THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 258, 28 July 1941, Page 6

THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY

Comments —Reflections Intercession

We pray to Thee, 0 God, for all seafarers and for those who serve their needs; for the officers and men of the Royal Navy and the

Mercantile Marine; for those engaged in the dangerous work of mine-sweeping; for the keepers of lighthouses, and the pilots of our ports ; for those who man lifeboats and guard our coasts; for the men

of the fishing fleets and those who carry out the services of docks and harbours; and for all guilds and societies which care for the well-

being of sailors and their families.

Bless them according to their several necessities, and keep them through all dangers and temptations. Amen.

One must be poor to know the luxury of giving.—George Eliot.

“Estimates credit Germany with having 10,000,000 men under arms. If the Reich is able to draft this enormous force from its working population, it is by literal enslavement of other pillions of people in the conquered lands. A report smuggled out of Poland tells of the working out of this process for the operation of German fields and factories. Having failed to obtain enough voluntary workers for transfer to Germany, the Gestapo has now organised man-hunts in Polish cities and villages on a constantly widening scale, Army trucks are assembled at convenient points. The German police then range the streets, rounding up all able-bodied males. No one is exempt from seizure. Even men lawfully employed in industry are gathered in. Their identification cards are torn up and they are shipped away. Of the deported, those brought back are broken in health by hard labour and scant rations.”—New York “Times.”

“The primary interest of America and England, assuming victory, will be precisely the same as the interest of mankind, namely, to prevent the recurrence of large-scale wars; altruism and egoism, therefore, can go hand in hand. The interest of America an'd the British Commonwealth is to secure world peace without sacrificing democracy, and this will require, to begin with, a vigorous use of the superiority of armed force that victory will have given. America and the British Commonwealth must form a close alliance for the preservation of peace, and admit to it, either from the first, or at any subsequent time, such nations as they consider to be at one with them in regard to world policy. Something should be done, especially in economic matters, to make membership of the alliance a desirable privilege, and non-membership a serious disadvantage. The alliance must keep military preponderance, and not tolerate any serious threat to its power of enforcing peace. It must not (as England, France and the United States did in the years before 1939) secure present peace by concessions leading to a future war in which victory is doubtful.”—Jdr. Bertrand Russell, in the American “Mercury.”

“As a token of the kind of future the U.S.A, seeks for the world we have given our firm promise to China to surrender extraterritorial privileges 'as soon as peace is restored. While a Fascist Triple Alliance proceeds with its plans for carving up tlie world, and especially for absorbing economically backward nations, the United States declares itself for Chinese freedom, Chinese sovereignty, Chinese integrity. We believe that the good word concerning what we have done will re-echo throughout the Far East; and that from the smallest peasant to the greatest merchant there will be a new understanding of what the Americau-English-Chinese democratic orbit stands for. We have, like other nations, held special rights against China for a century, special rights on Chinese soil, special rights for of American armed forces, for favoured legal treatment of our nationals. The manner in which we acquired these rights is not one of the glorious chapters in our history. But our promise to rid ourselves of these rights when peace comes is one that we shall remember with pride for all time. We are no longer merely talking about that ‘free, demo cratic’ world which is to come. We are implementing with action the dream we offer to the world’s people. We are no longer dealing in words about ‘world order, under law’; we are reducing the words to actualities. We are setting a style for peaceful change in international relations, by consent.—New York “Post.”

“The rate of German birth-rate fell continuously from the high level of 25.9 in 1920 to its lowest point, 14.7, in 1933; rose abruptly in 1934, the first year in which the Nazi influence could tell, and by 1938 had risen by more than 30 per cent., and had recovered all the ground lost since 1926. During the same period the rates fell heavily in all other European countries. There has been a small upward rise in England and Wales since 1933, but tlie rate in 1937 was the lowest in Europe, with the exception of those in France (14.7), Sweden (11.3) and Austria (12.5). When Hitler took control, the police closed birth-control clinics, and the advertising of contraceptives or tlie means of terminating pregnancy was made a penal offence. Financial aids—marriage loans, lumpsum grants, family allowances, concessions to large families in regard to taxes, reductions in railway fares and school fees, etc.—were given to parents. Since a number of different factors have been put into operation more or less simultaneously, it is not possible to determine with certainty which has been the effective or the most effective cause of the big rise in the-German birth-rate. In view of the experience of all other countries, it seems reasonable to believe that the economic advantages granted to families would not, by themselves, have produced any material result. The appeal to patriotism is the new and striding feature in the German efforts. In no other country except Italy has such emphasis ben placed upon the positive duty of the people to bear large families.”—Dr. W. A. Brend, in the “Nineteenth Century,” London. Motherland.

Land of our Birth, our faith, our pride, For whose 'dear sake our fathers died; O Motherland, we pledge to thee Head, heart, and band through the years to be!

—Rudyard Kipling.