Nelson Evening Mail— SATUIIIMY, SATURDAY JUNE 10, 1033 CIVILISATION’S CHANGES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 18 June 1932, Page 6

Nelson Evening Mail— SATUIIIMY, SATURDAY JUNE 10, 1033 CIVILISATION’S CHANGES

THE manifold dangers which menace Germany, endanger also the civilised nations which are adjacent to her. In hi economic sense she is on the verge of collapse; her unemployed number millions, wlip with their dependents comprise perhaps one-third of her populaion ; politically slm is torn asunder by wgaiii.-;ed factions which appear ready it. any moment to transform their antagonisms into civil war; vvhilo to the ■list of her rises the spectre of Bolshevism. which threatens to overwhelm her, is Russia was fifteen years ago. If such a

fate were (o overtake Germany, the danger would be that Central Europe, from the Baltic to the Mediterranean, might succumb, and that the peace and wellbeing of Europe would give place to the misery and squalor which have been the curse of Russia since 1917. In such case, it would seem that Europo would be in danger of lapsing into semi-barbarism, and that her wonderful civilisation, which has endured for more than a thousand years, might ho broken.

For it. must be considered that no civilisation may be considered to be permanent. The world is strewn with the wrecks of bygone civilisations, and there is nothing in the pages of history to ensure that (lie civilisation which Europe constructed on the ruins of the Roman Empire is more permanent than the many civilisations which preceded it in this world of constant changes. History has embalmed the stories of many of those civilisations, others are revealed merely by the ruins of temples, cities, and tombs; some are remembered only because they are referred to in anenent myths, while the oldest were legendary in those periods when men begun to record history on the written page. There wajs, for instance, the civilisation of Sumeria, in Mesopotamia, which was contemporary with another civilisation in tlio valley of the Indus, both of which seem to have flourished between 2000 B.C. and 3000 8.C., if not earlier. Everyone has heard of the Babylonian Empire, of Lhe great, city of Nineveh, of the Assyrians, of the Modes and Persians, all of which contributed to Lhe history of the great valley where flow the rivers Tigris and Euphrates. Indeed, civilisation followed civilisation in Mesopotamia, which for thousands of years was thickly populated, hut is thought by certain scientists to have become malarious, and so was gradually depopulated, its vast system of irrigation being at once its people’s source of wealth and the cause of their extinction. Contemporaneously with the civilisations of Mesopotamia was that of Egypt, which flourished under numerous dynasties of Pharaohs, from the dawn of history till tlio Christian era. Of this civilisation we happily know much, because of its inscribed monuments, its substantial methods of building, and tho custom of burying with the dead their most valuable and useful belongings. Of all tlio civilisations of the world that of tho Egyptians was probably the most permanent. It was founded oil rigid principles of autocracy which, there is reason to think, was paternal, protective, if not benignant, and assigned to the ruling class tlio culture, the rank, and all tlm privileges pertaining to an aristocracy, and gave to tho masses of tho people law, order, peace, and security in a permanent form, so far as these, the greatest developments of civilisation, can be permanent. We have no space to deal with civilisations so far away from Europe, as was that of ancient China, whose history has been hut faintly preserved by the Chinese themselves, and is hut imperfectly known to scholars of to-day. There was tlio fragile, -benevolent, almost paternal civilisation of the Incas of Peru, which vanished beforo tho fury of the Spanish invasion. Tlio Ancient Greek civilisation, which produced an incomparable literature, exquisite sculptures, tb,e rtidimonts of philosophy, and the nucleus of scientific knowledge, was absorbed by the more robust, less intellectual, more dominant civilisation of the Romans. It is from the latter that perhaps most may be learned of tlio possible course which European civilisation of to-day is destined to run. Roman civilisation was founded by tlio sword, and nourished by tho rigorous subjugation of all conquered peoples to the Roman power, which was vested at first in the Senate, and subsequently in tho Emperor. It flourished for some eight hundred years, and finally fell before the vigorous barbarians who flourished outside its borders. Gibbon seems to think that its decline and fall were hastened by tlio pernicious custom of slavery, which enervated Hie ruling caste, gradually contaminated the Roman race, sapped its energies, and ruined those sterling charadteristics wludh had given the Romans their greatness and power.

Tt will be seen that all these civilisations earno to their ends by different means, so it may be argued that a civilisation may he brought to an end by any of several causes; and tho question is what is the most likely causo which may he fatal to what is commonly called modern civilisation, though perhaps it is better described as Christian civilisation, since undoubtedly it owed its origin to the Christian Church. In Russia that civilisation has been eclipsed by Bolshevism, which is merely a reversion to semi-barbarism from which religion is divorced, and which, under the pretence of an equal distribution of goods, places the governing power in a handful of confederates who rule as an oligarchy of the most exclusive character. The main characteristic of this attempt to put the political doctrines of Karl Marx into practice is tlio destruction of the right to own 'property, which, though only partially effective, has resulted in the amount of privately-owned property being reduced to a minimum, and in the population becoming poverty-stricken to a degree which is difficult to describe. European civilisation, like all the grout civilisations which preceded it, is based largely on tho semi-sacred right to hold property. It is here that the Bolshevist and the Christian views are diametrical-

ly opposed. On this point there can be no possible agreement. So that if amid I lie turmoil and distress in Germany tho Bolshevists should assert their strength, the ensuing struggle would be merciless. Germany’s lmpe lies in tier leaders, at whose head is President von ITindonbmg who, recognising the national emergency, appears to have formed an alliance. with Herr Hitler who, after tlio great soldier, is the greatest German leader in sight, and has behind him his powerful organisation of Nazis. To these two leaders naturally rally all those political elements which support law, order, and the sanctity of property. The Reichstag appears to have been superseded, at least temporarily; a Chancellor, subservient to tlio President, has been installed in office; Germany faces tho threatening future as a ship, dosereefed and almost under hare poles, faces a threatening hurricane. The enlight-

ened nations of Europe will wish her well, for she. is their principal bulwark against, the semi-barbarism of Russia, whose Bolshevists may threaten to bring havoc to the Continent, by reducing it to a. stale of anarchy.