ROTARY IDEALS

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 112, 14 May 1927, Page 20

ROTARY IDEALS

* A SPIRIT OF TRUE INTEK NATIONALISM.

Mr. Sydney W. Pascal], president of the R. 1.8.1., in- a recent, address .in London on "Rotary—National and Intornatibnal,'? said that there was a section who believed that they could not be truly international in ■ spirit unless in every case of dispute between their own-country and another they assumed that their own country was necessarily wrong., Eotary had no use for, such schools of thought, (Hear, hear.) vGood Englishmen and Englishwomen loved their country, and their senso of patriotism came from a love of the simple homely things, the things that were in the very nature of their being—the old home, the parents, the friends of childhood and.books-those things that had built themselves into tho national character—those were the foundations of the finest patriotism—(cheers)— and just as they loved their own country on .account of her strength, her beauty and.her weaknesses,, so they could appreciate another man's love of his couitry. (Hear, :hear.) . :■■ Le. t .*' ?°* .be supposed for one moment that this love of country was in any class opposed to the true international idea, continued Mr. PascalL He would go further and say that the only true internationalism was built vp 1 on nationalism, and that one could not enter into another man's.patriotism unless one loved one's own country In Rotary they aimed at being practical, and they desired to co-operate with the. League of Nations Union in strengthening the desire for international' peace They believed'that the League of Na' tions would not be complete until America, was a member, and anything they could do to associate America with the work being done at Geneva was a step in the right (Hear, hear.) The Eotary idea was surely the best possible solvent of international disputes. We must recognise that other countries besides our own had virtues ancl each country must contribute of its' best to the international problem It was not what we could got out of the international pie, but what we could put in, and if each country gave- of its bust we would have real internationalism,, because it would bo built up on the best virtues of every nation. (Cheerajjr ._:.,>,-•"".. •,■"" ' ■