OVERSEAS OPINIONS

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 154, 27 March 1937, Page I (Supplement)

OVERSEAS OPINIONS

Uncertainty and Fear. •'The cause of a large part of the world's present difficulties,” said Mr. Edwin Fisher, chairman of Barclay's Bank, "is uncertainty and fear for the future. As this uncertainty lias extended from the economic to the political sphere, nations have withdrawn more closely behind their own frontiers. Fears of currency instability, fears of industrial competition, and latterly political fears—all these have resulted in a network of restrictive measures that has only served to aggravate the problems to be solved. The more effective tiie trade barriers and the greater the expenditure on armaments, the greater the burden on the people ami the greater the spirit of discontent and .suspicion. What is needed is undoubtedly freer intercourse between nations, so that goods, money and people can move with reasonable ease from country to country. Trade barriers must be relaxed; an international monetary system, based upon isouud foundations, must be restored. ■spasmodic gestures are insufficient; there must be continuous co-operative action involving a more accommodating spirit in the relationships between countries and a determination so to conduct their internal affairs as to promote confidence abroad.”

Farming First. ‘‘.Many people have been tempted, in times past, to make short cuts to prosperity. to beat their ploughshares into swords and to live in luxury by the sweat, of their slaves, and captives. But this plan, apart from proving ruinous to their morals, has not proved a permanent success. The greatest object lesson on the other side is to be seen in Denmark or Holland. There men have fought their battles not with their fellow men. hut with the moor and sea. Their achievement is not small. They have come near to abolishing poverty: they,have won leisure and education, comfort and freedom. And the foundation of the whole edifice lias been better farming. We ourselves have squandered a good deal of land in these past sixty years—poisoned the soil with smoke, covered it with slagheaps; let our rivers silt up and drown the land that our grandfathers painfully laid dry: we have let the thorn and bramble come again on land they cleared with much sweat. But at last we are beginning to be a little ashamed, and are giving a measure of encouragement towards repairing the damage.- The damage can be largely repaired.— Professor J. A Scott Watson and May Elliot Hobbs in their book “Great Farmers.’’

Must We Have War? "I do not believe that peoples will passively accept, the conclusion that because men since time immemorial have died on battle fields, they have no choice but to continue to die on battle fields in the future. The free peoples of the world have come to reject the theory that war is natural and inevitable. They are no longer thrilled by the panoply of the militarists, nor are they carried away by the hysteria of propaganda for war. They know that the love of power is a thing of evil. They would cry ‘Halt!’ to any who. through love of power, would break the peace. Glory is not be achieved by the march of armies and the death of men. Those who sit in the masters’ seats and shape the destinies of other men are under the most imperative mandates to leave no course which may avoid war unexplored. The real patriots and the real horoes of the future will be the leaders who find and follow the road to peace.—The United States Secretary of State, Cordell Hull, at the closing session of the Inter-American Conference for the Maintainence of Peace.

Why They Confessed. "It is probable that many former Soviet leaders, after months of crossexamination during which almost every chance remark that they ever made would be recalled, became convinced that they must unconsciously have had leanings towards the forbidden opposition. and. because of that, they ‘morally’ (in the word much used in Soviet, trials) contributed to a ‘Trotskyist plot'; and that finally, being convinced that they had departed from the straight and narrow path and being incriminated by the statements, or alleged statements, of their fellow prisoners, they felt themselves capable of any wickedness and admitted it. In this respect two statements made by Radek are significant. On Saturday he declared that during the first three months of his improsonnient he iiad strenuously denied everything, but then had suddenly ‘confessed all’; on Suntiny he said that he was morally responsible for all the wrecking centres —‘even those about which 1 know nothing.’ These are the statements of a morbid penitent—and in the background of doctrinal fervour in which Radek has lived is to be found the only convincing explanation of his complete ‘confession.’ ” —London “Times” on the Moscow trials.

Human Experience. ■When we speak of experience we mean and ean only mean the experience of a self, for there is no other kind of experience. Every thing is in consciousness. or we have no evidence for its existence. We talk of the import of this thing and the other. Where are these to be found in nature? Only in us. They cannot be exhumed or distilled out of material movements. As well endeavour to extract a skylark’s song’ from the granite rock or honey from the salt sea. The awakening of the soul ip nature—to take this unexampled. overwhelming fact as of course and for granted—as no singular event or anything out of the way noteworthy or surprising, or again as a thing of accident among other accidents. is for me no easier thought than the notion of I lie Himalayas giving way to laughter, or the ocean writing its autobiography. When we begin to suppose such notions we make a clown of reason and adorn it with cap and bells, 'flic knowledge that the world exists, that there is a world at all. rests upon the testimony of individual selves. There is no other evidence than they supply; no other possible evidence.” — From “Ourselves,” a paper read ar Glasgow University by Emeri-tus-Professor W. Mncneile Dixon in the second serie- of

his course of Gifford Lectures on “The Human Situation."

