NOT NORDIC.

Northern Advocate, 7 February 1925, Page 4 (Supplement)

NOT NORDIC.

RACIAL REALITIES. (By Dean Inge, in the "Morning Post.") Not long before the war, the renegade Englishman, Houston Chamberlain, developed for the edification of the Kaiser and his subjects a theory that nearly all tlie great men of history, including the Founder of Christianity, belonged to the Nordic race, a breed of supermen represented by the Germans and Scandinavians, and, with some dilution, by the English. Anyone who knows the physical characteristics of the three strains which make up the population of Europe can see for himself that the j Germans are not Nordics, but a mixed j race, in which the stocky, round-head-ed Alpine breed predominates. The purest Nordics are to be found in Sweden; next to the Swedes in racial purity come the Norwegians, Danes, Dutch, and English. Elsewhere the Nordics are an aristocratic type, differing markedly from the masses, especially in tlie towns. Has the Nordic race the superiority .which has been claimed for it? And are racial differences, apart from nationality, a very important factor in European history? Race and nationality are quite different things. The only definition of a nation is a large group of people who wish to belong together. The French, for example, are intensely national, but racially they belong to three different stocks.

A REMARKABLE BOOK:. Mr Lothrop Stoddard, who is well known as a prophet of racialism in the interpretation of history, has lately put his theory to the test by visiting almost every country in Europe, and has given his experiences to the world in a brilliant and extremely interesting book called "Racial Realities in Europe." It is, of course, a defence of a particular theory, which may be only one of several keys for unlocking the mysteries "of national life; but I cannot doubt that the author has opened out a very fruitful line of study, and that the philosophy of history will in the future have to pay more attention to the factor of race than it has done hitherto.

The main facts of race distribution are well known, and there is no longer any serious difference of opinion among experts. Europe contains two long-headed races, the Nordics and the Mediterraneans, and the one round-headed race, the Alpines. The Nordic is tall and fair; the Mediterranean shorter and more slenderly built; his hair and eyes are dark, his skin olive, or swarthy.. The Alpine is (broad and sturdy, clumsily made, and usually dark. The Swedes, Spaniards, and Russians supply typical examples of these three types; though we must not select an aristocratic Russian, who may be a pure Nordic, nor the Mongolised type, which is very common, as an impolite proverb about scratching a Russian. and finding a Tartar indicates. • ' MIND AND TEMPERAMENT.

Differences .of mind and teiriperament are as well marked as variations in height, figure and colour. The Mediterranean is emotional, passionate, wanting in tenacity. He is sociable, but undisciplined, and rarely founds a stable or strong government except under Nordic leadership. He excels in the arts, and in thje joy of living. From various causes, the Mediterraneans of today are racially impoverished, and are sometimes,, as in Portugal and South Ireland, of very poor quality.

The Alpines are the typical peasants, sturdy, tenacious, stolid, and unimaginative. They are not warlike, and have a gift for peaceful penetration, soaking in among Mediterranean popuiations and supplanting them. The Nordics have conquered them, but have gradually been absorbed by their dogged subjects. In Germany, the Alpines have spread at the expense of the Nordics, in Prance at the expense of the Mediterraneans. Both countries are now predominantly round-headed. The ruling class in an Alpine population is seldom of the same breed as the ruled. THE NORDICS. The Nordics are essentially a northern race. They are distinguished by a restless creative energy, which carried them far to the south and east of their homes. The Aryan conquerors of India, Homer's Achaeans, the ruling class in ancient Rome, the Franks and Normans, >vere all Nordics. Today their chief hope of racial predominance lies in the United States and in the British Dominions. The Americans have resolved, just in time, that they will not allow themselves to be swamped by alien immigrants. The Nordic lias political ability, and is too sensitive of his personal rights to tolerate tyranny. Towards other races he is proud and exclusive; he will not willingly mix his blood with theirs. He loves good living, and is therefore a high-standarrl | man—a doubtful advantage for his survival value. The Nordic is a,lso penalised by his fighting qualities. In every war he is the first to volunteer and the first to fall. Every great war has diminished the Nordic stock. Perhaps the three most disastrous struggles, from this point of view, were the Thirty Tear? War, the American Civil War, and the recent Great War.

It is probable that the hatred of the | privileged class, which has several I times led to violent revolutions, has a | racial origin. One of the cries against the aristocrats in the French Revolution was " Send them back to the German marches whence they came." And nothing delighted the small, dark mob who gathered around the guillotine more than when the executioner held up the head of a lady by her long blond hair. In Russia the aristocracy which has been massacred by the Bolsheviks was largely of Nordic origin, and the same is true of Ireland. It has been proved that almost every distinguished Irishman is of English or Scottish 'descent. ; KINDRED BRITAIN. Mr Stoddard's theory makes him a good friend to this country. He considers that we are a very homogeneous nation , since the Alpine roundheads are not represented in our population. This is the more curious, because there was once a round-headed race in Britain who buried their . dead in round barrows; but they seem to have died out, after leaving (according to one theory) the so-called Celtic language behind

them. The British, before the English conquest, he regards as pure Mediterraneans, who made their way far north of their usual limit, tempted by the mildness of our climate. To me, however, it seems probable that these invaders mingled with an early Neolithic stock, of which nothing is known. The island was inhabited before the coming of the Mediterraneans: and the non-N"ordic parts of the population, such as the Welsh, are surely different from the pure Southerners, sturdier in build, and unlike in feature. The Nordic invaders, including the Normans, were all of kindred race, and fused readily with each other.

I entirely agree with his unstinted admiration for the Scandinavian nations. He notices that far-seeing wisdom which prevented the Swedes from declaring war upon seceding JSTorway, a war which would have left both' at the mercy of Russia; the moderation of the Danes in claiming only the purely Danish part of Schleswig-Holstein, and their goodnatured concession of autonomy to the

90,000 inhabitants of Iceland; and, lastly the prudent statesmanship of the Swedes in not taking the purely Swedish Aland Islands from Finland. They knew that a friendly Finland might be very useful to them in the future.

A juniper tree not less tlian 3000 years old has been found in Northcrij Utah, and is being protected by United States forest service. It is 42ffr* high, and measures 7ft. Gin. in diameter near the ground. ij