oVOICE OF THE WORLD

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 85, 7 October 1933, Page 23

oVOICE OF THE WORLD

"I am. frequently asked where in the world can ~one sec ■ any Signs of sign, of recovery," said Recovery. Mr. Walter Euncirnan, president oi tlio Board of Trade, in a speech delivered a mouth ago. "My answer is a very simple one today; The first signs of recovery aro to bo found in our own country. The Minister of Labour ten days ago was able to announce in the House of Commons that in this pionth, when thero is usually a riso in unemployment, there has, indeed, been a fall of 140,000. That in itself is a very comforting result. But a still more important piece of news was given last week by the Minister. It was that of tho number of persons who aro employed thero are no less than 500,000 moro than in January of this year. That, indeed, is one of tho most important facts as regards the recovery of British industry and commerce. If we are going ahead, what is the reason

for it? I think it is due.in the first place to the National Government, and In the second place to the Board of Trade. We have made now seven trade agreements. We began with Ireland, one of our oldest customers, and we took, in turn, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. I hope that within the-next week or fortnight we shall sign a trade agreement with Finland, and we are also taking, iff turn, Latvia, Estonia, and. Lithuania. We have also infido an agreement with Argentina, and succeeded in releasing no less than £10,000,000 of frozen credit. When trade agreements are called in question, I think you have been provided with sufficiently good arguments to down pessimism."

♦ # • In an address on the educational value of handicrafts, Mr. G. Value Of ,E. Marston, assistant Handicrafts.'director of the British Rural Industries Bureau, urged that the iniportanco of craftsmanship was the concern of every civilised nation, though, the monetary value of handicrafts was negligible. It was impossiblo to become a skilled craftsman after the ago of maturity, but the foundations of craftsmanship could bo laid during the early years of life, though the real skill that mado a mas-ter-craftsman was accumulated over a lifetime. While ho did not wish to emphasise the sentimental side of labour, ho believed thero was a fundamental desire in every human being to make something with his hands. By all means leave tho machines the laborious task of producing necessaries, but let people, in their leisure time, .exercise the natural desire to make something with their hands and heads. In tho teaching of any form of art tho sentimental attitude towards beauty should be avoided. Beauty should be a part of usefulness. He did not beliove that the so-callod craft which aimed only at producing beautiful' things was of tho slightest value to the student or to anyone else; "I believe that if you can build up a nation who can make things you will bo creating a nation who will never destroy them, he concluded.

# ♦ ,* Dr. Temple, Archbishop of York, speaking on Communism to A Cleric and members of tho York Communism. Diocesan Conference, said:—'' Tlie justification of private property in our Christian civilisation is that it is_ the most natural expression of! personality. When we see a vast number of fellow-Chris-tians without property, must wo not deliberately aim to try to secure the distribution of property ovor the widest possiblo proportion of tho population. The ideal is that every man should havo his share of property which makes up tho commonwealth. I do not think it should bo the same share. Wo aro not going to be able in the long run to resist the menace of Communism, terrible as it is, if wo are only going to attempt to justify our present order of society over against it. Wo must becomo critics of tho social order in the light of tho principles which wo havo inherited. One of tho great mercies of tho financial crisis has been that it hag made all of us approach tho question from one angle or another, perfectly discontented with tho present state of things. What is going to settle tho question in the long run," concluded his Grace, "is whether our citizens believe- in the conception of God and of mnn, 1-?

"It is astonishing in how many .ways human nature reveals Human Nature itself as unchanged Unchanged, and unchanging across tho centuries and under circumstances which differ as widely as can bo imagined," says Professor N. M. Butler, of tho Columbia University. "Let the observer of tho: world today turn back to Thucydides and' read his classic description of the dissolution and collapse of all moral standards in timo of war and revolution. His analysis of tho effects and accompaniments of the Peloponnesian War somo 23 centuries ago_ is literally descriptive of what is going on in the world today. Theso are the words of Thuey.dides:—'ln peace and prosperity, both states and individuals are actuated by higher motives, because they do not fall under tho dominion of imperious necessities; but war, which takes away tho comfortable provision of daily life, is a hard master

and tends to assimilate, men's characters to their conditions. . • . The cause of all these evils was the love of power, originating in avarice and ambition, and the party spirit which is engendered by them when men are fairly embarked. in a contest. . . . An attitude of perfidious' antagonism everywhere prevailed; for there was no word binding enough, nor oath torrible enough, to reconcile enemies. Each man was strong only in the conviction that nothing was secure; he must look to his own safety, and could not afford :to trust others. Inferior intellects generally succeeded best . . . when men are retaliating upon others, they are reckless of the future, and do not hesitato to annul those common laws of humanity to which every individual trusts for his own hope of deliverance should ho ever bo ovortaken by calamity; they forget that in their own hour of need they will look for them in vain.

* * # Addressing the City of London Solicitors' Company, Lord Changing Macmillan said that Tenor of, what struck them more Law. than anything else in these days was the almost unconscious change which was coming over tho whole nature of their legal work. Tho whole tenor of legislation was changing. Formerly tho law devoted itself more or less to principles sufficiently well defined in case law, but now tho Legislature was using the Statute Book for an entirely different purpose. It was now not so much, concerned with tho principles and codifloation of tho law, but was using it as a vehicle of social and economic reforms.' Tho business of the lawyer was becoming more and more the interpretation of that great mass of legislation. In twelve years from 1919 to 1930 no fewer than 732 Acts of Parliament w.oro passed. That vast output. of statute law was truly a menace. Many Acts did not nicot with tho approbation of tho pc-oplo, and so long as they had legislation on tho Statute Book which they did not intend to enforce they wcro doing grave injury to the body politic. * « vS-

In a speech at tho East Africa Dinner Club iv London, Lord British Lloyd spoke of tho interAfrican depondonco of tho East Policy. African colonies, and said that, although nothing they could do could alter administratively the future of South Africa, thoy could and must make v Central and East African Empire from tho Zambesi northwards. They could not allow British, policy in Africa in tho i'uturo to bo identified with tho facile surrender oi 1 tho main fortresses of their trado position, as had been done in the lTar East at Hankow and other places since tho war. They had responsibilities and hugo duties in this group of territories, and if thoy wore to build they must start building very quickly or someone else would. They had got to know, and know clearly, that there wero going to be no geographical modi-' fications of British or mandated territory in the future. There was an intordependenco between whito and black and there was too much talk about paramounter- Neither black nor white' could livo without the other. Thoy also had to remember tho interdependence of tho whole group of African States with tho rest of the world. They could not nilo East Africa in conjunction with a policy of abnegations and surrender iv oLlicig areas oversea^ __^' _ jj _