Timely Topics

Northern Advocate, 16 March 1939, Page 6

Timely Topics

? ‘"The interest of the present generfation is not in truth, but in action," | said Professor de Brugh, in a recent

• J TRUTH AND I ACTION. 9 9

Gifford Lecture. “Now truth, when chained to practice, tends always to vanish in error and

?unreason. If -we doubt it, we need •only reflect on the violence that truth • •is suffering at the hands of the I totalitarian State. Of the two alternatives to the rational life, emotionalism and pragmatism, the former seems sto bo losing its appeal to youth. But ■ this does not mean that they seek to ?base conduct, private or public, upon freasoned principle. Rather is action ifer action’s sake the watchword. ■ When we consider religion, which is f acknowledged today, as was not the lease half a century ago, to be, for •good or evil, a matter of supreme significance, we must distinguish between the attitudes of its opponents, |of its advocates, and of the general | public. Among all three, the appeal |to reason is at a discount. The opponents are few in number, but intense in their hostility; their temper |is not contempt, but indignation; ret ligion is the enemy.” ] 8 'B" B 3 I “The French,” writes Mr J. A. ■ Spender, in the Yorkshire “Observer,” i“have some reason to be grateful to

f | THE LIMIT OF j PATIENCE.

Signor Mussolini, or whatever it is that sets the Italian -Press in motion fnv ho

in motion, for he has pulled them together in an extraordinary way and helped M. Daladier to come through successfully, almost triumphantly, what 'a., few. weeks ago seemed to be an almost desperate internal situation. “It has also led to a manifestation of Franco-British solidarity . : before Herr -Hitler and Signor Mussolini have committed themselves too deeply to whatever nfay have been in their minds when the Press campaign was started. Signor Mussolini now understands that any serious threat to French, possessions in the. Mediterranean would be fatal to the BritishItalian Agreement. The Italians are supposed to have banked heavily on the French general strike, which they regarded as the beginning of -internal strife in France. If so, the experience points a moral which- if is important for all the nations to understand. The Italian Press campaign against France, the German Press campaign against Britain, have brought both countries to the limit of their patience with these methods."