NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18172, 18 August 1922, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

A POWERFUL WOMAN

Who is the most powerful woman in England, outside the Royal Family? This was put to an old journalist recently by the late Lord NorthclifTe. The journalist replied, "Lady Astor, M.P., of course." "Lady Astor;•' said Lord Northcliffe; " it is true she controls the Observer, but in my opinion the most powerful woman in* England, without exception— other than Royalty—is Lady Bathurst. the beautiful and accomplished director of the Morning Post, You mar not always agree with her methods, and policy: you may not always agree with the enormous headlines, but you will admit that, right or wrong, the . Morning Post is bright, consistent, sometimes flighty, but always English." Lord Northcliffe added : " Knowing tho internal organisation of the Morning Post, I know that this paper is produced by the genius of a woman, assisted by two really capable men. If she were living in America her name would ring from one end of the Continent to another, and be hurled at Great Britain as a sign of American national superiority."

AMATEURS IN JOURNALISM. Writing of journaJists and journalism in London recently, the New Statesman said:—Journalism is largely at the mercy of rich amateurs, who not only do not understand the business themselves, but are so indifferent both to the financial and to the professional side of it that they do not even take the trouble to secure competent professional advice, or to apply those tests of efficiency which in their own business they would regard as indispensable. To them a newspaper is a toy or possibly a political lover. It is true that in the hands of the more careless and the more incompetent it is apt to become an extremely expensive toy, with the result that newspapers are always dying or changing hands, but as there is always a new "millionaire" ready to try his luck, this form of natural selection is not very effective. The outstanding merit of Lord Northcliffo is that he himself is a journalist, and he has proved that he knows his business. One may dislike his methods or his standpoint and decline to work for him, but his decisions and his orders are professional decisions and orders, which no one who has accepted employment under him has any right to resent. Lord North - cliffe is perfectly justified in poking fun at his "millionaire" colleague. The wellmeaning and public-spirited amateur, who does not understand journalistic values, usually pays high for experience, and then cuts liiis losses before he has had time to learn his lesson. And so the weary round goes on, until journalist* of all political colours are almost driven to pray for more Northcliffes.

MECHANISATION QF WAR. A perverted ingenuity is being devoted to the greater development of the mechanical side of warfare, particularly in the air, and the next war, if there was to be one, would be far more disastrous, cruel, and destructive than the last, and leave consequences impossible to exaggerate, said Lord Robert Cecil, in. an address at Derby. It was literally truo that as far as one could foresee it might easily destroy the whole fabric of European civilisation. No one who really grasped the terrible threat hanging over the world could sit quiet and do nothing. Piling up armaments might mean a gambling chance of victory. Unorganised international conferences possessed the great defect, as compared with the League of Nations, that they were merely incidents in themselves and there was nothing to carry on their work. In practice the methods Of tho League had proved superior" to those of such conferences, and they would accomplish still greater work in the future. In his judgment, however, the League had not as yet shown sufficient activity in the matter of reduction of armaments, without whicli no safeguard against war would be reliable and effective.

THE FOUNDATIONS OF PEACE.

Somo people said the League of Nations would put the world right, but it will not. said Mr. Lloyd George in an address at the Castle Street Welsh Baptist Chapel. London. . It wa3 also said that the League would bo better if Germany were in, but things are not so simple as all that. Germany does not want to come into the League of Nations. That is the trouble. The League is exactly what the nations make it, and the nations are what the citizens that compose them make them. It is one of the commonest mistakes we make to imagine that once you join an organisation you change your character. You must first of all get the temper of peace in the nations. You must get them to turn their faces toward peace and against war. If we do not succeed in doing that, merely bringing them to the league of Nations brings them there to intrigue for war positions, and that is fatal; And that is why the churches ought, ro be operating on the heartg of the people, getling the spirit of peace into then' minds ant? getting the temper of peace into their hearts. Let the people turn their faces toward the dawn of peace. If you do not do that no league, no associations, no governments or conference.- '."ill be of the slightest use. You must get the people in every land to demand that their rulers shall tread the paths of peace and not the paths of war. When you do that the League of Nations will be effective, and wo want all the nations .n the Lcamie. I want Germany there, and if the "proposal is put before the council at Geneva the British Government will vote tor Germany coming in. We also want the United States of America there, and when llussia is clothed and \n her right mind we want her there. We want the whole earth there, and we will get peace when the spirit has moved the people in the direction of goodwill among men." **'