LEADERS' VIEWS

Evening Post, Volume C, Issue 23, 27 July 1920, Page 8

LEADERS' VIEWS

RECENT SPEECHES

STRONG POWERS OF RESISTANCE

HOPE OP THE. WORLD.

(PROJJ OUR OWN CORRBSPONDENT.)

LONDON, 6tn May. Mr. Rudyaxd Kipling, at the Royal Society of St. George:—

"The Englishman, like a built-up gunbarrel, is all one temper, though welded of different materials, and hedias strong powers of resistance. Romaii, Korman, Papist, Cromwellian, Stuart, Hollander, Hanoverian aristocracy, middle-class and democracy, each in turn through a thousand years experimented on him and tried to make him to their own liking. He met each in tarn with , a large, silent toleration, which they each in turn mistook for native stupidity. He gave them, each a fair trial, and, when he had quite finished with them, a fair dismissal. As an-additional safeguard he built up a social system divided int(. water-tight compartments, so arranged that neither the ■water of public panic nor the firo of private revenge .should sweep his ship of State from end to end. And if, in spite of -all this, the domestic situation became too' much for him, ho could always go to eea and there seek or impose the peace which the Papal Legate, the medieval trade union, or a profligate Chancellor of the exchequer denied him at, home, (Laughter.) And thus—not in a fit'of absence of mind—was the Empire born. It was tha outcrsrue of the relaxations of persecuted spscialists, men who for one cause or another were unfit for the rough and tumble of home life. They did it in search of rest and change, much as we go for summer holidays; and, like ourselves, tLey took their national habits with them. They did not often gather together with harps and iebecl« to celebrate theii national glories or hymn their national heroes. When they 'did not, like ourselves, take them both for granted, they generally denied the one and tried to impeach the other. But, by some mysterious rule of thumb magic, they did establish and mairitain a reasonable peace and security among simple folk in many parts of tlie world, and that without overmuch n:urder, oppression, or torture. It ;nay bo said that the success of the English was due to their importurbabls tolerance.'

"Though' there had been no &uch slaughter of the English in all history, the actual war was no more than a large scale repetition of national experience in the past. Herein lies the strength of the English—that they have behind them this continuity of immensely varied raceexperience and race-memory, running through every class back to the very dawn of our dawn, which unconsciously imposes on them, even while they deride standards of achievement and comparison; hard it may be and a little -unsympathetic, but not low, and, as all earth is witness, not easily lowered. Loud cheers.) That is the reason why, in things nearest our hearts, we praise so little and criticise so lavishly. It is the only compliment that an Englishman dares pay his country. (Laughter.) And now we and our kin after the great years are sick, shaken, and dizzy—like all convalescents, a little inclined to live on invalid's slops as long as possible, and more than a little inclined to mistake the hysteria of convalescence for signs of new life and thought. But here also instinct tells us that our national past has dowered us with a sufficiency of ballast to navigate through whatever storms—or brain-storms—may oe ahead. (Cheers.) What will the Englishman' do in the future? We know that England is crippled by the loss or wastage of a whole generation. Her position from the civil point of view is that of our armies in the worst days of the war—that is to say, all leave is stopped for every man who can stand up to his job, no matter how sick or stale he may .be. and there is undreamed of promotion for untried, men who, merely because they are not dead, will have to face heavier responsibility, longer hours, and criticism—that will certainly not grow milder as the years pass. The whole weight of the world lies; again, as it used to lie in the days of our fathers, upon two nationsEngland and France. The sole force ] which, under God's good Providence, can meet this turn of our fate is, not temperament—not opportunism, not any attempt to do better than good—but character, and again character." - FAULTS OF THE "HIGHER i DIRECTION." , Sir lan Hamilton, at Sheffield : "There is a bond which unites us all, and the meaning and interpretation of that union is, I believe, that wo are at one in believing we ought to have ended the war in 1916, at the latest, and that it was not our fault that we ,did not. I have stood aside whilst quite a mass of literature has emerged from the campaign. All of it is fair and some of it is very fine, and very true. But in no_ case is it clearly brought out that the Higher Direction of the Entente (whereever that might reside) could have taken Constantinople, knocked out the Turks, joined hands with the Russians, and immobilised Bulgaria on several occasions, repeatedly, indeed, between the date of our landing on 26th April and the date of our evacuation of Anzac and Suvla Bay. ,: Whether the landing was possible or not was highly problematical ; very much open to question. After that, there was no question; .The problem became a mere matter of the Higher Direction making up their minds. Bo the reason what it may, the Higher Direction of the Entente could not make up their minds. We British never make I use of our amphibious power to carry out those movements on the- grand scale which go by the name of strategy. There were periods when we mighti without any danger to Calais or Paris, have borrowed for a few days' use the'small number of howitzers, trench mortars, and aeroplanes which would have given us-abso-lute success. Mistakes were made, no doubt, both at Home and on the gpot, but the idea of the Dardanelles was so essentially sound that; once the landing was made good, it must have triumphed had only the .reins of our British Direction been held at the real centre of affairs in London instead of—as they were—in Paris and on the Western Front." A_ BISHOP ON SPIRITUALISM. The Bishop of Lincoln, at Stamford : "Death has been so near everyone in recent years that it is not surprising if our thought's have turned in an unusual degree to the life beyond the grave. I am not inclined to describe Spiritualism as either folly or fraud. Certain | phenomena classed as spiritualistic are I worthy .of close investigation, and suggest lines of psychological inquiry. But I am entirely unconvinced lihat tho interpretation of theso phenomena as the 1 means of establishing contact between i the living and the dead is correct. I still believe that the Christian faith re- ! veals more concerning the hereafter than any spiritualistic manifestations. Those attempting to probe the future are, trying to open a door closed by God."