OVERSEAS OPINIONS

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 255, 24 July 1937, Page 1 (Supplement)

OVERSEAS OPINIONS

Excess Profits Taxation. “It is the principle of a tax upon the growth of profits which has commanded widespread approval. It will be remembered that the Excess Profits Duty originated in the feeling that enormous profits ought not to be made in a time of national emergency, and that those who benefit from the in- ' crease in Government expenditure should make a special contribution to meet it. That is, broadly speaking, also the justification for the new tax. Within the limits of this sound principle Mr. Chamberlain has done his best to meet legitimate grievances, and has gone far enough to show how exaggerated was much of the outcry caused by his Budget speech.”—“The Times” (London). Britain’s Military Frontiers. “We have depended to a very considerable extent, at intervals stretching now over a great number of years, on the military forces of France and Belgium for our immunity from sudden attack. Had there been no fortifications between Western and Central Europe and no armies behind them, that danger of our awaking one morning and finding the shores opposite our own in hostile hands might long ago have stimulated a militarist movement here which we have happily escaped. Certainly the fact that we do not feel so strongly as the French about the German rearmament is due in part to the fact that those armies and fortifications do exist, and are in one sense greater protection to us than to their owners, since they give us the benefit of the time factor.”—Mr. John Martin, in his book, “Peace Adventure.” One of Youth’s Privileges. “Youth may think the generation ■which is passing,” states the “Western Morning News,” “has made rather a mess of things and left them an indifferent legacy. Such a feeling is not unnatural. One of the privileges of youth is to think meanly of its immediate predecessors and despise their achievements. If ever there were excuse for such a cynical attitude it is to be found in the history of the last quarter of a century and the present state of affairs. Youth can turn upon I its mentors with a reminder that the greatest war in history brought our boasted civilisation to the verge of ruin and yet was so far from conveying a lesson and a warning that every nation is now engaged in preparing for another outbreak to complete the catastrophe. The boon of sharing in the government of the country is, in fact, so little appreciated that its every extension has been marked by the display of increasing indifference. Doubt may well be felt as t othe future of democracy when in practice only about half the electors can be persuaded to go to the poll.” Eating Their Cake. “Collective bargaining,” points put the “Economist,” “is accepted in this country—indeed, it is hardly questioned in principle—and many of the most progressive industries welcome it as a factor making for order and stability. This acceptance of trade unionism’s central contention, however, carries ■with it certain obligations on organised labour. One is the duty to exercise a wise discrimination in using, or threatening to use, the ultimate weapon of the strike. There is also an obligation on the rank and file to observe the necessary discipline. The mechanism of the unions is rightly democratic. But it is not true democracy fpr the rank and file to empower leaders to make agreements and then to repudiate them. It is important that these methods should not further be pursued. For, if they are, what might be a beneficial period of labour advance may be converted into a series of unnecessary bitter conflicts. That would be bad for the prestige of the democratic system. It would be even worse for trade unionism.” The Church and the Cinema. “Whereas the Church of yesterday could leisurely plan to be among the first to patronise the printing press, the Church of to-day has not had the smallest chance of being among the I first to foster the film. The studios were off and away in the race to pour out piles of money on miles of celluloid, evolving an art* now Idebased, now rising to magnificent achievement, before the Church had so much as glanced at a film set. The contrasts between the secular and religious uses of the film are pitiful indeed. There is a long way to go before the Church can make its appeal thereby as efficiently as does the world. Some part at least of the importance of striving to that end is now realised. The fact that the Archbishop of Canterbury is president of the Cinema Christian Council should dispel any doubt of propriety of using moving pictures as an aid to the Church’s teaching mission. With the exception of ‘The King of Kings’ we are acquainted with few films with a definitely religious aim which on their merits would satisfy moderate critical judgment.—The “Church Times.” Muddling Through. “Lots of people, including many Englishmen, observing that the Englishman will not think ahead, imagine that he will not or cannot think at all. That is a great mistake. He may be in this matter lazy, but he is not stupid. He may beSunintellectual, but he is not unintelligent—very far from it On the contrary, when he does begin to think, he thinks to extremely • good purpose. It is quite true that his thinking tends to be limited in range. He is not much concerned with principles or with remote antecedents or consequences. His interest stops when he has solved the problem in hand. But up to that point his thinking is extremely efficient, and he is indeed one of the most intelligent creatures on the face of the earth. The really important thing about England is not that she muddles, but that she muddles through. She does not like long-distance policies; that she is willing to say or do something now which is quite the opposite of what she said or did five years ago. Theoretical consistency is no interest at all; and if she sees, as she usually does, what ought to be done here and now, she is willing to do it with very little regard to its relation to previous acts or declarations."—From a broadcast talk, “Men and Matters,” by Principal Sir Hector J. W. Hetherington, LL.D., of Glasgow University.