. A Great Opportunity. “If there were any who seriously questioned the wisdom of President ' Roosevelt's journey to the peace confer--1 ence at Buenos Aires and his absence from the country with the shipping i strike still unsettled, their doubts must have been removed. Since Hie President’s original decision to go to South America, the world's outlook for peace has grown definitely worse, In addition to the various dangers which have developed during the progress of the revolution in Spain, and which have not lessened its the rebels have been desperately held at the gates ot Madrid, there has come the treaty between Germany and Japan, all of Hie sinister implications of which are not yet fully apparent. If there was ever a time to organise and dedicate anew to the cause of peace the democracies of North and South America, this is that time, when the threat of a vast conflagration, sweeping over the rest of the | world, has grown visibly greater.”— I "Springfield Republican” (U.S.A.). Sanctity of Contracts. I “The two greatest depositories for the savings of Canadians in all walks of life are the hanks and the insurance companies. A great part of the funds belonging to depositors and policy-holders is invested in securities. The protection of the sa\ings of Canadian.’, built up so laboriously and witli such self-denial over the course of years to ensure a measure j of security in old age or to provide ■for dependants after deatli is and always has been the first consideration of this bank and should also be that of all Government authorities. In most instances, these savings are not large, and a loss of only a small portion of the principal is sufficient in many cases to bring want ami anxiety. Any policy which would tend to weaken the sanctity of contracts is to be deprecated, as." in addition to harming those who can least afford to bear losses, such a policy would strike at the very core of our economic order, for when there is lack of confidence, a slackening of business activity takes place, bringing unemployment in its train." —.Mr. W. A. Bog, general manager. Royal Bank of Canada. Have We Learnt the Lesson? -If we do not learn from past errors, the pitfalls into which we have so often stumbled will snare us again, without, on this occasion, any justification for an extenuating plea of ignorance or inexperience,” said the Hon. Rupert Guinness, chairman of the Westminster Bank. "The recovery so far seen has been a fairly general experience throughout the world, proving again that, with countries linked by innumerable ties, the prosperity and well-being of the one or the few spread and overflow with the same inevitability as did depression some years back. But with large and important conn- . tries still pledged, whether fromchoice or from sheer necessity, to live unto themselves and to exclude international trade as far as possible, in defiance of the fact, that their former greatness was built and founded so largely upon that very trade, the rest of the world is denied a full measure of recovery. Enlightenment will assuredly come to those countries, to their own benefit and to that of the world at large.” A Stake in the Country.

“Last year (1935-36) the assets of building societies reached £6o] .000,000, and the total amount advanced on mortgage during the year exceeded £130.000,000 —a record in the history of the movement. This compared with assets of £77,000.000 in 1919, when the relatively modest spin of £16,000.000 was lent. The total amount lent by building societies since the end of the war, mainly for house purchase, passed the £1,000,000,000 mark recently. One of the benefits resulting from this huge loan was that hundreds of thousands of people now had a stake in the country in which they, lived., A notable fact also was that the major part of this vast’sum had been expended to create employment in the building and allied trades and in professional quarters, and must, therefore, have been a powerful factor in reducing the incidence of unemployment throughout the country. Between 80 and S 5 per cent, of the cost of a house went in wages, materials, etc.” —Sir Enoch Hill, president of the Halifax Building Society.

Canada’s Security. "Having one boundary on the Pacific Ocean, Canada cannot ignore Japan. She is gradually finding that Japan can be a very satisfactory client if humoured a little. Canada has shown that she is not indifferent to the organisation of some defence on the Pacific Coast against an eventual aggressor. In actual fact her security depends upon the United States, who would certainly not be indifferent were Japan to violate Canada’s territory. This situation is tacitly accepted by the Canadian people, who are ready to leave the matter in the hands of their two great protectors. Canada’s relations with Latin America permit us to measure, with the precision of delicate scales, the quantity of Americanism (in the larger sense of the term) that Canada can absorb. Although invited to become a member of the PanAmerican Union, where a place apparently is waiting for her, she has not seen lit to join it up to the present time. Her Americanism does not go beyond North America, and when it comes to proclaiming her adherence to Pan-Americans she draws back, owing to her Imperial allegiance.—Mr. Andre Siegfried in the “Fortnightly Review.” The New India. “Political India since the reforms of 1920 might fery well have forced the authorities to adopt a progressive agricultural policy, had it not been against its interests to do so. The attitude adopted was that the peasant must be educated before attempts were made to improve his position economically. Free him from debt to-day and he will be equally involved to-morrow. 'That was the slogan, which practically amounts to a refusal on the part of the politicians to face the problem of the countryside. In point of fact they have used their power against the peasant’s interests by building up high tariff walls for the benefit of the industrialists, the result being to reduce the [K-asaiit’s purchasing power and to contract bis overseas markets. Will the prospects brighten witli provincial autonomy? Congress, which competent judges think will lie the strongest party in lbe new legislature, promises Jaws against. usury, mortgage banks and other benefits for I lie agriculturist." —Sir 'William Barton, in the "National Review."