OVERSEAS OPINIONS

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 112, 4 February 1939, Page 1 (Supplement)

OVERSEAS OPINIONS

Liberty of the Press.

“When the Official Secrets Act was debated soon after the war, the notion that it could be applied against the Press was ridiculed,” says the "Daily Mail.” “These assurances have not prevented th Act being used in most petty ways against the journalist. It should be so framed that it can be invoked only when the safety of the State is in question. Sir Samuel Hoare said that such an amendment was under consideration. It is long overdue. Hushhush spreads from above to the magistrates. What week now passes without bickering between Bench and reporters as to when the Press is entitled to be in court? The efforts started last year by politicians to create a compulsory register of journalists doubtless are not over. The plan of having on the official desk a list of sycophantic names, from which anyone outspoken' could be struck off, is too attractive. Unitedly the Press will fight this subtle attack on the circulation of news and the right to comment. And the public ■will aid the Press, for unlike the bureaucrats and some politicians, they do not want a gramophone with State records.”

A Pact With a Catch. “The Franco-German Pact proclaims the importance of good relations between France and Germany. It puts it on record that there is no territorial dispute outstanding between them, and that they ‘solemnly recognize’ the existing Franco-German frontier. It engages the two Governments, in case of international ditiiculties affecting their countries, to deal with them by mutual consultation. But (apart from the doubts that must inevitably be felt as to any professions of virtue on the part of Hitler’s regime) there is one big and obvious fly in the ointment. There is a Franco-Italian as well as a Franco-German frontier; and while the German Foreign .Minister is signing this pact the German press is warmly backing Mussolini’s aggressive demands on France. Whether Herr von Ribbentrop can give the French any satisfactory assurances regarding Germany’s policy vis-a-vis her Italian ally, remains to be seen. If he cannot, the pact is a mockery. If he can, something very remarkable will have happened to the Rome-Berlin axis.” — The "New Statesman.”

Belter Tiian a Thriller. "The average detective story is not nearly so exciting as the health reports of this country,” said Lt.-Col. A. J. H. Russell, Public Health Commissioner with the Government of India, in a recent broadcast talk. "We epidemiologists.” he declared, “are constantly following up clues leading to detection of the agents causing sickness and death and of the methods these agents adopt. In some eases they may be virulent germs like those of cholera or plague, in others murderous female insects like the stegomyia or the anopheles; able to spread yellow "fever and malaria. Each has its own special plan of attack. During 1936, nearly 10,000,000 babies were born in India, while the records show 6,250,000 deaths, including over 1,500,000 among infants under one year of age mainly from preventable diseases.”

Britain Tlie Unready. “What I fear,” writes Admiral Stephen King-Hall in his "Newsletter,” “is that even if the Government appreciates the truly staggering character of what must be done to make Great Britain reasonably secure, it will hesitate to put tile necessary measures into force. For one thing the Cabinet doubts —and with some reason—whether tlie electorate has any real comprehension of the upheaval in its normal life which is indispensable if the homeland is to be made safe against invasion from the air. For instance, the existing evacuation schemes are a bad joke, yet even when, and if, they are improved, how many so-called civilians realize that no evacuation scheme can be relied upon till it has been rehearsed—at least in part? The people cannot be blamed; It is 250 years since the Dutch fleet came up the Thames and Napoleon’s army never marched nearer England than Boulogne. As for 10(56 and all that .. .

but there’s the rub, since there are some remarkable resemblances between 1066 and 1938. The people find it difficult to appreciate that they' can no h uger bask at ease, and carry on business as usual, under the shelter of British sea power.”

t hindering British Statesmen. “I.ord Baldwin has been reviled in I'ie German papers as a ’guttersnipe’ I -eause he made a humanitarian appeal I n- help for the refugees.” says the “Manchester Guardian.” “Mr. ChauiI' 'riain mildly deplores this vituperaI on. Ami Germany solemnly regards. I ‘rself as insulted, and her. Ambassador aid her Press will not eat a dinner ' illi him I Yet Mr. Chamberlain had I 'on so infinitely careful not to give i fence. We may differ from him in his I ‘lief that racial persecution, the supI ession of religious freedom, and I ulalily may not lie inherent in the ■ azi system, but at least lie did his I 'st to give Herr Hitler the benefit of i le doubt. How much longer can even I k(*ep up the illusion? Surely everything that has happened since Munich -in the stripping bare of Czeehoslov ikia. in tlie merciless persecution of I he Jews, in the revived German offensive on the East, in the Italian offensive in tlie Mediterranean and Spain, . ’ the growing truculence of Japan towards the Western Powers—has brought home the terrible lesson that ' shall pot.compel respect by weaki ess. Speeches like Mr. Chamberlain’s invite fresh attacks.”

Bismarck And Hitler. "There is a striking resemblance between the attitudes adopted by British siatesmen to Bismarck and those which .•ire being adopted now. Bismarck’s own past, contributed to the distrust with which he was viewed so that even when lie meant peace he could not safely be believed It may be said that Herr Hiller is in the same position. ITforts have been made, and are still being made, to discover a basis for establishing normal relations with Germany and Italy. Mr. Chamberlain has his peace declaration, JI. Bonnet has Herr Ribbentrop’s signature to a similar document, and Mr. Chamberlain has :ilso the Rome Treaty; but of a true ■■ltlement there is not yet a promising ’’")>• In shaping a policy of reconciliaon. statesmen cannot move much ’icnd of public opinion, and Herr Hit■r’s ill-treatment of the Jews has re■nsed a store of public indignation vhich makes progress toward better ■elations almost impossible for the premil,.”—“The Scotsman.”

