Timely Topics

Northern Advocate, 8 September 1938, Page 6

Timely Topics

“It is essential, both for the safety of the state and for the preservation of fibers/ . Ctays the “Economist”), that the House of

SAFETY AND fRESERVATION.

Commons and the Press should not

be hampered in exercising their traditional right—which is also their duty—of criticism. This function can only be effectively performed if Members of Parliament und journalists are well informed; hence it is part of their day-to-day business to secure information from all

possible sources. It is natural that there should be some conflict of interest in this matter between the executive and their possible critics; for no one is anxious to supply information that may possibly be used ag'ainst him. The line is, therefore, likely to be drawn too strictly if too much discretion is left with those who are liable to be shot at. On the other hand, Parliament | and Press are rightly jealous of their public functions and sensitive to any I action which would tend to restrict them. Constitutional history is pack--led with incidents illustrating the principles at issue, but we need go |no further than our own times for examples. In the spring of 1915, for instance, the Press campaign against ! the War Office because of the shell shortage at the front could not have ! been launched without information ,only obtainable from serving officers |in France, which on a strict interpretation could have been regarded as an ‘official secret.’ In this case the ! Press was right, whereas the Prime Minister of the day was wrongly informed,” ;

“We often hear, just now (says “Time and Tide”), that we are in no way responsible for the internal re-

MY BROTHER’S , KEENER?

gime of any other country, and therefore have no right

to object to its actions—not even when those actions affect our own citizens, so long as they do not take place on the actual soil of Britain. That is not true. It has never been true. It is not only Nazi Germany which has to bear the guilt of the utter inhumanity let loose in Vienna. It is every country which stands looking on without protest, and says: ‘Am I my brother’s keeper? ’ It is not only Germany's standards which, under Herr Hitler’s guidance, are being lowered so fast that we can scarcely see them as they hurtle down into the abyss; it is the standards of the whole world. The undeniable fact that human beings find bullying—and even savage cruelty—the most titillating of pleasures is no reason for keeping quiet when a nation of fellow creatures gives itself over to the most loathsome of till the sensual indulgences. If we let this vile exhibition of a passion, which is in us all, pass without protest, we accept it for ourselves as well as for others. To save our own souls we must fight this particularly hideous form of lust, knowing and admitting as we do so that we too 'are capable of falling under its spell.”