Timely Topics

Northern Advocate, 28 July 1939, Page 6

Timely Topics

f “The Times,” referring to new regulations issued by the National Maril time Board, says now regulations are f to be included i BETTER QUARTERS in seamen’s t FOR CREWS. 'articles of T agreement to isocure a stricter observance of good • hygiene, and along with the regulations are recommendations on several ? points as to which the Maritime Board f considers it better at present not to i proceed by way of hard and fast rules. ?m the now regulations, more definite ? obligations are placed on the crews f and on masters as representatives of ; the owners. Individually and collect- | ively members of crews will accept t the responsibility of keeping their $ quarters clean and tidy and in readiIncss for inspection by the master or | the chief officer, and they will 'agree fto the imposition of penalties for i breach of this requirement. Masters, | acting for the shipowners, are to be j responsible for the supply of clean f bedding. It may not be generally | known that it has not hitherto been ? incumbent on a shipowner to supply i bedding for the crew; some shipown- • iers have done, and most have not. In | these regulations there is, therefore, |in intention, the 'application of new i standards as well as a higher conl struction of requirements which have ? frequently suffered neglect. f g SS ■» 8S | “Mass organisation is in the air, | oven in the democracies. It is a thing f fundamentally antagonistic to the i principle of t MASS ORGANISATION in d i vidual | Versus LIBERTY. liberty chari Sicteristic of | the Englishman. A democracy, if it Sis to live, must be founded on charf acter. • $ “For those who believe in the ini | finite value of the Christian civilisa|tion, what makes the situation grave - 4 today is the coalition of paganism and I machinery.

“There is proceeding in England day a material rearmament and a spiritual rearmament. “Can democracies resist tyranny successfully without becoming themselves enslaved? They can do so only if the spiritual effort they put forth is greater than and in control of their material effort. They can only do so if means do not become ends, if force remains the servant and not the master of truth. The dictators; start with solid advantages. They can, by modern mass methods, impose beliefs and demand obedience to 'a creed which rouses the baser nature of man. If you begin early anough, it is easier to train a race of robots than a race of freemen. To act is easier than to reflect. The one may medn blind obedience, the other open-eyed responsibility. The one means the doping of massed ignorance and a servile Press, the other compulsion to think, to form judgments, to take decisions, and to welcome truth from the four quarters of the compass. It is the contrast between the slave mind and the free.”