VIEWS AND VIEWPOINTS

Greymouth Evening Star, 5 April 1948, Page 4

VIEWS AND VIEWPOINTS

X y te Se a"kn!dred "spirit, and therefore a very' sensible man-Sir Ben he is chief scientist to tne Biitish ABnis y of Supply awakens my respec», any r that position today has an pliable task But my deepest feelings ot ic mrd are stimulated by his hatred of being aroused at 7 o’clock in hotels and being con fronted with tea. I, too, detest it—not tne tea but the arousal from my loved one, to wit Hypnos the sleep-god. A physiologist once told me that the curve of sleep ’ been determined and that it is cerehours after unconsciouness pervades the ceie bral cortex. A fico for the curve—l caie nought for it. What I care for is the concentrated Elysian essence sent upon weaiied nerves by Hypnos, a very gentle sleep de ty, between 6 and 8 a.m. each To be awakened then, even by damsel 01 some 40 or 50 summers and expected to lap up No 1 it is an unwarrantable intrusion upon the most innocent and delightful of all occupations. Once when I left this tea-ridden land, I thought the steamboat would have better manners. But no! A steward appears, ’ Tea, sir, and disappears —and it is 6.30 a.m. As Wo sey or some other Shakespeare „ worthy said. “Curses, not loud, but deep. However, I finally reached a land where no tea-damsel or steward appeared —and this was Nirvana. All hail to Sir Ben Lockspeiser, and thanks for the hint to hang out a “Do n °t disturb notice. —“Civis” in the Otago Daily Times.

Spain and the War The international scene, particularly m Europe, has changed since the United Nations Assembly, in December, 1946, passed a resolution debarring Spain from membership of the United Nations and from participation in United Nations conferences “until a new and acceptable Government” was formed m the country. It was apparently believed then that external moral pressure would weaken the Franco regime to a point at which other elements would be enabled to form an alteinative Governmnt. Events in Spain, however, have not justified these expectations and there is every likelihood that the resolution of the United Nations, if anything, increased General Franco’s strength in the country, for the Spanish people probably resented even a hint of interference with their domestic' affairs. . . If Europe is going to be divided beyond redemption into two camps, the Western democratic and the Eastern Communisttotalitarian, then Spain cannot be left altogether out of account. Spain, whatever else ft may be, is anti-Cornmunist, and it is selfevident that the position of the Western Democracies in Europe would be more precarious today if a Government sympathetic to Communism were controlling Spain. Regrettably, there may be something in General Franco’s forbidding prophecy that “a time would come when those nations now opposing Spain would be rubbing elbows together m the same trench.” If war is to be avoided there must be a total rally of the Western nations against Communism and on the ground of expediency alone it is difficult to see how Spain can continue to be totally excluded from this rally. The past has been made irrelevant by the growing present emergency.—The Tiinaru Herald.