THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 117, 11 February 1941, Page 6

THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY

Comments—Reflections

”A man should know at least three things—first, where lie is; second, where he is going; and third, what he had best do under the circumstances.” —Ruskin.

“11’ Britain today is Herr Hitler’s foremost enemy, it is because it falls to our people to lead the anti-pagan revolution and win the world back for those Christian principles which must challenge and condemn all be stands for. No call so tremendous has yet come to them. This may prove to be indeed Itheir ifinesct hour.’ The Commonwealth may emerge from this trial poor no doubt in all material things, but with a moral authority and influence scarcely before dreamed of in our history.”—Canon F. R. Barry, of Westminster.

“We may be perfectly confident that after all the physical force has been mustered that can be summoned up on either side, the issue will still lie with ‘the spirit and temperament bred under institutions of freedom.’ It will be the originality of men who dare, and are permitted to think for themselves that will win this struggle. It will be the determination of free men not to let themselves be conquered by ‘the implements of wrath.’ The quoted words are fine indeed. But let us not sneer at fine words when they are also true. Their power to stir us lies in their appeal to a deep and lasting emotion. The slavery of the dictatorships is a kind of death against which every natural human instinct revolts. Its front is terrible, but more terrible in the end will be the resolution of those still free never to submit—never while the world and life endure.”—“New York Times.”

“The real power in Germany is the Prussian military machine, which uses Hitler as its barbaric medicine man and oratorical witch doctor. The German people are not driven into battle by the lash. They go into it willingly, some even exultantly. They are out for loot, and seem to be a nation that has lost its soul and become only an appetite. Their thinking begins with belief in the biological necessity for war. The next step is that there are no rules. It follows that this lack of ethics should soak back into the time of peace—preparation for war. Therefore you get Hitler’s technique of lying, treatybreaking, spying and treachery. What is right is what serves the interests of Germany. What are we to do in our Christian thinking? As our long-term programme we have to organize the world for peace. We must seek understanding with all like-minded democracies and- examine the moral and spiritual basis of democracy. Democracy is a task and a challenge. It must justify itself in the real world. I believe it can, through the creation of character.” —Dr. Hugh Black, the Scots-born Professor of Union Theological Seminary, New York.

“If the Petain Government agree to terms, which they seem to be concealing from their own people, their subservience will be abject. For an indefinite period France would have to be written off from the nations which count.’ Her influence in international affairs would be nil. The members of Petain’s Cabinet must know that even acquiescence in the German terms will not in the slightest degree ameliorate the conditions in which Frenchmen will live for the remaining duration of hostilities. It may give them Paris for their capital again—and the prospect of this amenity seems to weigh witli them almost more than anything else. But the Germans still buy French food with worthless paper marks and carry it off to Germany; and the unfortunate French prisoners now in the Reich, whose plight is apparently being used lor blackmailing purposes by the German negotiators, will in any case, and wherever they are, have just enough sustenance to keep body and soul together, and no more. Honour and interest alike point lo resisting the bully who may be in difficulties himself, and whose chief immediate aim is to fasten his hold upon the lands his armies have overrun before they begin to slip from his grasp.”—“The Times,” Loudon. » V 4» “Two things should not be forgotten. The population of France, though not plunged in such abysmal depths of despair as during the month following the armistice, finds the present situation intolerable. Anxieties about the fate of the 1,800,000 prisoners, the almost complete lack of communication between the two halves of France, unemployment, uncertainty about the future: these mental tortures are far more, effective than such privations as lack of soap, of butter, of coal, of means of transport, coupled witli the grim necessity for spending the whole day in queues outside the shops. The French people cannot bear any mure of that. Any change must be a change for the better.in their eyes: and that is just what Laval is counting on. If he has gained some immediate advantages, such as the evacuation of part o£ the French territory or the release of the prisoners-of-war, they will serve as a fresh morphia injection in the stricken, unhappy body of France. How long will the injection work? Only fora short time, it would seem, for the released prisoners coming back and finding themselves without work will aggravate tlie discontents aud reinforce opposition with their acid youth.”— “Time and Tide,” London.

“The thrift of time will repay in after life with usury of profit beyond your most sanguine dream, and waste of it will make you dwindle alike in intellectual and moral stature beyond your darkest reckoning."—W. E. Gladstone.

Workers of London, You should be proud, the humdrum ami

the weak, Not versed in war nor schooled to high performance, Who bear no shield but your owu mute endurance.

Carry no sword but keen-edged Cockney laughter. You should lie proud indeed, for when men speak Of this or that great hour of Time, hereafter: “London once saved Mau’s liberty,” they’ll say. —M. D. Anderson, in “The Observer,” London.