VOICE OF THE WORLD

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 129, 3 June 1933, Page 16

VOICE OF THE WORLD

The continual proximity to events and the actors in them, which Cool modern communications Judgment, permit and encourage, darkens counsel, says Mr. Ivor Brown in the London "Observer." It might be better for statesmen engaged on some international congress of high import if the news of their decisions came by horseback, days later, to the various capitals," he declares. "We do not need secret diplomacy in the sense of remaining ignorant about results and treaties made. But we do need some privacy of argument so that decisions may not be anticipate' 3 and angrily discussed and attacked in the various countries before they have been reached. We are too close, close in the wrong way to the big events, neither actual participators nor sensibly detached. We cannot put the clocks back. The wires are there and the -wireless, too. For good or evil, distance has vanished from the world.

Following his appointment as Eeich Commissioner for AviaGerman tion and the creation for Aviation, the first time of what is tantamount to a German Air Ministry, Captain Goring stated that the new Cabinet had decided to give German aviation the extended financial basis duo to its importance for the national security. He wished that peace might prosper, but was compelled, he said, to point out that the other nations had not yet, as they had promised, themselves done what they had demanded of Germany. The disarmament of the other Powers must be demanded. But the main point was not armament or disarmament, but the security of the German people, which must come before everything else. Only when the other countries had, like Italy, recognised the German claim to equality could tho Germans again open their factories and laboratories. Captain Goring added that one of the most im-

But we can try to recover that coolness povtant tasks was the promotion of of temper which distance used to com- sporting flying and thereby the return pel. There are two stages in the" pro- of all experienced pilots to practical gress of all inventions. First, wo .have aviation. Commenting on this proto discover how to do the trick; then nouncemgnt, the Nationalist "Deutsche we must learn how to Use the trick Tagcszeitung" explained that it means when done. The first is the business of " either that all the air Powers, in aca single genius or of a few brilliant men cordancc with the German and British in co-operation. The second is far more, demands at the Disarmament Conferdifficult, because it is the business of ence, disarm completely, that is to say, millions not notably wise or strong in destroy all their military aircraft and self-control. Accordingly, the second dissolve all their military air orgjmisais always the crux of the matter. Our tions, or that Germany, immediately inventors have done marvellously in the" after1 the earliest decision possible to destruction of distance; they have obtain at Geneva, proceeds with the brought ub close, as close as the very creation of a military air force of her actors themselves, to every scene which own." we choose to visit. But few would , ♦ # ♦ claim,that we are using their gift judi-; On e of the saddest features of this ciously." ■'...» great tragedy of unem- ■ Bane of TJn- ployment is that, in adDuring the discussion of the war debts employment, dition to the loss of ; payment a suggestion wages, bad- as that is, A Great was made that people there j s something elso, and that is Newspaper, in England should ar- the mental and moral deterioration that range, with friends in the so often must fall upon men who are United States to exchange official deprived of the opportunity of using "Hansard" reports of the important the capacities that they have in them, statements and debates in the British an^ are forced to go on month after Parliament and in.Congress. An Ameri- month living an existence without aim can visitor to London wrote to "The and without hope," said Mr. Neville Times''explaining that Americans have Chamberlain; Chancellor of the Exaccess through, their own newspapers chequer, in a speech at Edinburgh, to expressions of opinion in Britain. He << That is the problem to which we have said that the "New York Times" on got to address ourselves. If wo canDecember 15 contained a report of the no t fi n a work for all we ought to try debato on war debts in the House of to see if we can spread the work over Common son the preceding day. "The as many as possible. I think it is speech of Mr. Neville Chamberlain, was time that we got away from the idea reported in full, by cable, and fills five that it is not worth while to produce columns; and'there is also more than a permanent measures for the welfare of column of extracts from other speeches the unemployed, because in a short time made during the debate. On this occa- they are going to be employed again. sioM alone more than 5000 words were' jf we aro re ally going to have the uneabled at 2Jd a word, in order to keep employed with us in considerable numthe American public informed.^ Two jj ers f or a ] on g time to come—and days earlier the same newspaper in New though I am sure that some will soon York published a full translation of M. find employment again, I am sure it is Herriot's speech in the French Cham- going to be impossible to find work for ber, .wirelessed to New York—a far al j oi them for a long time—then I more complete presentation of the wou ] c | like to see measures framed to French case than any I was able to g € t as many of these men as possible find in any British newspaper at the g t in mind and body to take advantage time. These were not exceptional per- o f any vvork that may come along. It formances, but merely examples of the j s no t a task that can be performed regular policy: of the' New York Times' on jy foy a Government; it is one in since the war of publishing fully, re- wn i c h all of us can help, as was pointed gardless of expense, all tho important ou t recently by the Prince of Wales in pronouncements of statesmen or Govern- one o f those wise and inspiring speeches ments in the world's capitals. I cannot j n w hich from time to time he tells recall any instance" of a London news- ua jj is thoughts. It seems to me that paper publishing in full a Presidential these unemployed men have a moral message, still less a. Cabinet Minister's c i a j m upon us not only that we should speech, by cable from across the. At- 0 all we cail to stimulate employment, lantic." ■ ■ • but do everything to preserve their * * i * self-respect and find interest in life and occupation in other ways."

"It seema to mo that many supporters of Fascism and Tolerance and Communism in Britain, Reason. who are perfectly tolerant themselves, do not sufficiently realise that in. effect they are advocating a return to an ago of intolerance," writes Mr. Eobert Lynd in "the ' 'News Chronicle." "No doubt many lies have been told about Italy and about Bussia, but the fact remains that in those countries a political opponent is treated as an enemy of the State, just as in ages of religious fanaticism a religious opponent was treated as the enemy of God. In essentials the fanaticism is the same, whether an Italian of independent thought is forced it to exile out of Italy or a mob of Nazis break into a Jew's house and beat him merely because he is a Jew, or a Bussian peasant is shot to encourage the others to work. We may as well face the facts; If the world continues to move in this direction, it will be going backwards. We anqjl find that we have thrown away the far from worthless achievements of two centuries of civilisation; and we shall havo got a new variety of the old fanaticism in exchange. . The world can obviously be saved only by faith, but it will be by the faith not of intolerant, but. of reasonable men. Only in an atmosphere of tolerance and reason can human beings in their infinite variety live fully, freely, and at peace in each other's company during their temporary existence ,on this temporary planet." !

.»■■#■ * The Chief Constatrte at Wallasey says that six out of seven Crime and burglaries In his area are Adventure, the work of boys and youths under twenty years of age (says the "Manchester Guardian ")• Nor is it always poverty which drives these young offenders to crime; many of them, he tells us, are '' well nourished and clad and had excellent homes." His own explanation of this aspect of the '' crime wave seems as fitting as any that could be found —these idle lads, full of energy and adventure and born into a maritime setting and tradition, for whom there is no work "waiting. "They see fine ships lying idle in the docks, but there are no berths waiting for them." In other words, this is a tragedy of energy and high spirits turned into a wrong direction largely because the right ones are not widely enough open. Even the Chief Constable's later complaint supports that view, for, in addition1 to criminal disorder among lads under twenty, he notes with annoyance their habit of.talking "American" as learnt from the sound films. These lads want to be "tough guys," and they evidently think that one step in that direction is to talk like them when they are tackled by the police. This is one of the worst consequences of the world-wide depression. Fine ships and machines are idle; fine human material crumbles into ruin.