Nationalism. “Nationalism as we know it to-day is a by-product of the democratic movement,” contends the Archbishop of York, in "Christian Democracy.” "It is quite true that some nations have lately dispensed with democratic methods, but they have not reverted to the systems of the eighteenth and earlier centuries. Louis XIV led his people, but he did not derive his title from their support. Hitler and Mussolini are in many ways more despotic; but they are also more dependent on popular favour. It is, in part at least, this : new sense of responsibility in the masses of the people, coupled with the complexity of modern problems, which constitutes the temptation to despair of reason and to follow blindly a chosen leader —chosen because of an immediate sense of affinity between bim and the people, not because his policy is deliberately approved by the people.” Noxious Propaganda. “Noxious propaganda takes various forms. It can try to interfere with the affairs of another country,” he declared. “The German wireless campaign against the Dollfuss Government in Austria, a few years ago, was a good example of that I am afraid we are witnessing another example now almost from day to day—the wireless propaganda which the Italians are making against us especially in the Middle East. Foreign' languages are much used in international wireless activities. Italy puts out services in French, English, Arabic, German, Spanish, and- Greek. She uses Arabic in ■ her anti-British work in 'the Middle East, and one is inclined to wonder whether the 8.8. C., which uses only English, might not be well advised to clothe the truth in Arabic for use in these parts of the world.” —Sir Arthur Willert, formerly of the Foreign Office, in an address on “Foreign Propaganda Broadcasting,” at the Empire Press Conference. Real Recovery. “What are armaments? Where do they begin and where do they finish? Can you tell whether drawn brass is to be made for use on motor-cars or for use in cartridges?” asked Mr. Higgs, M.P., in a speetw in the House of Commons. “Can you tell whether the finer instruments used in battleships are going to be used in a power station or in a battleship? To define armaments is exceedingly difficult, and that is one of the problems with which we should have to contend. Improved trade has, to a great extent, been credited to the armaments programme. The excess expenditure on defence last year over the previous year was something under £50,000,000. The total income of this country is somewhere in the neighbourhood of £5,000,000,000. Our national defence costs 1 per cent, more of our total income. How is it possible that that has improved our trade in the manner in which many people are in the habit of suggesting that it has done? It is confidence which has improved British industry. It is not the rearmament programme.” The World’s Biggest Buyer. “The theories that this country has become selfish, that we are behaving improperly in face of the world, will not stand any examination whatever. The truth of the matter, is that Great Britain, and after Great Britain the British Empire, is the best and most friendly neighbour that the world has. There is no country in the world which buys so much of the world’s commodities as does this country, with its socalled tariff restrictions. Last year we imported from foreign countries alone, apart from the Empire. £516,000.000 worth of goods and produce. Who came next? The United States, with a population two and a half times as great as ours,, came second, but with £24,000,000 behind the total I have mentioned. That shows very conclusively that this country is leading the world in the matter of absorbing the products of others. What is the truth, according to the Board of Trade returns, of our trade with the United States of America? Our imports from the United States last year were £03.300,000, a very substantial figure, and our exports to the United States were only £26.600,- [ 000.”—Sir Henry Page-Croft, M.P., in the House of Commons. The Church and Divorce. “Let us suppose that we were free to make a rule of life-long excommunication of all divorced persons, innocent or guilty, who had married again. Should we raise the moral standards of the community? Should we advantage the Church? As I see the matter, the Sacraments are, in the old words, means of grace. We hope and believe that, by partaking of the Holy Communion, we are enabled to live better lives. Do we not wish those Church-people, Whose first marriage has been wrecked, to live soberly and faithfully in a new union which they may form? Should not the Church b e willing to give them all the help possible? It is not that we should be lax in our loyalty to Christ’s teaching; our witness to Christ’s ideal of life-long union is constantly affirmed in our reading of Scripture and in our marriage service. Further, does it harm me if I know that a man who has done wrong in the past goes to Communion with me? I am not so perfect that I can condemn others.”—Dr. Barnes Bishop of Birmingham. The “Sermon” and Business. “Within the system of Capitalism l the same rules of Christian conduct hold good as in any of the earlier more patriarchal economic conditions; i.e., to renounce worry, to refuse to be enslaved in spirit, not to seek our own, but that which profits our neighbour, not to assert our own rights at the expense of others, not to be covetous, or acquisitive, or greedy, not to become inhuman for the sake of things, to be ready to sacrifice our own possessions I for the needs of others,” writes Pro- | fessor Emil Brunner, in “The Divine I Imperative: A Study in Christian ! Ethics.” “The commandments of the 1 Sermon on the Mount holds good tol day just as at all other periods in hisI tory; not as a law but as a guide to the Divine Command; they are fixed points which show each one of us just where he is, and in the line of his own possibilities, how he is to order his i behaviour toward his neighbour. These I commands mean exactly the same as 1 ■ the injunction that every one should I exercise his calling as service to his I neighbour and to the glory of God, j whether he be capitalist or proletarian, 1 manufacturer or workman.”