VOICE OF THE WORLD

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 135, 10 June 1933, Page 19

VOICE OF THE WORLD

Tho Archbishop of York, in a letter to "Tho Times," offers Consecration souie observations on the Of Force, principles that should

govern British international policy. "If we could start from the proposition that it is wrong to have anything to do with war the issues would 'be much simplified," he writes. "But most of us, though respecting those who accept that proposition, are unable to accept it ourselves. We believe, that the Christian objective is the consecration, not the elimination1, of force. We think it would be wrong for our nation to disarm by itself, because it has its part to play in the general enterprise of subjecting to law tho relations between national States; and it is possible that force may bo needed in scrvico of that end. Certainly there is, and for long will be, police work to bo done on the frontiers of civilisation anil on the high seas. If the national navies were abolished piracy would certainly revive. My submission is that our

primary principle should be that of acting not so much with as through the League of Nations. . . . Tho League may be disappointing, dilatory, and timid; but that only reflects the mind of the nations composing it; and the one- way to strengthen tho League or to stabilise peace is to work.' through the League and to support' its decisions eve;i when wo hold them to' be mistaken. . If wo put this principle first the others will more easily fall into place in subordination to it." * * « Sir P. Sassoon, Under-Sceretary for Air, reminded the country in Tasks of the a recent speech in the B.A.F. House of Commons of the importance of the Royal Air Force to the Empire which was charged' with the trusteeship of territories still in tho early stages of development. Without the police work of the Koyal Air Force and its power to maintain law and order humanely, effectively, and cheaply there would before long be widespread rapine and bloodshed over large areas of the world's surface, he said. The credit or constructive side of the, work of the Royal Air Force should not be overlooked at a time when, for'obvious reasons, there was a. tendency to concentrate more on the debit or destructive side of its potential activities. The 580 men, women, and children of eleven different nationalities evacuated from Kabul amid the snows of winter did not look upon the Koyal Air Force as.a destroyer (cheers) but as a saviour in a. desperate emergency in which tho other services were, owing to the barriers of time and space, powerless to assist. The pastoral tribes of Southern Irak, threatened with massacre at the hands of wild bands of fanatical desert tribesmen, who regarded it as a passport to Paradise that they* should have extirpated with every circumstance of brutality all those who did not adhere to their particular advanced brand of religion, irrespective of age aud sex, equally regarded th'o Royal Air Force as their one protector (cheers) under the shadow of whose wings they could freely pursuo their peaceful avocations. The same was true of tho tribes of the Aden Protectorate. Sir Ernest Bcnn, the British financier and author, who wrote Economic "Prosperity and PoliTragedy. tics" and "The Confessions of a Capitalist," draws attention in a recent article to one effect of the politico-economic tangle on what were once flourishing businesses. As everybody knows, income taxation in the Old Country hovers about the 5s in the pound mark, and if one is compelled to pay surtax on top of this fierce impost it is hardly worth while being in business at all, except that one must do something. Some of these.payers of surtax in England and Scotland havo been "taxed white," and Sir Ernest Bemi, reviewing tho recent British Budget, writes them the following epitaph:— "The most distressing things about the Budget statement are to bo found in tho inferences .to be drawn from it. What: greater economic tragedy,-, for instance, has been reported in ■ recent years than tho twelve thousand casualties among the surtax payers, to which Mr. Chamberlain admitted. This financial roll of honour in the battle between politics and trade is worthy of attention. It refers almost entirely to the middle and upper trading classes, men who, just getting into their stride as useful captains and leaders of industry, have reached the £2000 a year mark, and been driven back by extravagant public finance."-

Brigadier-General Sir "William Alexander, M.P., has placed Empire As before the members of Trade Unit, the National Union of Manufacturers, of which he is president, a new policy for reciprocal trado with foreign countries). "I believe," he writes, '"all great commercial nations have realised that the time for the resumption of international trading on an extensive scale has now arrived. If wo take from tho United States £1,000,000 worth of goods in tho form of oil, cotton, tobacco, and other of her products, it should bo possible to arrange for America to take from us £1,000,000 worth of goods in return. Obviously, she could not accept without detriment to her own industries the full equivalent in manufactured articles from the United Kingdom. Therefore, for the purposes of international trade, I would regard the British Empire as one unit, and would offset as a credit all goods drawn from Empiro sources. American exports.to any part.of the British. Empire, should

be correlated to the export to the- United States of wool fro"m Australia, gold from South Africa', tea from India, furs from Canada, and a wide variety of raw products from other Dominions and colonies. Tho decisions of 4he Ottawa Conference1 and the extension of the arrangements then made'facilitate the initiation of auch a system of reciprocal trade, which, incidentally, would be of special advantage in our dealings with low wage countries." «■ * * [n a recent address Mr. H. Ramsbotham^ Parliamentary SecFaults of retary to the British the Schools. Board of Education, said that if our educational system, tended to suppress individuality wo should only be imitating in the schools the mass production of the factories. Patterns did not create progress, drill was not discipline, and the step that was kept by everyone was tho gooße-step. We were much at the mercy of the new spirit.. Originality, unconventionality, freedom, and independence of thought were not really popular, and perhaps less popular in school than in the world outside. He was inclined to think that we gave too much attention, in education to events and thoughts now obsolete and dead. History was being ruined by the specialist, and so also, were the classics. If half the time were devoted to the present which was squandered upon details of the past.we should be a better informed race and fitted to deal with the problems of today. Democracy could only work well in a State when the great majority understood its method of operation, its difficulties, its numerous cheeks and counter-checka. If the working of our institutions was not understood by the masses they would become indifferent to tho fate of thoso institutions and tho opportunity of democracy's opponents might draw nearer. If children wer.o to be fit to live with in a democracy they must be taught a good deal about democratic government. In opening the session of the synod of the diocese, the Bishop Patriotism in of Gippsland, Dr. G. Parliament. 11. Cranswick, said that rank and file politicians appeared to bo more occupied with loyalty to party shibboleths than with their duty to the nation. Tho times were calling loudly for a revival of true patriotism within the Parliament House itself. To tho discontent of the great populations of their artificially-created cities was npw added the growing resentment of the rural people. It seemed almost as if soino in high places were prepared to let these two develop into the despair which prepared the way for Bolshevik panaceas. A generation of brave Parliamentarians could do much to restore confidence. They could set themselves, for instance, really to reduce tho terrible load of public expenditure, under which an over-governed country staggored. Present standards of Government expense could not bo maintained much longer. This young and small nation could' liot afford the amount of government with which it had been saddled. Dr. Cranswick > added that even if tho common-senso answer'to some of these questions meant amalga,matioit of .departments, abolition of overlapping between Commonwealth and State activities, giving some Government works to the private enterprise that would do them more cheaply and at least as efficiently, and reduction of tho number of politicians and civil servants, surely unselfish, honest, patriotic men might be expected to face it for tlic country/3 sake.