AN ADDRESS TO YOUTH

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 1 August 1924, Page 2

AN ADDRESS TO YOUTH

PUD YARD KIPLING AND THE RHODES SCHOLARS Speaking at the annual banquet of the Rhodes Scholarship Trust, Mr Rudyard Kipling delivered a notable address to the Rhodes scholars. It was subsequently commented on unfavourably hv an American Rhodes scholar, whose remarks appeared in our cables. Mr Kipling, who was received with enthusiastic cheers, proposed "Prosperity to the Rhodes Scholars.” He said: "On reflection—such reflection as such a dinner as this induces—it strikes me that the toast I have to propose is more than usually superfluous. It is too easy. All 1 have*to do for the next- few minutes is to wish you prosperity. Ail jou have to do for the next few years is to go out and get it. As, of course, you will. Indeed, you cannot very well escape doing so. Your path has been smoothed for just that end. When Mr Rhodes was brooding over his sA.ome of the Scholarships he used to say : ‘The game is to get them to knock up against each other qua students. After they have done that for three years at Oxford, they’ll never forget it qua individuals.’ Accordingly, he so arranged what he called ids ‘game’ that each man, bringing with him that, side oi his head which belonged to the important. laud of his birth, was' put n the way of getting another side to his I t.id by men belonging to other not unimoortunt countries. (Applause.)

A FORMULA OF FRIENDSHIP

“It is an asset towards prosperity, even for those whose lot will bo east altogether in one land, to get full and first-hand information about the men they will meet later. You know the formula better than I. The style of a man’s play, plus the normal range of Ids vices, divided by the square of his work, and multiplied by the coefficient of Ids nationality, gives not only bis potental resistance under breakingstrain, but indicates, within a few points, how far he may be trusted to pull off a losing game. (Applause.) “This knowledge can only bo acquired

in too merciless intimacy of one’s early days. After that, one has to guess at the worth of one’s friends or enemies; but Youth, which, between ourselves, sometimes knows almost as much about some things as it thinks it always does know about everything, can apply its own tests on its own proving-grounds, and does not forget the results. Rhodes and Jameson, for example, did not draw together impersonally over tiio abstract idea of Imperial service. They had tried each other out long before, across the poker-tables of the Kimberley Club, beside the death-beds of friends, and among the sudden and desperate emergencies of life on the diamond fields. So when their work began, neither had to waste time reading up the other’s references. They simply fell into step side by side, and there they remained till Death parted them.

“May something like their experience he yours with your friends here and throughout all our world ; for you are exploring and assaying the minds of countries as well as of men. You have had samples of all the English-speaking teams to play with and against at leisure in a cool grey atmosphere which gives full value to all attitudes —even to the attitude of the youngest and most rampant reformer who comes up fresh and fresher each year.

“When the Scholarships were first created, one was afraid that Mr Rhodes's large and even-handed mixingup of unrelated opptosites might infect weaker souls, with the rniddle-aged failingl-- of toleration,' impartiality, or broadmindedness. And you know, gentlemen, that when these symptoms break out on a young .man it is a,sure.sign of early death, Or—of a leaning toward practical politics. Fortunately, what one has seen and hoard since then proves that one’s fears were groundless. (Cbecffs.)

PASSWORDS

“There is a certain night, among several, that I remember, not long after the close of the war, when a man from Melbourne and a man from Montreal set themselves to show a couple of men' from the South and Middle West that the Constitution of the United States was. not more than one hundred and liftv years out of date. “At the same time, and in the same diggings, a man from California, was explaining to a man from the Cape, with tiie help of some small, hard apples, that no South African fruit was fit to be sold in the same market as the Californian product. The ring was kept by an ex-private of Balliol who, having eaten plum-and-apple jam in the trenches for some years, was a bigoted antifruitarian. He assured me that none of them would b 6 allowed to kill each other on the river next day; but even with murder barred there was no trace of toleration till exhaustion set in. Then somebody made a remark which (I have to edit it a little) ran substantially as follows: 'Talking of natural resources, doesn’t it strike yon that what we’ve all got most of is Provincialism? (Laughter.) That would have delighted Rhodes. It was just the sort of thing that he himself would, have jerked , out, half aloud, at a. Cabinet meeting, and expanded for minutes afterwards. There must be other phrases,., also, perhaps even more direct, which have equally emerged from the peace and quiet of such gathejipgs as the one which I attended. If that be so, you might do worse than use them at a pincli, later on, as passwords anlong your associates throughout the world. (Applause.)

THE SOUND HEART

“I suggest this because, . when yoii mo"e up into the line, and the Gods who sell all things at a price are dealing you your places and your powers, you may find it serviceable, for ends outside your own, to remind a friend on the far side of the world of some absurd situation or trivial event’which parallels the crisis or the question then under your hands. And that man, in his station, remembering when and how the phrase was born, may respond to all ihat it implies—also; for ends not his own. , , "None can foresee on what grounds, national or international, some of you here’‘may have to make or honour such an appeal; whether it will be for tangible help in vast material ventures, or for aid in things unseen; whether for a little sorely-needed suspension of judgment in the councils of a nation as selfengrossed as your own; or, more searching still, for orderly farewells to be taken at some enforced partm^r.of the ways. Any one of these issues may sweep to you across earth in the future. It will be yours to meet it with sanity, humour, and the sound Ji earb that goes with a sensfe of proportion and. the memory of good days shared together,,. Li^mlause.) “For you will be delivered to life, in world where, at the worst, no horror js now incredible, no folly unthinkable, no adventure inconceivable. At the best, you will have to deal, and he dealt with, .by communities impatient of nature, idolatrous of nicrchnnisms, and sick of self-love to the point, almost, of doubting their own perfections. “The Gods, whom they lecture, alone know what these folk will do or think. And here, gentlemen, lot me put before you the seductive possibility that some of you may end your days in refuges for the mentally afflicted —not because you will necessarily be any more insane than you are at present, but because you will have preached democracy to democracies resolute that never again shall their peace be troubled by Demos. Yet, out of all this welter, you will arrive at prosperity, as youth, armourmlated by its own absorption in itself, has always arrived. (Cheers.) “In truth, tliere is hut one means by which you can miss it, and that, is, if you try to get the better of the *Gods who sell everything at a price. They continue to be just Gods, and should you hold back even a fraction of the sum asked for vour heart’s desire, they will say nothing, but they will furnish you with a substitute that would deceive the elect—that will deceive even you until it is too latc._ So I would advise you to pay them in full, making a noto that goocls obtained for personal uso cost rather more than those intended for tho!honour and advancement ot ofc “My apology for mentioning these sordid bonds is that I saw the man m those dreams you move pay the price that the Gods demanded of linn for his heart’s desire. And now I see some portion of his reward. It is vour prosperity.” (Prolonged cheers.)