OVERSEAS OPINIONS

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 261, 31 July 1937, Page 1 (Supplement)

OVERSEAS OPINIONS

Supremacy of the Law. “We are struggling for a great cause —the cause of the supremacy of the Law. Britons, of all men, should be enthusiastic for such a cause for supremacy of the Law is the foundation of all our polity. On that, principle, depend our Liberty, our Stability, our Prosperity. Hear what a great Elizabethan said of it: ‘Of Law there can be ’ no less acknowledged than lhat her seat is the bosom of God, the harmony of the world. All things do her homage, the very least as feeling her-care, and the greatest as not exempted from her power.’ That is well said, and I am convinced that peace can be maintained by the supremacy of the Law and by nothing else.” —Viscount Cecil.

Circumventing Non-Intervention. “British war correspondents at Bilbao must have made the Propaganda Ministries at Rome and Berlin even more ill-disposed to the British press than before by interviewing a German ‘volunteer’ airman captured there. This man, Herr Wandel, was a private flyer. H e had, as his papers show, been sent to Rome by an ordinary commercial air line barely five weeks ago, that is, after the agreement of supervision of non-intervention. He had then been flown to the rebel headquarters from Rome., From there he had been first trained in a Heinkel (German) fighter, and then dispatched with other German ‘volunteers’ in German machines to wipe out Guernica; which, as we know, he did. It naturally prompts the reflections: How much of this is going on (literally) above the heads of the non-intervention supervisors.”—“Time and Tide.”

For Peace in the Pacific. “To increase the general sense of security and stability in l the Far East while at the same time substituting friendly commercial relations for the contingencies of trade war is a goal not only well worth attaining but also best attained through some arrangement less exclusive than a bilateral agreement. There can be no doubt that the time is ripening. It has been clear since the provisions of the Washington Treaty expired that a fresh and. if possible, stronger foundation for international relations in the Pacific must be found. Any project along these lines must to a great extent stand or fall by-the measure to which, and the spirit ir which, Japan is prepared to co-operate. In this respect the omens are at the moment auspicious. Mr. Sato’s speech to the Prefectural Governors was temperate in tone ' and reiterated the note of friendship for Great Britain which more than once of late has been struck in Tokio and welcomed in London. China, a vitally-interegted and important party, would have no cause to stand aloof if her rights and responsibilities as a principal were fully acknowledged.”— “The Times” (London).

War Horrors of the Future. “As Minister for Air, I can perhaps understand better than some people the horror of what would happen if a world war should come. It is my duty ■to study our preparations for defence, and to study the preparations, 'too, which are made by other nations. And I cannot, without veritable agony of mind, contemplate what would occur if wa.r in the air should break out. I know as a technician that we can destroy incomparably better than we can defend. Such a war, if it broke out, would be an abomination which would destroy the civilisation in which we live. And I say that the moral ruin which it would create would be greater even than the material ruin it would involve. I deny with passion that war can be a factor in progress. The generation of men to which I belong fought in the World War from 1914 to 1918. They killed their fellow-men, but they destroyed, too, a whole world of moral and spiritual values, and much that was worth-while in our civilisation, and if we cannot recapture those moral and spiritual values I despair of the future of mankind.”—M. Pierre Cot, Minister for Air in the French Government, at an Albert Hall meeting 1 (London). If Japan Attacks China.

‘‘Japan will practise positional warfare with the purpose of crushing the. Chinese armies in a few decisive battles. China should avoid decisive engagements at all costs in the early stages of such a conflict, and should seek to utilise the strength of its masses to encircle the enemy and harass it with guerrilla tactics. In a long war, Japan will not have sufficient man power and supplies to sustain a large-scale campaign. Another point in postponing any early pitched battles is that China in the beginning will be at a disadvantage in that her supply of arms and ammunition will be inferior to that of Japan. '.Phis may be compensated for later by capture of enemy equipment and importation of munitions from friendly powers. Before our arms have been modernised we must make use of partisan warfare and every other dilatory method to weaken the enemy. Only when he have adequate military equipment can we risk positional warfare involving decisive battles.” —Chu Teh, chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council and commander-in-chief of the Red armies in China. Enforcing the Peace Covenant.

“I think we are right in saying that there shall be a force behind the Cove, nant of Peace, and that we believe that the true way is to find security, not in national armaments, but in the collective force at the service of the conscience of the world. I see very curious headlines in- papers. One that I saw the other day was: ‘Conciliation or Sanctions?’ The ‘either or’ fallacy is one of the chief causes of human error.When a man says ‘either or,’ the average human being does not usually stop to ask himself if there is no third alternative, and the answer to ‘Conciliation or Sanctions?’ is both. No one, I suppose, wants to renounce conciliation. Every believer in the League of Nations desires to refer all questions to the arbitrament of reason and law, and to go on discussing them up to the last minute of the eleventh hour. But we go on to say, at least, I think we do, that we must remove the temptation to resort to the brutal decision of war by having a collective force so formidable, so certain in its action, that even a madman would hesitate to challenge it.”—Dr. Matthews Dean of St. Paul’s, at an International Peace Campaign meeting at the Royal Albert Half, London. i

Free Speech. “Thank goodness we live in a free country, where a man may say what he thinks if he isn’t afraid his wife, the neighbour, or boss will criticise him, and if he’s sure it won’t hurt his business or his reputation.”—The “Paterson News,” Kansas, U.S.A.

