NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18631, 12 February 1924, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

BRITAIN AND AMERICA. The sympathy of the American people as a whole is something deeper than a race-sympathy, wrote Professor Alfred F. Barker, of Leeds University, on his return from a journey through the United States. It is rather a sympathy with the highest ideals of world service— those same ideals for which we Britons know we stand and have stood and fought for centuries, notwithstanding our many failures to realise these_to the full. . In the picture houses of Chicago the portrayal of the departure of America's sons for the war still calls forth the enthusiasm created only by a righteous cause—pictures portraying such events still receive tie applause which vtould have been given during the stormy days of 1917 and 1918. In great joys and in great distresses men and women,, and nations also, draw nearer to one another ; still more should they draw near to one •another in facing grave danger^—such danger as threatens the world at the present moment. Americans and Britons knew something of the inspiration of comradeship when facing the common enemy in the trenches of the Western front; still more may they hope again to stand shoulder to shoulder in facing world 'perils, not less ideadly, though perchance not. so apparent. When America fully realises the peril and sees how she can act with efficiency, she will not be found wanting in the true spirit of comradeship. CONSEQUENCES OF THE RUHR. .It is the struggle between France and Germany that has retarded all chance of economic recovery in Europe for some time to come, and increased the danger of a new convulsion, Sir Philip Gibbs declares. Whatever may have been the right of Franco to seize the Ruhr as a pledge—and I am one of those who think it was a fatal error, wrong in policy and principle— is clear now that the cost of passive resistance hurled Germany into a financial bankruptcy which was already approaching because of her wild gamble in the mad adventure of inflation. Whatever happensj it is certain that for some years to como Germany's purchasing power will be enormously reduced, thereby reducing the volume of trade in every market of the world. That is a serious outlook for all" countries, and especially for England, whose life depends on foreign, markets. But worse fruit than that will be gathered from the Ruhr It is only the blind, the deaf and dumb who may now ignore the threat to European peace which has followed that episode in history. For a time Germany I may surrender to France. For a time internal strife may disrupt her empire. For a time her people may submit sullenly to starvation wages and social chaos, with spasms of rioting and bloodshed. But in every German heart from the Rhine to East Prussia there is the belief that one day, ia some year to come, they will break the shackles which have been fastened on them by the Treaty of Versailles and smash their way to liberty and vengeance. INDUSTRIAL PEACE. A contribution to the discussion of unemployment has been made by Mr. W. A. Appleton, secretary of the General Federation of Trade Unions, who is not only a non-political trade unionist but has also a wide practical knowledge of the effects of unemployment. He makes a striking observation on the need for industrial peace:—Peace is a condition precedent to the maintenance of large populations on limited areas, and the peace postulated is peace between classes and interests as well as between nations. It is industrial as well as international peace. . . . . Industrial peace is a fundamental preliminary to industrial improvement. During the chaos and sorrow of the past four years no other sociological fact has become more obtrusively prominent than this one. and in the hearts of the mass of men and women who work nothing is more poignantly desired. The dreams of the redflaggers are evanescent; they have their origin in ill-based theory and their end m vociferousness; but the mass, the great mass, the real England and Scotland and Wales, have one overwhelming and endur ing desire, and that is for the peace that enables them to earn their daily bread with whatever additions to daily bread are possible. The red-flaggers are not the only obstacles to peace. In the promotion of industrial strife they are greatly assisted by the invertebrates on the workers' side and the idiots among the employers. Of the three types, the latter are to be most reprehended. They have access to information and opportunities of knowing, but so many of them act as if their only chance of commercial success lay in demeaning the workman's personality and debasing his standard of living.

THE RECOVERY OF EUROPE. Surveying the state of Europe at the end of the fifth year since the close of the war, Mr. Frank H. Simonds, the wellknown American journalist, says that aside Great Britain and Germany, all Europe 'has seen a marked, almost an astonishing economic advance. Russia has manifestly made slow but unmistakable progress toward economic health. If early in the year an improvement, which "had already been marked, for a moment seemed to be checked, as the year progressed the renewed progress was unmistakable. The same recovery is discoverable in the situation of Poland, Uzecho-Slovakia and the Succession States generally, while under international control Austria has made a long step out of the abyss in which she seemed hopelessly engulfed a year ago. Everywhere in Europe there has been a Rood crop, which is the first element in the improvement. Italy, still handicapped by the gravest kind of problems, has unmistakably brought to their solution a new energy and a renewed determination which have already achieved miracles. In France and Belgium the restoration of the instruments of production destroyed by the war is complete. The fields and factories havo been returned to cultivation and manufacture. And, in the case of France, which suffered far more considerably, a new modern plant greatly expanded has replaced the old plant of 1914. In Britain, by contrast, the situation is far less . atisfying. It would be inaccurate to say that there has been a decline; on the contrary, there has been in certain directions further advance, but the unmistakable fact is that recovery has slowed down. In sum, then, on the economic side there has been a striking progress everywhere on the Continent save in Germany, and this economic advance has been accompanied by a notable, if less considerable, political gain. The map of the Paris peacemakers has stood the test of another year and the sure and steady if slow integration of national life has continued.