Aid Between Nations.

Evening Star, Issue 17956, 1 May 1922, Page 4

Aid Between Nations.

A cottlt; of reports which appeared in. our last issue suggest that a too narrow spirit of nationalism, such as threatens to he the ruin of the, Genoa Conference, may he in danger of becoming a tendency 'in this country. A wrong impression might be formed from the bare statement that at a special meeting of the Canterbury College Students’ Association a motion was passed disapproving of the action of the executive in making a grant of £lO to tho Central European Students’ Relief Fund, it is plain from the reports in Christchurch papers that many of those who voted for this resolution of censure would have had no objections to make if the matter of assisting their fellows in Eastern Europe and Russia—the countries which this fund will chiefly benefit—had been left to the discretion of individual students and not met out of central finances. It has been dealt with in Dunedin by tho latter method, which has obvious advantages to commend it. Act it is plain also that, a number of those by whom the resolution was passed were opposed not only to the manner in which help was sought to be given, but to giving help at all. Tho ground chosen by them for opposing an appeal which reflects tho greatest credit on those students of the University whoso zeal has been shown in promoting it was that there were returned soldiers in Now Zealand who had had to cut short their university studies through lack of money for continuing them, and that charity should begin at home. No doubt that is where it should begin, but there' is no real reason why it should end there. It would bo hard to believe that any students who arc actually attending New Zealand University courses have been forced to suffer such privations and difficulties as are tho daily lot of thousands of students in tho now States of Europe, where the attempt is being made to keep alive the torch of knowledge and of culture, for their own races and thousands of refugees from Russia, in the still desperate conditions following tho “ crash of elements and tho wreck of worlds.” Most students in New Zealand manage to enjoy a fairly attractive social life, and though no one would dictate to them how they should spend their money, tho ancient spirit of tho scholar, which feels a bond of kinship with all seekers after knowledge, irrespective of race and frontiers, is one to bo admired and not discouraged. More curious than this Christchurch resolution was one passed by the Soldiers’ Mothers’ League in Auckland objecting to the allocation of any portion of the proceeds of tho sale of flowers on Poppy Day to objects beyond New Zealand, and to tho sale in the dominion of “flowers made in any country outside tho British Empire in commemoration of our dead soldiers.” It is hard to find fault with any sentiment expressed by the mothers of soldiers, but these poppies were made in Prance. A move fourth of the proceeds of their sale was meant for the relief of the Prench widows and orphans who made them. French and British soldiers fought side by side, in a common cause, where tho poppies grow. They fought side by side on Gallipoli. Tho sentiment of this Auckland mc«on would have been inconceivable in war time, when British and French were almost one nation, or in tho years immediately following it, when General Pan was received with so much affection, What has caused the, estrangement? French policy has been a trial to Trances Allies during later years, but that is no reason why the parochialism which we disapprove should be imitated by us, and the French attitude of to-day, which makes one of the greatest obstacles to European agreement, is not one to bo judged without regard for her particular circumstances and past experience. What the world needs is more, and pot less, internationalism than it witnessed during tho Great War, when at, least between allies there were no boundaries. Tho spirit that would wrap itself up in the narrowest nationalism, at Genoa or in. New Zealand, has reason to consider tho great sonnet which was written by Rossetti fifty years ago ‘ On Refusal of Aid Between Nations.’ The poet asked why tho foundations of society to ho crumbling in his time and hastening towards dissolution, and his answer was given; Because Man is parcelled out in men To-dav; because, for any wrongful blow, No man not strickeh asks “ I would be Why thou dost strike”; but his heart 'whispers then _ “ Jto is he, lam I.” By this wo know That tho earth falls asunder, being old. _