A BACKGROUND TO THE NEWS

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 63, 7 December 1938, Page 9

A BACKGROUND TO THE NEWS

Mr. James Roosevelt

The eldest son, and secretary, of President Franklin Roosevelt, Mr. James Roosevelt, has 'been appointed vice-president of Samuel Goldwyn Productions. He is said to be the first member of a White House family ever to enter the show business. No member of the official and unofficial •‘family” which helps the President has come to the fore more rapidly in the last year or two than Mr. James Roosevelt.

As secretary to his father, since July. 1937, he has been drawing a salary of £2OOO a year. His main assignments are liaison work between the White House ami the Capitol, distributing liatronage and acting as his father’s main contact with Washington society. Long before his appointment he had been a valuable unofficial aide to his father. He had campaigned for the New Deal in 1932 and 1936; had appeared with his father at important public ceremonies; and pad gone with him in 1936 to the Pan-American peace conference at Buenos Aires. Although he had studied law and done well in the insurance business, he preferred a career in politics. German Education

Explaining the training of youths, Herr Hitler has declared that, after entering the youth organizations, the youths would never again be free during their lifetime. in a foreword to ‘’Education in Germany,” Sir Norman Angell writes “A whole great nation is now being ‘conditioned’ by the control of the mind of ) all its youth to accept certain gross fallacies as truth. , . . The mind of the German youth is now being so formed as to subserve the ends of evil, to undermine all hopes of peace and disarmament, and to menace the security of free communities like those of the British Commonwealth.”

Dr. Ley, Minister for Labour in Germany, has said ‘‘We begin with the child when he is three years old. As soon as he 'begins to think he gets a little flag put in his hand; then follows the school, the Hitler Youth, the ,S.A. and military training. We do not let him go; and when. adolescence is past, then comes the Arbeitsfront which takes 'him again and dbes not let him go till he dies, whether he likes it or not.”

In “Mein Kampf,” Herr Hitler says: ‘“The State must throw the whole weight of its educational machinery not into pumping its children full of knowledge, but into producing absolutely healthy bodies. The development of mental capacity is only of secondary importance. Our first aim must be the development of character, especially of will-power, and a readiness to take responsibility; scientific training follows far behind.” Hans Schwemm, leader of the Na-tional-Socialist Teachers’ Union, and Bavarian Minister of Education, explains the ideal which is to inspire the German teacher and pupil, thus: “The consciousness that a Lord God lives in Heaven, that this Lord God has sent Adolf Hitler to us, that he has allowed us the grace to become people again. “We will, Adolf Hitler, so train the German youth that they will grow up in your world of ideas, in your purposes and in the direction set by your will. That is pledged to you by the whole German system of education from the people’s school to the university. ...”

Professor Baumler, professor at Berlin' University and chief director for the Fuehrer of the entire intellectual and political education of the Nazi Party, says: “Readiness to bear arms is the basis of the whole structure of our national being.” Japan In The Pacific

An article in “The Dominion’’ yesterday drew attention to the fact that Japan is in full possession of Germany’s former South. Sea islands north of the equator, and certain other concessions in China.

The Japanese mandated territories of the Pacific consist of some 1400 islands and reefs scattered over a vast expanse of sea, between the equator and Japan. The most northerly of these islands lies 1200 miles due south of Yokohama, the most westerly is 590 miles from Duvao in the Philippines and 660 miles from Menado in the Celebes, while well away to the east at a distance of 2000 miles lies Hawaii. To the south there is nothing of real importance until Australia is reached pt a distance of 1800 miles. The total area of these mandated islands is about 1500 square miles, the population nearly 80,000, of whom about 30,000 are Japanese. The Japanese Government has been charged by the League of Nations representatives with fortifying some of the islands. While repudiating the charge, the Japanese authorities have refused to allow any examination to be made. Though the islands are still regarded by the League of Nations as under mandate to Japan, the Japanese Government has made plain that it regards them as possessions which can only be taken by force. The Ghetto

It is reported from Berlin that the Jewish residential areas in north and central Berlin will become ghettos, and Jews must obtain permits to cross them. • . . Laws forbidding Jews and Christians to dwell together were established in some countries of Europe more than 700 years ago. In 1516 the Venetian Republic ordered the segregation of the Jews of the city in a special quarter, formerly known as the Getto (Ghetto i Nuovo, or New Foundry. A little later the Getto Vecchio, or Old Foundry, was added. Hence the term "Ghetto” spread throughout Italy, where the Jewish quarters compulsorily established in the second half of the sixteenth century and the subsequent years became officially known by this name. Though the Jews fought against the establishment of these Ghettos, they soon found them a big advantage in that they enabled the solidarity of the race to be maintained, and enabled enemies to be kept outside the walls.

The entrance to the Ghetto was usually through a low archway, provided with massive doors, and under tlie custody of Christian gatekeepers, paid by the Jews. After nightfall it was considered a serious crime for any Jew to be found outside the Ghetto, or any Christian within it. Only within the Ghetto was the Jew enabled to live the life of a human being; as an individual he was scarcely recognized nt least for decent treatment, outside it. Collectively, the Jews of the Ghetto were compelled to pay exorbitant exactions.