Manawatu Evening Standard. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 21, 1921. "THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS."

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIII, Issue 3105, 24 December 1921, Page 4

Manawatu Evening Standard. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 21, 1921. "THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS."

I Si'..vn.\iK.\T counts lor much in the life of a nation j.ust as it does in that of the individual. At certain seasons of the year, such as the present, if is naturally uppermost, prompting to exhibitions of brotherly love and good-will and to more generous feelings towards mankind in general than seems possible at other titties. Perhaps it is because Christmas is so essentially the children's season ol the year a season in which their eiders seek to give the rising generation till possible enjoyment—thai its associations are so helpful and so largely productive ol real genuine enjoyment, It lias been well said that more than half the pleasures of life are obtained by giving pleasure to others. The Wellington commercial travellers-hard-headed men of business as they are —seem to have found that out, for they have again given a good ileal of time and attention this year to the task of raising funds so that the children in the several orphanages in their city and in the hospitals shall not be without their Christmas cheer and gifts from "Father Christmas," and we are told that the time occupied in raising the I'lsoo or so that they distributed lor the benefit of the "kiddies" is regarded by them as well spent, and that, with the consciousness of thai, duty well performed, they can enter upon their own enjoyments of the season with far greater zest, and

we can well believe it. The commercial travellers wore also active in Palmerston North raising money lor several deserving institutions. The happiest days of of our lives are after all those spent, in helping others and in making others happy. . Mr Lloyd George is reported to have '-aid at the conclusion of Ibi' long drawn-out negotiations with the Sinn Fein representatives and following the signature of the agreement providing for the setting op of {he Irish Free State: '''This is the happiest day of my life." One of his predecessors in the high office he holds—a man whose name and memory are held in reverence by large numbers of English-sneaking peoples in the world to-dav, the late Right lion. W. E. Gladstone—was never happier than when doing something to advance the happiness of his lollow-meii. and amongst the long line of illustrious statesmen and publicists the Old World has .produced, no man's passing was more sincerely mourned nor wax any so greatlv missed. Sir Dwen Seaman puis the matter very finely in his "In Cap and Bells." when be says "To An Old Fogey who contends that Christmas is Played Out" :--

Come, now, I'll cure your mse, anil ask no fee: Make others' happiness (his once your own ; All else may pass; thai pleasure can never he Out!.',rowu ! The Christmas Spirit is the spirit of active usefulness in ministering; to the comfort and happiness of others. In time-honoured custom we wish one another "A Merry ( hristinas and A Happy New Year," and the wish is. in the great majority <>l cases, it not in all, no mere empty compliment, hut is prompted hv a ;;otmino desire that those In whom it is addressed may have the wish realised. Throughout the Christian world people are preparing for the festivities of the season we celebrate in commemoration ol the Nativity of Him VVlmse Name i- i'len-p all names and Who came to briiui "Peace on Karth, Clopd-will Inwards Mwi."

LEAVING THE SHADOWS BEHIND. We may well rejoice and live in tho Christmas Spirit, in this year of Grace, 1921. The closing year finds the international horizon clearer than it lias been during the last seven fateful years of human existence. The shadows are passing, and the world moves forward, not indeed wholly cured of the lust for war and revenge but in a more peace-' f"l i|,a,llt ' ;,f mind than seemed possible a few sherl months ago. The Washington Conference has brought new hope to the nations and it seems likely that Hi" lour greatest powers in the" world will enter upon a self-denying ordinance, so far as armaments are concerned, thus minimising the risk of iuriticr war. England led the way in fliat _ ciii'wlioji, as before President Harding called tho Conference, she had "scrapped ' large numbers of her Fleet and had abandoned practically all naval constructions. It now seems that the prc.oi .dm thus gave of her disintcrc.uMii. >- Is having its effect upon 'he IniL.'j Slates which, during the war, deliberately made it, part of her policy to outbuild the British Navy, because \Vi:!su;u Churchill declared, in reply to Pnsidout Wilson's Demand for the Freedom of the Seas, that under no cireum.sfanc s would Britain surrender its supr, me control of the seas. But, as Ow< n Ulster says, in " A Straight Deal or Ai: Ancient Grudge," under no circumstances would (.lie United States give up control of the Panama Canal, which i;- her '' carotid artery," and it would be just as reasonable to have asked her to do that, as to have asked Britain to gite up her control of the seas, the British Navy being "her jugular vein." A better spirit seemingly now pervades America's counsels, and. while Mr Hughes's 5—5—3 standard involves big concessions on Britain's pan and the practical abandonment of British | supremacy on the high seas, as America will be her equal from the naval standpoint, the assurance that the concession '

implies for the maintenance of the world's peace, so far as the eontraotim.! parties can assure it. is all to tin good. Wc seem, therefore, to be leaving the shadows behind us so far as the international situation is concerned. and the Irish settlement, if confirmed, lifts another heavy burden from the Empire to which we belong. Financially, we may not, as a nation, be as prosperous as we wwv, and in some eases adversity has come to those who once ranked amongst our most prosperous citizens. Our sympathies are with them, and with others whom the depression of the past \\'\v months has hit more hardly than others. \"et New Zealanders as a whole have much cause for thankfulness, for no other country within the Empire has escaped so lightly from the aftermath of the war. However much we may grumble about the cost of government and the taxation we are now called upon to pity we are better off than our kinsmen in the sister Dominions and in Great Britain. Signs are not wanting that the depression is lifting and, with the new measures proposed to be undertaken in the marketing of our produce, an appreciable change for the better is within sight.. The outlook is. therefore, brighter all round, and who can doubt, that if we bravely march forward, responding to the call of duty, each doing his best to increase the wealth and productivity of the country, we shall be able, in the words of a song made famous during the war. to " Pack up our troubles in our old kit hae:. and smile, smile, smile I" That this may be a Happy Christmas in the truest sense of i\\v term, and that the coming year may be one of increasing prosperity, is the wish which the " Standard " passes on to each aiid all of its readers.