TIMELY TOPICS

Northern Advocate, 15 September 1934, Page 8

TIMELY TOPICS

BELGIUM LOOKS FORWARD. The anticipations of this year are not encouraging, and we hear pessimistic opinions on all sides. Be it intei’national or national politics, most people see everything in dark colours (says- M. Jules Destree in Le Soir of Brussels). Personally, I think that this tendency . . . corresponds neither with reality nor with reason. We are passing through a difficult time, true enough; but we can keep some hope. A country like ours especially, in which courage, good will and perseverance have never been lacking, is among those that allow one to expect belter days after the dark period we are passing through. In this matter, however, affirmations arc less convincing than facts and optimistic realisations are preferable to all theories. Nothing can be better for all than to know that next year or the year after we shall all together accomplish great things. One must believe in one’s destiny. One can attain it only by deciding on noble tasks. In the necessity of accomplishing them, one will find resources of energy and hope. The year 1935 will be the year of the universal and international exhibition of Brussels. That is one of the big tasks we have just spoken of, one which Belgium has accepted with a joyous heart, because, in spite of everything, she has

confidence in life. The organising committee has just published, in a beautiful booklet, a preface announcing what is being prepared for that year in the Belgian capital. This booklet is an act of faith. It bears in epigraph a sentence by King Albert which is a big lesson for all the Belgians: “The difficult times we are passing through do not authorise ..discouragement.” ($> <§> & WORDS OF WISDOM. Poets utter great and icise things lohich they do not themselves understand. — Plato. <s> <t> <♦> <S> <t> TALE OF THE DAY. Tourist: “Lonesome spot , this.” Irish Innkeeper: “It is that. sott. The spot on a billiard ball is nothin’ to it!”