THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 297, 12 September 1941, Page 6

THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY

Comments—Reflections

“Today the motto on both sides of the Atlantic must be ‘Now is the accepted time.’ ’’—"Daily Telegraph.”

"More often it is the thud of the single syllables than the roll of a fuller style which prevails. 'lf there be anyone that makes many poor to make a few rich, that suits not a Commonwealth.’ What modern leveller with all Ids proletarian jargon of liquidating middle-class ideology ever improved on this superb simplicity of Oliver Cromwell’s? It is a quality which Mr. Churchill achieved in his description of our debt to the Royal Air Force, Accordingly, those who would learn English can' do go from the new Prime Minister or the old Protector "—Mr, Ivor Brown. '■

“If the Ministry of Information is to continue to handle the war news it will never give satisfaction to the public here or in America unless the Min is ter is in a position of authority and can decide for himself what should be "issued and when, subject only, in the more important matters, to the Cabinet itself. There js only one way in which this can be brought about, and that is that the Minister of Information must, himself, be a member of the War Cabinet. Nothing short of this will give him both access to the news nt the earliest moment, or the authority to issue it, without that fatal delay which has been so expensive in the past.’’—Lord Camrose, in the House of Lords.

“There have always seemed to me to be two main attitudes to religion. One is based on the notion that you can get better men by making a better world. The other, which I will call the evangelical attitude, is based on the conviction that the only way to a better world is by making better men. When I was at the university I Paired a kind of youthful Socialism one part optimism and three parts ignorance. A year in the Old Kent Road was enough to kill all that. Since then I have been a whole-hearted dlscipte ot the evangelical belief. And it is something to see one’s belief vindicated on so wide a scale ns the present war affords. Surely the one thing that is evident is that all the discoveries of science, all the fruits of education, and all the efforts toward social bettermen t merely yield a worse hell unless we get better men. And by better men I mean more religious 'men, though I should in this connexion give a wide meaning to the word religion.” —“Artlfex” in the “Manchester Guardian.”

“The beginning of liberty is to believe in people as individuals, with all their capacities for growth and intelligence despite their mistakes, yet always to challenge any man’s claim to complete knowledge or power. What we cal) democracy is the evidence In government of these principles, the expression of a people’s respect and responsibility for themselves. This is the groundwork of the world we want, Throughout the different representative States iri the world, there appears this common idea of a people’s right to rule themselves. With the right go risks, because it includes a prerogative of rulers—the right, to be wrong. So it implies that any majority will keep open for its opponents the public right to speak their minds, to organize parties and elect legislators, and in turn by persuasion to form a majority.—Mr. Malcolm W. Davis, in a New York Commission report on the organization of peace.

“A time comes when every American must somehow resolve one simple question:—lf for anything you could de about it, your country nevertheless becomes involved in war, where arc you going to stand? Many keep saying that time has not come. The clock

has not struck. The fatal words have not been uttered in the form of a resolution by Congress. But do they see what the world reads on the American banner? We spell it out to them. The American Government has proclaimed that Hitler must be destroyed. It has solemnly pledged itself before the world to employ its total resources to bring that result to pass. It has proclaimed that there can be and shall be no peace with Hitler. It has announced that a negotiated peace would be a defeat for democracy and freedom and the American way of life. It has proclaimed that the American w-ay of life cannot exist iu the same planet w-ith the German thing. One or the other must die. Trying, therefore, to maintain the fiction that this country is not in the war against Hitler is like running from an earthquake.”—“New York Post" (previously isolationist).

“There musr be numerous Japanese who now realize that the China adventure was a hideous blunder, who believe in the advantages of peaceful commerce and who know that Japan would be only a satellite Bower in a world dominated by the Nazis, i Such Japanese would not willingly see their country commit the incredible folly of challenging Britain and the United States in a totally unnecessary war. Let us suppose that the friendly part of Japan really desires to learn how, if it bad the power, it could restore good feeling between the two countries. Obviously the China “incident” would have to be liquidated, the puppet Government of Wang Chingwei disowned, a treaty made with Chiang Kai-shek recognizing China’s sovereignty over her own territories. The United States is committed to helping the Chinese, and public opinion would not countenance thpir betrayal. The Japan of business men, professional men, workers and farmers would gain enormously by such a treaty. The drain of war would end. In time trade with China might profitably be resumed on a

mutually self-respecting basis. A Japan that would take this course and accept these conditions would be both respected and "popular.” In turning away both from her own surviving

medievalism and the crude new medievalism of Hitler she could gain a status in the world that her warlike statesmen, generals and admirals can never win for her.”. —“New York Times.”

Faith. He that doth the ravens feed, Tea, providently caters for the sparrow, Be comfort to my age. —Shakespeare, “As You Like It.’Q.