Peace Hunger.

“I believe the vast majority of mankind hate the harsh and cruel conditions under which they live,” says Dr. Herbert Gray, in his volume, “Love, The One Solution.” “Freed from financial and economic pressure, they tend always to create clubs and associations of all sorts, within which goodwill finds scope. Already they stretch out hands of welcome across national frontiers, and show that they long for international goodwill. Racial barriers are already threatened, and cannot possibly maintain themselves indefinitely against the instinct of kindness. It is true that cruelty, hate, passion and violence, seem to be in possession of large parts of the world, and that bombs and machine-guns seem to dominate the situation. But it is also true that the race is very unhappy under these conditions, and that ordinary men and women hate them with passion. I believe the great majority of living persons are saying in effect, ‘We want to be let out of this ghastly system under which we live. We protest against being called on either to strive against others in daily life, or to kill and maim others in war’.” New Homes for Jews. “The scheme which I should like to put forward is one that finds a good deal of support in America, both from Jews and Christians,” said Captain Cazalet, M.P., in a House of Commons debate. “It is that wealthy Jews, particularly those in America, should buy a large block of land, if possible, in Portuguese West Africa. The land is available and suitable. There are practically no natives and no inhabitants in that particular area. I do not know whether or not the Portuguese Government are willing to sell the land, but if so. it would be an.immense advantage, and would bring great wealth to that part of Africa, and great wealth to Angola and the harbour of Lobito Bay. The suggestion is that they should buy the land in fee simple and, if we cannot set up a State for Jews in Palestine, that we should set up a Jewish State in that part of Angola. It would have this advantage, that the Jews there would be in control of their own immigration. No doubt it would be expensive and difficult, and would take some time, but anyone who has seen what the Jews have done in Palestine must realize that the word ‘impossible’ does not exist in the modern Hebrew dictionary.”

Tlie Seeds of War. "The habit of mind,” says “The Times,” "that gambles with the peace of the world is that which refuses to interpret the results of any negotiation except in. terms of victory or defeat. If it were true, as the malcontents among our own politicians proclaim, that what happened at Munich was the diplomatic defeat of the democracies by the totalitarian Powers, then their conclusion legitimately follows that the seeds of war were sown. With equal logic, if the dictators had gone home with the sense of diplomatic defeat, a long step toward war would assuredly have been taken. The concensus of opinion, in and outside the four nations directly represented, is that there was no victory and no defeat, but a definite achievement of co-operation between the four in removing old injustices that threatened the peace of Europe. . . . What Mr. Chamberlain really did was to bring into the forefront of politics a force to which all Governments, the totalitarian as well as the democratic, are bound, in the long run, to defer. His appearance in Germany, and the dramatic circumstances that surrounded it, brought home to the German imagination for the first time the nature of the abyss that lay ahead.”

The Ukraine—A Problem. “The Ukrainian ‘problem’ is one of much difficulty and danger,” says the

“Manchester Guardian.” “The Ukrainians form a population of more than forty millions, extending from the Caucasus along the shores of the Black Sea and into Poland and Czechoslovakia. In Poland they form.a minority of six or seven millions (their own estimate of their numbers differs widely from the Polish estimate). This powerful minority, which forms a close-ly-packed majority in about a third, the south-eastern third, of the area embraced by the frontiers of Poland, fought, heroically for national independence after the Great War. Tlie Ukrainians were defeated by the Poles, who had an advantage in arms. But the Ukrainians had secured a promise of Home Rule from Poland, a promise made not only to them but. to the Western Powers as well. A Ukrainian Home Rule Bill was actually placed on the Polish Statute book. But the promise was never kept. Instead of Home Rule, the Ukrainians were subjected to ruthless repression. But it has failed to weaken their spirit. and today they demand Home Rule with an insistence greater than ever. Polisli repression has lieen intensified. The Ukrainian ‘problem,’ so far from being solved, has become more intractable than ever and more dangerous, for it is inconceivable that Germany, immensely powerful as she is and determined on eastward expansion, will not make use of the immense possibilities offered by this 'problem.’ ”

What Started the Spanish War. “There has been a campaign of shameless misrepresentation which has smi.ched the honour of our country, and has cost the lives if scores of misguided young men who have volunteered to fight on the wrong side in Spain,” writes Dean D. R. Inge. “M ithin two months after the establishment of the so-called Republican Government, Professor Alison Peers wrote: ‘The Government is incapable of safeguarding tlie rights of ah” group of persons whatever.’ A Government of which this can be said is no Government. Between tlie elections and tlie military rising, says van Voilenhoven, 84 churches were burnt, 956 persons were murdered, 100,000 had their goods confiscated, and Calvo Sotelo, a former minister of State, was assassinated by men in uniform. The ‘Government’ soon after released and armed I lie inmates of the prisons, and turned them loose to murder and pillage. In Madrid alone 100,000 persons, ‘one-tenth of the population.’ were butchered. In tlie whole of Spain tlie estimates of the number of murders vary from 300,(100 to 600,000. By February. 1937. 16.750 clerics and members of religious orders bad been put to death, in nine dioceses not a church remained standing; ‘about 20,000 churches have been destroyed.’ . . .”