THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 6, 2 October 1941, Page 6

THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY

Comments —Reflections

It is salutary to get out of ourselves, and see people living together in perfect unconsciousness of our existence, as they will live when we are gone.— “An Autumn Effect” (R. L. Stevenson ).

“The civil population of Britain has already lost no fewer than 30,000 lives. This is an exhibition of totalitarian war, as it is termed by our enemies, but others will name it wanton murder, and so it will be named by the moral sense of mankind and by history. Yet our people do not flinch. London has suffered terribly. In the neighbouring capital of Paris the people sleep quietly at night. But there is no man or woman who would not rather 'be a citizen of London bombed and free than a citizen of Paris safe but enslaved.” — Viscount Samuel, speaking in the House of Lords.

“Earnest people, preachers and moralists, are fond of complaining that morals are on the decline, that our fathers behaved better than we do, and their fathers better still. It is not, of course, true that the past is always better; indeed, were-it true each age would be worse than its predecessors. But this is not so. We must not belittle the substantial advance that has been made, till quite recently, toward a kindlier world. It is edsy to ignore the shadows in the past while we indulge in a sentimental nostalgia for ‘the good old days.’ J do not think that what may be described as ‘the average morality’ of our time is lower than formerly. So far as lam able to judge there is no evidence that people today more often fail to do what they believe to be right. The really terrifying sign of our times is the deterioration in moral standards. Most ordinary men and women try to behave ‘decently’ (a favourite word among English people), they have, however, no clear conception why they should so behave, and have, indeed, never asked themselves that question.”—From “Ideals and Illusions," by Professor L. Susan Stebbing.

“It Is not to be supposed that the Japanese naval and military staffs are unmindful of the risks of committing themselves to large-scale naval and military operations—for such an attack upon Singapore would involve—. more than 2000 miles distant from their main bases, while a strong American fleet remained concentrated at Hawaii. The presence of that fleet at Hawaii, even if it did not move westward, athwart the direct steamship route from South America would mean that from the moment hostilities started Japan would Impose a complete blockade upon herself from the Pacific Coast to the Indian Ocean. Her shipping would be cut off from all communication except with China and Siberia. Unless she could dispose immediately of the units of the United States fleet stationed at Cavite, and occupy the Philippines, it would be a hazardous venture to move a single transport or merchant vessel south of Formosa without strong naval convoys, and these would not dispose of the risk of bombing from American planes in the narrow waters between the island of Luzon and Hong Kong.—“ Oriental Affairs,” the well-known Shanghai magazine.

“War is today a question of material. The technical progress of making war has advanced to such a stage that one man in the field requires the backing of 10 men at home —not only men, but machines and raw material as well. Therefore, we are particularly fortunate in having an abundance of men, machines and materials to put to work to back up our forces for home protection. Over across the ocean a battle of life and death is being fought—in the field, in the air and in the shop. Over here, thank God, we have only the battle of the shop, but it is just as serious, just as important, just as indispensable that we may not be in a bad position here, We must plan and work to help the men who are fighting for their liberty, and when we do that with all our might we are getting in shape to protect ourselves. Ships and planes and guns—there is the story in a. nutshell. We must have more and still more. Every machine shop and foundry in the United States which can make even a piece of something must be enlisted for the duration." —Mr. William E. Knudsen, America's Minister of Supply.

“if there is one thing we realize today, it is this: when the war Is over our world will not be the same as it was when the war began. Our world has been changed much in our own time by several revolutions. The mightiest of these revolutions is 1 think, the most recent one, the German revolution of 1933, the National Socialist revolution as it is called, which destroyed the transitional democratic order in Germany and established that new German order which now extends from the Arctic to the Aegean, and from Finisterre to the Black Sea. The nucleus of this vast order, of this prodigious revolutionary empire which the Germans have erected by violence, is Germany herself, the Third Reich, as it calls 'itself. The First Reich was the Holy Roman Empire; the Second was the Empire of the Holienzollerns; the Third is the Germany of to-day and the ‘new order she has erected under the leadership of Hitler, Inhuman and oppressive as it is, we must not dismiss it as bluff or propaganda. The Russian Revolution and the great French Revolution also attempted to erect a new order, not merely a French and Russian new order, but a European new order, indeed a universal new order. That is one thing we must bear in mind, and in doing so we must remain aware of the terrific power of revolutionary ideas, ot the disciplined fanaticism which that idea can inspire. When associated with organization, military prowess, great resources and ardent nationalism, as it was under Napoleon, as it is now under Hitler, those ideas are formidable indeed. We knew it in Napoleon’s day; and we know it, or ought to know it, in our own day.”— Mr. F. A. Voight, editor of the “Nineteenth Century,” in a recent address.

The Coming Dawn. In death is life, immortal, strong. This travail will r.ot last o’erlong And something, finest, greatest yet, Will come through blood and tears and sweat. —W. Spencer Deeming, in the "Sunday Times,” London.