queen Victoria's reign ran out, we needed and found in Rudyard Kipling’s Recessional a voice to warn us against the overweening confidence of power. We need no such warning now. The tone and attitude of the Empire, as we acclaim its new Sovereign, is one of tense, alert attention —not fear, but the sense that tells that grave things may happen and that great efforts must he made. There is no boasting in sturdy John Bull. But his sleeves are rolled half back and his steady eye looks about him. For all his advancing years and his heavyfeeding there is a terrible punch left yet in that right arm. But it is in this very watchfulness, in this realisation of possible disasters, shared with all the worthier peoples of the world, that perhaps the world’s salvation lies."— Professor Stephen Leacock.

America’s World Conscience. “What will the American people do? Will they be deceived by empty formulas and false phrases, the effect of accepting which will be to wreck their own national ideals and lo add to their own domestic, economic, social and monetary problems, or will they require their government to move forward constructively in co-operation with the civilised nations of the earth to protect the peace of all and to increase the prosperity of all? The alternative is clear. It is neutrality with morality or neutrality without morality. To choose the latter means, despite all phrases that may be used and all rhetorical exhortations that may be hurled about from the platform and the Press, an eventual and perhaps speedy involvement in any international war that may come to pass, whether it be economic or military.”—Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler. Tile Next War.

“There is no doubt that in the minds of many men and women the view prevails that war must come. Certainly there was never a time when anxiety and dread of approaching calamity were more widespread. It doesn’t follow that the supreme calamity will come. After 1870 it was held that a harsh peace would be overthrown within a few years by force of arms. Fortyfour years of alarums and excursions followed before war broke. This time tlie danger is just as clear, and the actual experience of it is fresh and vivid in the minds of the rulers, lev rulers will survive the next war gamble, and thev know il. They will not throw the dice lightly.”-—“London Daily Herald.”