THE OPPORTUNITY OF YOUTH.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3131, 21 August 1922, Page 7

THE OPPORTUNITY OF YOUTH.

(By Sir Philip Gibbn.)

CHANCE TO BUILD WORLD’S FUTURE.

One may use ( this lull in the state of Europe to examine certain questions, larger even than Anglo-French: friendship, German reparations or Russian reconstruction. What, for' instance, is tlic present trend' of thought- among European peoples regarding peace and war? Are they formulating any new philosophy of life- which will bring pressure on their leaders? What is youth doing, if it is doing anything, toward building a new faith, a; new world? Per ha-jus everything is summed up iu that last question, which many people, 1 find, are now asking. Perhaps it was Ihu'ric’s beautiful speech on youth and its need of courage which has brought this -inquiry to the front again. Tint I find to my pleasure a chapter called “The Chance of Youth,” which I wrote in my last book, “More That Must- Pc Told,” as it is called iu the United -States and from “The 1 Hope of Europe.” as it is entitled in England, brings me letters and' visitors from many parts of the world on this very subject. During the last few days, for instance, 1 have been visited by two young men—one from Canada, one from the United States- —who have come over to- Europe for extended tours in order to find out precisely what youth is doing and thinking about doing as the next adventure, in which they themselves are keen to take a hand. A splendid quest! It seems to me like a modern errantry and I should like to set out along the road with them. The Canadian boy amused me by his eagerness and impatience. After a week or two in Englalnd he could not hud that English youth was doing anything, yet felt there must be a great game on somewhere in which he could play centre forward. The American hoy from Poston was more philosophical, ready to wait longer and go further before making up his mind. Hei is going to all sorts of odd countries to find out what youth is thinking, and I am keen to see the- results of hie inquiries'. There are others like these two romantics. I find American visitors with a bit of gray on each side of the temples asking mo what about the boys, how are they coming along; and they watch and) listen to the lads they come across with critical, observant eyes as though waiting for a’ little revelation on this point, which is, of course, enormously important. Because what youth is thinking to-day the world will ho to-morrow, and if I could get at that I could tell in my weekly articles far more of the future than now I daro do. „ It is obvious to me that these American visitors and others are disappointed with English youth. They do not seem to bo doing anything at all. They do not seem to be getting together with any kind of programme. They do not seem ready to adopt Barrie’s candid advice to ignore their “betters,” to scrap the “old men, ’ and leap into the saddle of life with a good gallop to the open country. I confess I have been disappointed myself. I thought after the war all those boys who escaped from the trenches by a fluke of luck would veiy quickly take up a kind of leader slim and oust the old men from their high perches by a spiritual ardor for something cleaner, sharper, more vital in the conduct of life. The idea- that it was “up to youth” took a strong hold on the public imagination of England. Some enterprising fellow even organised a league of youth, which was backed by great names. I was asked to speak to them and went down with a carefully prepared oration in the Barrie style, without a touch of his genius—which is no fault of mmcexpecting to he confronted with the flashing eyes of youth, with rows of hovs with the clean-cut face of youth s imprint. Alas, to my distress, I looked down upon lino upon lino of baldheads and old ladies in bonnets They wore all there to support youth m its joyous claims, but youth itself stayed ''"go far as England is concerned there is no sol {-consciousness iu youth, and the young men of to-day now ui col-le-jre factory and shop have not got together with any kind of programme. They do not seem to have formulated am kind of philosophy or faith consequent upon the lessons or war. tname u are still iu command of the machine and there is. no revolt ot youth against them or their senility. I ms is distressing to those who looked tin quick change, quick action, tremendous psychological results from the adventure of war in which most of the boys of the British Isles were deeply engaged. . ... The same thing is true, J hud, in France and other countries. There are leagues of youth iu F ranee, Germany and Czechoslovakia, which seem promising, lint do not amount to yet.v much in actual influence. I think those who like myself wore impatient to see youth marching in legions to_ new spiritual victories were expecting a great deal too much forgetting their own boyhood, trying to put the burden of responsibility on young shoulders not yet ready to carry such a weight. . English boys are intensely individualistic, like most, others iu the world, and youth is the time when solitary walks, day dreams alone in a littlebedroom, doubts, bewilderments, intuitions, aspirations, the enormous, illimitable hopes and desires of boyhood, are not to be replaced by collective action. Roving, adventurous talk illogical, absurd and fantastic, between a few comrades in a college , room are more productive of future good than self-conscious societies of young men with political and social programmes all cut and dried for the salvation of the world. At Oxford and Cambridge I find the u u dergrad ua tes up pa re n 11 y u 11 to uc I led by the past tragedy of war or future peril. They talk in exactly the same way as those who were in the same old rooms iu 1913. They are just as careful about tlie color of their socks, far more interested iu the affairs of the university and sports than in the affairs of the world. And that is the right mood after all. On the- other hand, it is only a superficial observation which would write them down as unchanged by all that has happened. There is a whole, world in mentality between the undergraduates of Oxford now and those of the year before the war. So it is also in other parts of the world as far as my own observations go. For the thing that happened in 191-1 Inis not just touched the intellect of mankind as a thing with a passing shadow. It has furrowed deep into the consciousness of all mankind, and the man is a fool who thinks that soon it will be forgotten. It is not being talked about so much. It is put outside immediate thought, hut it is there always in the hackground of the mind and is a tremendous warning of experience. In Great Britain and all over Europe, as I am profoundly convinced, the young men to-day who are not saying much, not doing much outside their usual work and sport, have as their guiding spirit, as it were the inner peace in order to save civilisation. That is as far as they go, and it is far enough at pre-

sent. When their time comes they will make blunders, passion will blind their eyes, there will be gusts of bad temper, there will be period* and places when blood will be spilled again. That is human life. But steadily youth in this generation and the next get away from the old vendettas. Wo shall reach higher ground, because of what the hoys are thinking now in those college rooms in the lonely hours, as they lope about the countrysides or as they raise their heads from the hooks. So American visitors now to England and Europe need not go back with tales of nothing doing. There is a lot doing in the soul of youth.