Timely Topics

Northern Advocate, 19 December 1938, Page 6

Timely Topics

After pointing out in an afterdinner speech that a very large proportion of the problems which are classed as international group themselves around the general topic of frontiers, which were the most prolific causes of war, Sir John Simon went on to say: Frontiers in many cases have been drawn after the conclusion of a desperate and bloody struggle which had been fought to a finish where one side classed itself the victor and the other side felt itself vanquished. Frontiers drawn under those circumstances cannot be assumed to have the guarantee of perpetual stability . . . we have therefore to face the fact first of all that it is extremely improbable that there will not arise a very intense difference of opinion about existing frontiers. We must face the fact secondly that in the past, with very few exceptions, frontiers have only been modified by fighting. We must face the fact thirdly that we are all deeply committed to the view that territorial controversies in the future shall be settled without the arbitrament of war. Granted that we aim at a future world which is not to be poisoned and blasted by war, granted that other causes of conflict between nations have very largely passed away, but that this territorial problem remains, how are we going to bring to bear our public opinion, and our public influence, for the purpose of finding a peaceful solution for such problems?

FRONTIERS AND WAR.

9) B 8 • 5J Even in his moments of wildest optimism (says the “Christian Science Monitor”), that admirable minor poet, William Edward Hickson, can hardly have hoped that his work would be mentioned in the same breath with that of Shakespeare. Still less can he have foreseen that this exaltation would be owed to no less a person than the Prime Minister of Great Britain, or that, at a crisis of history, Shakespeare and himself would be called upon to express the foreign policy of the English Government. Yet this, in fact, is precisely what has happened. For Mr Neville Chamberlain, speaking to the crowd which had assembled, at Heston to see him off on his third flight to Germany, declared that he based himself on Hickson’s famous words, If at first you don’t , succeed, Try, try, try again, hoping, by means of the fundamentals of policy thus ' enunciated, to bring about the result foreseen by Shakespeare, Out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety. Mr Chamberlain’s policy is the subject of great dispute; but none,, will regret that he seems inclined to return to the old Parliamentary habit of literary quotation. In this he is supported by his colleagues, Sir John Simon, who before now has laid “The Hunting of the Snark” heavy contribution in his speeches. Speeches generally show a certain unity of temper, and a noble extract does much to set the tone of an address. Therefore, in the Interests of international appeasement, a movement might possibly be encouraged for more 'and better quotations.

QUOTATIONS FOR APPEASEMENT.