Timely Topics

Northern Advocate, 26 May 1938, Page 6

Timely Topics

“The crowd, the masses, the mil liens receiving through eyes and ears, by newspaper, radio and cinema a

THE MASSES AND FOREIGN POLICY.

continuous stream of world life have rushed into

’ foreign policy,” says Senor Madariaga. “There was a day when nations concluded 'agreements, then kept or broke them ac-. [cording to plan. The chess of diplomacy and its rules; even the breaking of them could be more or less accurately adumbrated and forestalled by an' expert player. But nowadays,, what a nation thinks and feels at the time a pledge is given is no guarantee of what she will think and feel when the time comes to honour it. “The masses want to know and have > b say in all that is done in foreign [affairs, a change for the better in [many ways, but one which makes j world relations unpredictable, and | therefore fraught with danger. Dip[lomatic relations are no longer a game [of chess; they are rather like the • mighty movements of waters, tides, I floods, storms and cataracts —save that I [they are made of human waves land fare not beyond the influence of magic j charmers, dam-breakers and stofm- | raisers. Once the machinery for t playing on the millions has been set fup by some efficient minister, of, propaganda, a leader may play with, a J nation as an organist with fan organ, t and raise waves of passion, seas of • emotion, cataracts of fury, storms of ‘war.” - . 1 mk m s . : ’ ** Says the Sydney “Daily Telegraph”: When a Maroubra merchant wbs brought to Court last week, charged with a traffic

EXCURSIONS INTO HISTORY.

offence, the prosecution dip-

j ped into his j past. The magistrate was told that I the man had been convicted of housebreaking 25 years before, when a lad of only 17. He had tried, rather pathetically, to deny this earlier Court appearance. But the terrible history of a youthful prank, in raiding an orchard and its unoccupied house was remorselessly exposed. What it had to do with the driving charge is a profound mystery. \ The incident draws attention in striking fashion to the necessity for limitation of the period through which prosecuting authorities the expected, or allowed, to range in their search for black marks. In considering an amendment of the law to prevent unlimited excursions into the past, the Minister of Justice should decide also whether such instances concern courts dealing only with breaches of traffic regulations. Nothing could be more unfair than to allow an official formula to cripple the character of a man who has purged a youthful mistake by a quarter of a . century of straightforward living.