WELLS REBUKED

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 18, 23 January 1939, Page 8

WELLS REBUKED

MR. LYONS'S VIEW

INTERNATIONAL GOOD WILL

THE POWER OF WORDS

(From "The Post's" Representative.) SYDNEY, January 13. Mr. H. G. Wells, the famous British author, who is visiting Australia to attend the Science Congress in Canberra, set the kettle boiling furiously in <a diatribe againsl Herr' Hitler and Signer Mussolini, drawing a sharp rebuke from the Prime Minister, Mr. Lyons. Mr. Wells, in a Melbourne newspaper interview, said: "We are dealing with big social forces which are very much influenced by . irrational personalities. It is a personality period. For instance, there is a little group of men in Germany, particularly Hitler, whom I regard as a certifiable lunatic. Then there is Mussolini, who is a fantastic renegade from the Socialist movement. These men are freaks, judging by the fancies they take into their heads, and they have power over human affairs which is more like the state of affairs under the criminal Caesars—the worst of them. "Hitler decides that all our ethnological science is wrong. He wants to have history changed, so it is changed. He alters the past, he alters German history, and he invents fantastic ideas about a wonderful blonde race, which never existed, and a terrible Jewish race, which also never existed. Then Mussolini picks up the same system of fantasy for the purpose of propaganda against the British in Palestine and the Near East. It is ndt a rational process, and it is not even an economic process. It is merely fantastic." LITTLE OF A "SYSTEM." When Mr. Wells was asked what he thought would be the end.of the Hit-ler-Mussolini system, he replied that he did not think there was much of a system. There was no real Nazi or Fascist philosophy, and the "corporate State" seemed to be "a bit of a compromise between capitalism and an attempt to hoodwink the workers." "In Russia,"' said Mr. Wells, • "you have the remains—only the remains— of a real historical philosophy, but still you have something coherent and a certain tradition of respect for the common man which does not exist in Fascist countries. "We know so little about collective human nature. Most of our economic science and our financial science seems to be bunkum —or, at least,'to be not more than working conventions. They give good results for a while, and then break down because they are not | really scientific. We have not got a map of the conditions in which we are moving, and so we are like people who are wandering in strange country without a map. All human life is just chance and a jumping at conclusions. Everything is a struggle, and it will always be so until organised knowledge and other influences give better understanding between the peoples of the world/ 1 Mr. Lyons, in his rebuke, said: "Mr. Wells comes to Australia as a distinguished visitor, and we welcome him as such. It is to be regretted, however, that while in Australia Mr. Wells has so far indulged his well-known political sympathies as to make disparaging remarks about the leaders of other nations. It happens that the nations, whose leaders are the subjects of the wit of Mr. Wells, have systems of government which differ from our own. While different systems of government may offer the occasion for differences of opinion, serious argument, deep conviction, and even clever phrase-making, I consider that personal insults offered to the leaders of j one nation by the citizens of another nation are to be deplored. PEACE AMONG PEOPLES, - "As, British people, we would not appreciate foreigners offering insults. to members of the Royal Family or to any other of our national leaders, even if these remarks were made by persons as widely known as is Mr. Wells in his own country. I would prefer that Mr. Wells should exercise his undoubted, gifts for the promotion of international understanding, rather than international misunderstanding." Mr. Wells decided to turn the other cheek. Speaking at a dinner, he said: "Mr. Lyons has a perfect right to say thatLmy remarks were in the worst possible taste. As one free man to another, I insist on the freedom of Mr. Lyons to express that opinion. Even kings should be allowed to choose their own wives."

Mr. Lyons's rejoinder to that was: "Modern war, with its attendant horrors, is not a matter for neat controversy. It is a question of life and death to millions of people. Any action or statement which brings the possibility of war^nearer must come under the most careful scrutiny. We must distinguish between desirable firmness in upholding the principles of democracy and the giving of needless offence to peoples who do not accept our system of government. If, as .members of a democracy, we indicate unmistakably that we are prepared to defend to the utmost. our democratic institutions and way of life, I believe that, in the present state of world affairs,we assist the cause of peace. There are some statements and* some actions which do not serve such a purpose. They give needless affront to other nations, and. those people responsible for them are not assisting to maintain peace in the world." Another visiting Englishman, Lord Strabolgi, a Labour Peer, referring to the Chamberlain-Mussolini talks in Rome, said that Mussolini being lectured by a layman would have as much effect as similar treatment on Al Capone. the American gangster.

Lord Strabolgi escaped without Prime Ministerial reproof.