The Evening Star SATURDAY, JANUARY 2, 1932. THE DAWN OF 1932.

Evening Star, Issue 20990, 2 January 1932, Page 10

The Evening Star SATURDAY, JANUARY 2, 1932. THE DAWN OF 1932.

It is interesting to uoto some of the manifestations that accompanied the ringing in of 1932. There wore scenes of revelry in London’s West End, with ar.using travesties on Leap Year and on conditions as imagined half a century hence. Appropriate words of cheer and encouragement come from Britain’s Prime Minister. While many people will deplore the recklessness, irresponsibility, and excesses to be found here and there, it is better that the joyous note should prevail than that a country because of financial and economic adversity should bo shrouded in an atmosphere of gloom. Britain’s sense of humour was an asset in the war period, and visitors to the Homeland during the big general strike were impressed by tho good humour of tho crowds in the face of great inconvenience to their comfort' and their pockets. In New York tho allusions in the cabled report to the festivities refer chiefly to operations in defiance of the liquor law. They seem to have been successful and popular. Finland is rejoicing because, after twelve years’ experience of Prohibition, the people by referendum have decided to return to the system of liquor licenses. Germany is one of the most distressful of tho world’.s nations at the present time. She sowed the wind, and she has reaped tho whirlwind. Her veteran President, holding aloft the torch of courage, encourages tho people to “ hold a High and unshakeable belief in tho Fatherland,” The fiery and theatrical Hitler has issued a provocative message, which if taken seriously by Franco may have unfortunate reactions at tho coming Reparations Conference. The President of Franco, in his manifesto, is cautious and non-committal, but the oblique reference to his country’s security reveals the dominating thought among politicians and peoples. When wo conic to Austria wo are over tho borderland of tragedy. The war was disastrous to the dual Empire. Hungary suffered severely, hut to Austria tho decisions at Versailles were devastating. The great city of Vienna was long renowned for its pride, prosperity, and gaiety. Shorn of much of tho country that maintained it, Vienna is now a shadow of her former self, and poverty and hunger have at times reached the famine point. Tho stress under which tho people live is indicated in a report of a New Year party at Vienna, in which a thousand people who intended to commit suicide were entertained by the advisory centre for those who contemplate self-destruction. There may be an clement of exaggeration and invention in this message, but if it is true tho advisory body is doing good work, for it claims to have saved 70 per cent, of tho lives of those who consulted it. The psychology connected with the society is sound, at any rate, for the secretary says it believes that a good meal and a mutual exchange of confidences may prove to many that existence is not utterly unbearable. Suicide is usually committed on impulse, and if that impulse can bo stayed the opinion is held that it seldom recurs. The Greeks and Romans regarded suicide in certain circumstances to bo justifiable, and the Samurai of Old Japan believed it to bo noble to commit suicide in order to expiate a crime, avoid falling into the hands of the enemy, or to demonstrate their loyalty. In our modem civilisation suicide is held in abhorrence, and rightly so. A large proportion of tho cases aro undoubtedly duo to mental derangement, but where that is not tho case it is regarded as a demonstration of selfishness and as an act of cowardice; in other words, a lack of courage to face tho issues of life.