VOICE OF THE WORLD

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 19, 22 July 1933, Page 19

VOICE OF THE WORLD

The Duchess of Atholl, in her address at the 134 th annual Militant breakfast of the BeAtheism. ligious Tract Society,

I said: "We arc beginning to realise that the new political system which has held a great European and Asiatic country in the last few years is an inveterate foe of religion in every form, and we have lately realised that the hostility to religion in. Soviet Eussia is not confined to religion in that country; it has spread into an international movement against religion in every form. It has taken definite shape in Britain in the last few months in the form of a League of Militant Atheism. But quite apart from this we must be aware of the many ways in which influences hostile to religion or morality, or what I might call normal patriotism, are creeping into- much of our literature, notably literature intended for the use of young people." Some of the literature misrepresented all ordinary ideas of justice and order and decency in a, Christian land. They

could not over-estimate, the importance of clean literature to counteract this baneful influence, and she thought they ought greatly to prize Christian instruction in as many schools as possible. Keligious instruction in the grant-aided schools .was in a stronger position as a whole today than at any time within the memory of people now living. Perhaps it was just because so many attacks were being made on religion and Christian ethics that there was more general recognition of the value of religious instruction than was the case some years ago. At all costs Christian foundations at homo must be preserved. The trunk of the old tree of the Empire must be kept sound if the outlying branches were to be all that was desired.

"Does the White Paper policy of the

Government mean our No Abdication abdication in India?" in India. Sir Alfred H. Watson,

until recently editor of the "Statesman," of Calcutta, answers this question in the "Daily Telegraph." Ho says: "Emphatically it docs not. If it did, I should bo the first to say that all past pledges and promises to the, Indian people, whether in. Royal proclamations or in declarations by Viceroys, Secretaries of State, or Ministers in the- British Parliament, must be allowed to go by the board, i'or the retention of India is vital to the Empire. But it is merely foolish to apply the word 'abdication' to a Constitution under which the Viceroy and Governor-General of India will be appointed by the King, will have under his direct control all matters relating to defence, external affairs, and ecclesiastical administration, and will I>e given a ' special responsibility,' enabling him to over-rule his where the.tranquillity of the State, its financial stability and credit, the interests of minorities, discrimination in commerce, and many other matters are concerned. This 'special responsibility ' will be in reserve, but- its existence maintains the supreme- control of the King and Parliament over all Indian affairs of the first importance. That is the reverse of abdication."

Preaching the Shakespeare memorial

sermon in the Parish Heritage of Church, Stratford -on - England. Avon, on St. George's

- Day, the Bishop of Norwich said:—"Wo are rightly proud of our .heritage; and bound up with our tradition of order and.liberty arc many salient features of national expression, three of which arc found in our literature, our religion, our politics in the old meaning of that deteriorating term. These three, we must say today, arc represented for us in the- work and power of Shakespeare, in our English Bible, lying open in , the hands of our Established Church, and 121 our English law which binds together our expanding Empire, of which many are thinking when, on St. George's Day, they press for wise schemes of emigration. These three representative institutions do eloquently and strikingly point to the developments of different aspects of our own national genius. But these traditions and possessions of ours are not for seJfish enjoyment. Our American friends share our Shakespeare, the whole English-speaking world our Bible, and the spirit of our law reaches far, beyond the country of its birth. The right course is to build; first to build up something new ' and valuable, using, so fal- as may be, the old material as integral to the new. We still need the best in the old, just as wo need theibest in the new. We.want the good wherever we can find it. In every field it is" not tradition that must go; it is the worship of tradition. Tradition and progress arc not at variance."

"There is an inspiration which comes from patriotism, but as Empire there is also therein an Unity. incentive to false aims,

it is well to clarify our ideas about our .association with our own great Commonwealth," writes the Bey. Ernest C. Tanton in the "Methodist Magazine." "As a matter of fact, the term 'British Empire' is somewhat misleading. Only a small proportion of its population has any racial claim to be called British, and only a few of its territories are governed on 'imperial' lines. The supreme political dominion and absolute control of an emperor are entirely lacking almost everywhere. Pei'haps that is a sufficient reason for the fact that we feel a certain elevation of spirit and pride when we remember that we belong to it. . .

There is no eomm'on chest, no uniform system of law or currency or weights and measures; no imperial religion; not even an identical official language. Yet there is something which holds these separate; members of our farflung En>

piro in unity. A sense- of oneness exists, apart from all the negatives we notice; a love which finds expression in our poets, a vision of world-usefulness which is becoming more and more articulate as tho decades pass. There is an idea of freedom which, if it is rarely expressed in the form of a philosophy, nevertheless consists in,tho understanding- that our Government is more than government by consen^, since it is government by co-operation of the governed. The inspiration which comes to us as members of the British Empire is not that of mere patriotism. Patriotism, has often led to excesses of violence and tyranny of whicli no earnest mind can bo proud. It has come because'we recognise that there are fundamental principles of goodwill to be found in our association of races, a goodwill which is intensified as they hold the more- firmly to their necessity in our common life."

"Lord Sclborne's complaint that the Labour Party, -which Is Tliere promptly and rightly Progress? protested' against Nazi brutalities/ lias never made a murmur of complaint against Bolshevik brutalities, raises a question which goes beyond the point put by him," writes Mr. St. John Irvine in "The Times." "It is. this: Is there any hope of progress in human affairs in the sense that we will one clay evolve a just-minded people to whom truth, so. far as it is discoverable, will always be preferred to propaganda, and personal or party advantage. Is there, indeed, any such thing as progress?" He concludes: "I wonder whether we must abandon hope of a society in whicli man will be free and his mind unoppressed. I have long acted on the belief that I must not condone in my friend what I condemn in my enemy. Is this absurb of me? Am Ito give up the hope that a world will come in which dissent will be considered rather than repressed, and society will be conducted on the principlo that an infinite variety of opinions is better than a single thought? Christ's assertion that there are many mansions in His Father's house, seems not to pleaso our Socialists and Communists, who are resolved ■that there shall be only one mansion, and. that they shall design it. Those who dislike the look of the mansion and desire to make one more to their taste will bo forbidden to lay a single brick in a new stylo or even to advocate a different method of construction. They will be 'liquidated' if they do. Must we suppose that progress is an illusion, and' that Lenin is only Gradgrind in a different language?"

Speaking at the annual meeting of the

Institute of Medical Psychological Psychology (the TaviMedicine. stock Clinic), Dr. H.

Crichton-Miller, its honorary director, said the work of the institute would become more and more an. essential factor' if civilisation was to hold up. Civilisation was rather a sick man just now, and it was perfectly obvious that unless humanity could devise better methods of life it was going to crash somehow, or other. Creative ability was being killed "by the repetitive, the craftsman replaced by the robot, tWe personal overwhelmed by the impersonal, and men's and women's instincts were being subordinated to the artificial exigencies of false standards. Today we lived in a community which was not credulous enough to find comfort in authoritative religion, and not wise enough to achieve equanimity in a psychological medicine, therefore was bound to undergo ever-increasing expansion.