DR. C.S. HICKS

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 79, 3 April 1926, Page 4

DR. C.S. HICKS

VALUABLE GIFT FOR ADELAIDE

IMPRESSIONS OF GERMANY. AND AUSTRIA.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON] 28th January.

Dr. C. S. Hicks (Dunedin), accomjpanied by Mrs. Hicks, will leavo England for Australia byy the Mooltan on 12th March. Dr. Hicks is going to Adelaide to take up the Marks Lectureship in Applied Physiology and the Sheridan Eesearch Fellowship in Medicine —the newly-established Chair at the University. He is taking out with him a special, colony of cancer animals, a gift from tho Imperial Cancer Research Fund, to Adelaide University, as well as a colony of his own goitre animals —quite a menagerie, in fact. Dr. Hicks is to act as liaison officer for the Medical Eeseareh Council in Australia. In the middle of December, Dr. and Mrs. Hicks went to Germany and Austria. They had a delightful trip and were well received, especially in Vienna, where the problem of goitre in the Karnten Province has been studied for many years.^ In this centre Dr. Hicks had the privilege of meeting Professors Kolmer and Yon Furth, the latter being chiefly instrumental in persuading the New Zealand doctor to speak on the goitre work in England and America. Since he came to England Dr. Hicks has made a special feature of study ing Germans, so that he was ablo to deliver his lecture and to mingle with the people in the language they best understood. He is very greatly impressed with the uniform courtesy of the Germans of all classes evinced to the English travellers, and he was often told that English would be the universal language in Germany in ten years. -He could not fail to be struck with the regard which most people have for England-1-Austria, in particular'showing this. They frankly admire British political ability,, and, while perhaps tho Prussians doubt the British in some respects, on the whole one can find ;g6od- cause for pride of place in the manner in which British people arc regarded by thoir former enemies. "One cannot but recognise in tho industriousness of the Gormans," said Dr. Hicks to me, "a great effort in such trying time 3as they are now having—great industrial concerns of long standing go bankrupt almost weekly. It is very easy to get a wrong impression of tho financial prosperity of tho ■ people, for superficially they dress well and seem to crowd cafes in a manner not known in England. But they live in cafes a great deal—their social life is so, and for a small amount thoy can enjoy comfort and good music, while sipping beer or having a meal, which docs not cost very much. It is only by conversation that one learns of the rate of pay, and so on. A quite well-dressed man in a bookshop in Berlin told mo that his wages wore £2 10s per week. His taxes were pretty heavy, and as the cost of living is not lower than in England, he could not have much with which to support his wife and family. The same seems true throughout, and ono feels that unless the high tariffs in Europe separating the various nationalities are removed, it must result in increasing difficulty all round. In Vienna 33 per cent, of the people aro without work of-- any kind, but to see the great and beautiful city with spacious, clean streets and no outward sign of difficulty whatever, a quite opposite opinion might bo formed." , ' Among Dr. Hicks's friends wero two prominent bankers in Austria, dircc'tors of two separate banks, and from the evidence of their own home conditions for people of such influence, much could be inferred. Thoy carried on the responsibilities of people of their class, but under different circumstances from what they had been. The blockade, too, had its effect. Soldiers returning from, the front quite often wero operated on for removal of bone fragments which they had eaten to get some nourishment—bones from the scrap and soup oaldron's. Of course, the epidemic, too, had left a terrible memory. There is a vast contrast between tho South German and Austrian, and tho North German, which latter is the Yankee of Germany—full of hard work and efficiency. INCREASING BEGAED FOR SPORT. Ono thing, however, which struck Dr. Hicks as possibly the greatest tribute to Great Britain is. the increasing regard for sport which is everywhere fostered,-nowhere, more than in Austria, and the admiration for what; is termed "Sport" in the Englishman is almost universal now in G-ermanv. "Truly, tho greatest victory of n*ll," Bays Dr. Hicks, "for it inc.iiid that in this subtle analysis they have i-oalised something in tho English which they never before could sec. I lay Treat stress on this, for 1 have seen ii°jiow in. many aspects, and have looked for ovary phase of it very closely. To me at least it mewis more than'any other sign oi: a new Europe, and it means more, for it camo from England. lam convinced for other reasons that the realisation of what is meant by 'sport' is a big psychological step for people who havo novcr understood it, —we take it too much for granted, being born in a world where it is sine qua non." Since coming to England to t.iUc up his Beit Fellowship, Dr. Hicks lias had v voiy successful careor, and ho has met many men of cminonco in the world of medicine and science. Tho degreo of Ph.D. was conferred upon 'him recently for his thesis entitled "The Chemical and Physiological Relationships of Thyro.-un." it is with some regret naturally thnt lie and his wife are leaving tho Motherland, but the new Chair which he is about to fill will permit of a considerable time each year for travel. There ia little doubt that Dr. Hicks will go far in his profession. He has already made more than a usually brilliant start, and he is an enthusiastic and keen worker. 8.5, Fleet street, „...._-,.