A Change of Heart. “We shall never get Utopia or peace until we get what is often called ‘a change of heart’ And might it not be as well to try to get it? We know perfectly well what stands in the way; our egotism, self-pride, intolerance of everyone who disagrees with us, the desire to convert others to our own way of thinking. Would it not be worth while to make a small beginning by looking for the best in other people, instead of the worst, by admitting now and again that our own opinions are not necessarily the only right way of thinking?”—Mr. J. D. Beresford, the well-known novelist

A Layman’s View. “Greater than all possible man-made achievements would be a revival of religious ardour,” says Mr. F B. Osborn in the “Morning Post.” ‘ fae sea of faith has long been receding—we hear it ebbing over the bleak edges of the world and the desolate sighing shingles. It is time the tide turned. Christianity has been swallowed up in Churchmanity, and the jealousies of the sects, symptoms of the odium theologicum, prevent the formation of an effective Christian Front against the forces of atheism. When the worldrevival comes, as come it must, it will be a divine aspiration arising from the contrite hearts of simple folk as humble perhaps in social standing as Christ Himself and His disciples.”

Death on Canadian Roads. “Since the increase in highway accidents is, without exaggeration, a public calamity, society should regard it as a public duty to reduce as much as possible the list of accidents. That is why it may be believed that the appeal of the Province of Quebec Safety League to all associations will be heard. No one is entitled to claim that he can do nothing to assure the success of the next campaign; each must assume his proper part of the responsibilities in his own sphere. In that way we shall have a united effort —the only way to bring results. The crusade is taking the whole North American Continent as its field. In the United States and in the rest of Canada numerous organisations devoted to the promotion of highway safety have resolved to join their forces so as the more effectively to impress the people, especially to stress to drivers the importance of better observation of the laws of safety and traffic regulations.” —“La Patrie” (Montreal). The Path of Reform.

“A conflict of opinion always arises when a great new idea appears. When Lord Lister introduced modern antiseptic surgery his ideas, which were contrary to what had been taught in the medical schools, were opposed for a long time by many surgeons of his day. After the discovery that germs were the cause of diseases like cholera and dysentery, and that these germs were conveyed by water and food, it took nearly a quarter of a century before this simple truth was fully understood, and public opinion became strong enough to enable those in authority to spend the necessary money on modern sanitation to get rid of these diseases. It is always the same with any new idea, especially if the acceptance of it means that something has got to be done about it. But the new knowledge of nutrition is now becoming generally accepted, and getting past the period of conflict. Something is already being done to get it applied, and more is foreshadowed for the future.”—Sir John Boyd Orr, in the “Listener” (London).

Machiavelli Dissected. “Machiavelli, with all his acuteness of observation, had a singular faculty for failing to see factors of the first importance. Loudly as he professed to see things as they really were, he saw them as they really were not Just as he depicted an art of war in which artillery played no part, so he depicted an art of government in which neither morals nor religion had any place. His estimate of human nature, on which his whole political system was based, was radically mistaken. He regarded man as entirely bad, and founded his system on that false assumption. He ignored goodness in man just as he ignored gunpowder in war. In the art of war the development of firearms has swept the Machiavellian precepts into ridicule and oblivion. In the art of politics the conscience of mankind has repudiated the Machiavellian maxims, and the experience of the human race has demonstrated their folly. The records of history tend to show that Socrates and Plato were right when they said that in the long run the knave and the fool are one and the samA For human society is established on moral foundations, and righteousness must in the end prevail.”—Professor F. J. C. Hearnshaw, LL.D.

Domestic Cases in Court. “It is commonly said, and I am sure it is true, that large numbers of people attend court in domestic cases only because they think there may be something exciting or indecent revealed there. They come from nothing more than morbidity and curiosity, and many people go to hear these cases who are never to be found during the ordinary business of the court. You may imagine the effect which it may have upon the parties to a dispute to have present in the court all their neighbours from the same street, to hear all the details without any restriction at all. There seems to be no question that this unlimited attendance at the courts must stifle the speech of the applicants, or at any rate rhe frankness with which they ought to present their case if they are going to put the full story before the court, as is unhappily not always done to-day. It is widely held by witnesses who gave evidence before the departmental committee that this unlimited exposure not only prevents the courts from hearing the full facts, but. what is more, prevents that conciliation between the parties which might otherwise have resulted.” —Lord Merthyr, speaking in the House of Lords on a Bill to ensure privacy for domestic cases.