NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18062, 10 April 1922, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

WORLD'S WAR DEBTS. The outright cancellation of all war debts by all the nations is advocated by Mr. Otto Kahn, a leading banker in Wall Street and one of the most prominent men in American business and finance. Mr. Kahn made this declaration before the members of the National Institute of Social Sciences. He based his argument on the belief that the lifting of such a tremendous load from European shoulders would benefit the entire world, and the United States would reap a fabulous return both in money and world favour. America has the right to collect her war debts, the banker declared, hut she can well afford to do tho generous thing, write them off and gain the goodwill and confidence of the other nations to a degree which will give her one of her strongest business assets and enhance the spiritual triumph she has already achieved through the Washington Conference. "1 am entirely clear in my mind that fiom tho moral and business point of view we ought to cancel these debts," he said. "We ought to cancel them equally. I think it would be unjust to claim a debt from England which we would not claim from another country. We ought to wipe them all out, irrespective of the solvency of the nation. It would bo tho best investment this country ever made, and, aside from yielding uu fabulous sums of money, it would yield recognition of our generosity 'and fair-mindedness." Mr. Kahn added that there should ho stipulations, as for instance that the Gentian reparations should be settled "in a way that sensible people believe to be a sensiblo settlement."

GERMANY AND RUSSIA. During his recent visit to London, Dr. Bones, the Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs of Czecho-Slovakia, outlined his views of the Genoa Conference. Germany and Russia will bo the two main themes at the conference—Germany even more than Russia, ho said. Whatever the solution arrived at, Germany must be a partner to it. To preserve peacc and bring back prosperity the various States of Europe must be bound all together, and each one with the others by agreements based on mutual equality and entered into in a friendly spirit. Through tho conference Germany will now come into and let herself bo bound by tho common notwork of international intercourse. It is useless to deny patent facts. The Succession States, as well as all other countries contiguous to Germany, must take her presence into account. By tho weight of her ethnographic mass alone Germany is bound to play a larjjo part in the affairs of the conference. No encirclement can prevent her from breaking through economically. For Germany Genoa is full of possibilities; also the road to Geneva leads through Genoa. After Germany next in importance comes Russia, who at present is tho great void in tho international situation. Czechoslovakia has all along taken the line that the Chinese Wall separating Russia from the rest of the world must be pulled down; light must be let in on the situation, mystery and silence are profitable only to the forces of anarchy. For many vears to come Russia will be a drag on European resources, which will have to be employed to help her out of her abject position. For many years one must not expect any profitable return: this will come later. The principal thing to remember is that one cannot help Russia by miracles. Miracles are not fashionable, and what is needed is steady, plodding work day by day. The International Conference is to bo welcomed if it will'help to bring clarity into relations at present obscure, and if it will assist Russia to scramble out of the pit-trap into which she has been precipitated.

OCCULT SCIENCES. Something like a sensation was produced recently at tho Academy of Sciences in Paris when -for the first time in the history of that learned body tho subject of occult sciences was introduced. It was one of the most illustrious members of the Academy, Professor CharLes Richet, who brought it up by presenting a volume of over 800 pages, with the title, "Traite do Mctapsychique," the result of many years' labour. It seemed to Professor Richet that tho innumerable facts observed by Sir William Crookes and Mr. Frederick Myers morited consideration, instead of being allowed to be buried by " sarcasm or disdainful silence." The author told his audience that though tho study he had undertaken might be considered audacious, he had had tho courage to make it, and ho concluded amid tho plaudits of his listeners that tho courago of the savant was to say what he believed to be the truth. The subject was considered of such public interest that the Matin has proposed an inquiry into spiritualism. There is in Franco a Spiritualist Union, and M. Gabriel Delanne, its president, welcomes the idea, and makes suggestions as to how tests should bo conducted. He suggests that experiments should bo restricted to eight or 10, and that the jury should includo people who are competent to organise and direct the seances. Professors Richet, de Gramont, and Arsonval are among those chosen to act. It is further suggested that tho mediums should be subjected to numerous experiments. Absolute darkness during seances is not indispensable. A feeble red light is recommended, as a white light is said to be harmful to tho production of phenomena. M. Delanne, who is considered the highest authority on spiritualism in France, declares that the de- j monstration of the reality of these phenomena is of capital importance for the progress of humanity. CHURCH UNION. The bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church of America met in Svracuso, N.Y., recently and considered the " Lambeth Appeal " on reunion, and they havo issued a report oh it, says the Toronto Guardian. They gladly recognise the high Christian character of those who issued the "appeal," and they also admit the desirability of " a visible expression of the spiritual unity of all who confess tho Lord Jesus Christ as the only Mediator between God and man," and they declaro that in matters of faith and practice they find themselves in close accord with the Lambeth Conference. But with respect to the attitude of that conference toward ministerial orders the bishops are compelled to register their dissent. This is their pronouncement upon this point: "Holding | that the ministerial orders of the Methodist Episcopal Church are fully valid and divinely sanctioned, we cannot consent to make them secondary to any other. Nor can wc, even for the sake of a united church, cast any shadow of doubt, or invalidity, or of irregularity on them or on their ministrations, which have been so signally honoured of God." They point out that, while the Anglicans demand reordination for the ministers of Protestantism, yet thoy are willing to recognise the orders of priests of the Roman Catholic and Grook Orthodox Churches, and this in itself implies such a view of the " Historic Episcopate " as Methodism cannot bring herself to accept. In conclusion they say plainly that as acceptance of reordination would mean a virtual repudiation of their ministerial orders, union upon any such terms is an imißOgaWs Hufib