Timely Topics

Northern Advocate, 13 May 1938, Page 4

Timely Topics

“In reviewing the situation last year,” said Lord Wardington, chairman cf Lloyd's Dank, recently, “I had the t emerBRITAIN’S FINANCIAL ity to utter POSITION . a word ot

caution, and to suggest that we ought to take every care to ensure against the activity of cur internal trade degenerating into anything which could possibly be called a boom, and that in the second place we should look forward to the time when the chief causes cf cur .internal activity had come to* an end and take all possible measures to fill the gap with increased foreign trade. “The events of the past years have, I think, justified what may have appeared to be an unnecessarily cautious attitude on my part. It frequently appears to be the fate of & banker to be in opposition to the existing trend of public opinion, and if I last year, when everything seemed i rosy, I had my doubts as to the fut[ure, so 'again now, when talk of a re- \ cession in trade is somewhat loud [and insistent, I see no reason in, the f fundamentals of cur commercial [position, to apprehend any serious set--back. | “There are many factors, especially ►in the political sphere, which are on \ the lap of the gods. Of these lam | not able to speak with any particular ‘knowledge or assurance, but trade in | itself in this country, appears to me |to be generally sound.” I H- 18 E 3 i , i “The State should ensure (says Mr , | Leo Page, in “Crime And The Comimunity”) that every man who desires | to live honestj THE DISCHARGED ly after he | PRISONER. lea ves prison * should be given substantial assistance and iat least some reasonable opportunity to do so. “It is easy to fall into grotesque exaggeration in this matter. There are these whose claims oh behalf of discharged prisoners sound as if the commission of a crime entitled a man to good employment upon his discharge. That attitude is absurd. Wrongdoing cannot be a passport to preferential treatment. At the other end of the scale the (attitude of those who ask indignantly why rogues should be helped in any way at all is equally illogical! ,

“The simple answer is that if men are not helped to be honest thej' arc very often forced by economic pressure to be dishonest. Their handicap in the search for work is very real and heavy. Prisoners upon discharge are perhaps without money; tools, friends or references. They • may wish to live honestly. If they 'are forced back into crime it is true they suffer only because of their former wickedness. It is none the less true that the community suffers too. 1 “Happily, the general public is sufficiently tolerant and wise to ’adopt in this matter a reasonable compromise.”