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Evening Post, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 118, 21 May 1945, Page 4

Rec. 10 a.m. LONDON May 20 Euthanasia. and sterilisation of mental defectives were supported by the Bishop of Birmingham, Dr. Barnes, in a speech at Nottingham. Bad racial stocks were a growing I source of anxiety to thoughtful men in every Western country, he said. There was not sufficient knowledge of the laws of heredity for adequate rules for improving racial stocks to be laid down, but it was known that mental defects were inherited.' Some improvement in present tendencies could be made by sterilising the feebleminded. „: "Fairly-often we hear of a child being born pitiably defective in mind and body and of the parents' relief when it dies. I am convinced that euthanasia should be permitted in such cases, under proper safeguards. Equally, from the Christian standpoint, as I see the matter, there is no objection to sterilisation under medical control."

now seeking the aid of the small nations in preserving the inter-American security plan. GOAL OF INDEPENDENCE. The correspondent of the "New York Times" says that Mr. Stettinius officially explained the American reasons for preferring the word "self-govern-ment" to "independence" as the objective of trusteeship. The United States considers the term "selt-gov-ernment" would include independence as a goal for any territory whose people wanted it and were prepared for independence, and would also include the people's right to choose some other status if they desired. The Philippines was an example of the American policy. It is reported that British-American circles are informally discussing the possibility of proposing changes in the constitution of the trusteeship commission, providing that all non-man-datory members of the Big Five—referring particularly to Russia and China—would automatically be members. Presumably it is hoped that Russia and China, in exchange, would not insist on the use of the word "independence." DEFINITION OF AGGRESSION. The United Press says that Ecuador's Foreign Minister, Mr. Enriquez", chairman of the committee on endorsement arrangements, told the Press that Britain, America, Russia, and China opposed any specific definition in the world charter of the words "aggression" or "aggressor." The Big Rpur preferred to leave the question to the security council. The >'New York Herald Tribune" says that Switzerland will be barred permanently from the world organisation if UNCIO accepts a French proposal made to the committee on membership. France moved that it should be explicitly written into .the world charter that membership of the world organisation was incompatible with a national policy of neutrality. The committee, after two days' debate, accepted the proposal with a proviso that the clause be written into the preamble, rather than the charter. Russia strongly supported France, whose representatives freely admitted that Switzerland was aimed at, as happened at the League of Nations Convention in 1919.