CURRENT VIEWS AND COMMENTS.

Greymouth Evening Star, 21 March 1946, Page 6

CURRENT VIEWS AND COMMENTS.

“Even in the best of worlds freedom will be limited. Few people ever have an abundance of choice of occupation. But what matters is that we have some choice, that we are not absolutely tied to a job which has been chosen for us, and that if one position becomes intolerable, or if we set our heart on another, there is almost always a way for tne able, at some sacrifice, to achieve ms goa . Nothing makes conditions more unbearable than the knowledge that no effort of ours can change them. It may be bad to be just a cog in a machine but -it is infinitely worse if we can no longer leave it, if we are tied to o i place and to the superiors who have been chosen for us.” —F. A. Hayek. * * $ * *

View of British experts on China is. that the civil war is on there, and is not goin- _to stop. ‘Chiang and Foreign Minister ,1. Soong must have American backing, continues this British, version. “They need ir politically to maintain China’s position as a member of the Big Four or Five. They need it economically to rebuild and industrialise China.” In the opinion of these British experts, this explains why Chungking has been “playing down” the gravity of the civil wai. The more that is known of the real breadth and depth of the strife ■ inside China, it is said, the weaker a.re the prospects of el?hsting American capital and American politica and military backing. This consideration is also held accountable for Chungking s effo t to persuade the world that Chiang s negotiations with the Chinese Communists have been going well, although according me same British reports from the scene, tne chance of basic agreement between uniang and the Communists is nil.” —London correspondent New York Sun.