NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18942, 13 February 1925, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

SIX YEARS AFTER THE WAR. "That six years after the Great War there should be tho names of some two thousand ex-officers on the register of the Clement's Inn Labour Exchange shows that those who are able to provide employment have not yet done all they can do to help the ex-officer," says the Morning Post. "Six years is a long time to waste in hope deferred, a long time in which to suffer the hardships of poverty, a long time in which to bo compelled to deny comforts to a wifo and pleasures to children. These two thousand ex-oificers aro of various classes. There are those who enlisted from public school or university or when they were beginning to learn a profession. In so far as taking their place in civil life is concerned, the years they spent in the .Army merely served to hinder them; for ihey were deprived of the training and experience so invaluable at that time in their lives. It is hard that they should pay so bitter a penalty for having done their duty. Some of tho two thousand, again, a/o officers promoted from the ranks and retired with a totally 'nadequato pension. These aro men of middle life, in full vigour, condemned to live in idleness upon a pittance. And, again, there aro about a Hundred ex-nava! officers, compulsorily retired from tho service which they entered in tho full understanding that the Navy was to be their career," POPULATION PROBLEMS. America is a plutocracy, where big business calls the tune and pays tho piper," says Dean Inge in tho Morning Post. "Big business has imported swarms of European cheap labour—a very lucrative policy for the time, because tho importing country has escaped the cost of breeding and educating the immigrants—and the result is that the native American has been driven, or has driven himself, out of the ranks of manual labour. There is no moro room for him in his own country, though there is plenty of room for South Italians, Poles and Jews. This, ;ud not selfishness or immorality, is why the native American has only one or two children. The same problem confronts us at home, and it is very difficult to suggest a remedy. I do not know of any cure, though I can tee that almost everything that we are doing; politically makes the disease worse. It may be that a simpler standard of Jiving might prolong tho existence of the mjudle class. It is unnecessary to advocate this, as it is forced upon us whether we like it or no. But diagnosis is the first need. Without it wo shall never find a remedy. Adequate knowledge, clear thinking, and freedom from prejudice are all that we need to understand the problem. The solution, I admit, demands wisdom of a very high order." A WARNING TO INDIA. Addressing the European Association in Calcutta, the Viceroy emphasised that the policy of the British Government toward India liad remained unchanged since 1919, through five Administrations, and gave a firm intimation that no change was being contemplated. He devoted practically tho whole of his speech to the situation in Bengal created by tho terrorist movement and its effect on the political progress of India. "We cannot stand by," he said, "and merely wail and wring our hands when law and order founder in the flood. In no circumstances will we permit ourselves to be influenced in the faintest degree by terrorist methods toward a policy which is not approved on its merits." Lord .Reading said he profoundly regretted that many Indian politicians and leaders of thought seemed to attach little or no importance to the necessity of affording testimony to Great Britain of their co-operation and goodwill. He continued:—"lt is difficult to understand tho purpose of those who seem to revel in attacking tho British people and imputing evil motives to thorn ill relation to India. These utterances do not truly represent Indian opinion, for experience has taught me that there is a wealth of real loyalty and trust in the British Government animating vast tiumbers of the people of India, but these attacks tend to check and counteract the efforts of all those thinking men in India and Great Britain whose purpose it is to ( help India to greater destinies and he<ultimate goal. It is earnestly to bo hoped that better counsels may yet prevail, and that Britain and India may march forward hand in hand to tho consummation of the common ideal of a prosperous and contented India, with responsible selfgovernment, taking her stand proudly and determinedly in the great commonwealth of nations called tho British Empire." THE GOLDEN INKPOT. " If I were to choose between tho lot of tho clerk and the lot of tho teacher, I should without hesitation choose the lot of the clerk," says Mr. James Douglas, in the Sunday Express. "It is true that tho teacher works shorter hours and has longer holidays than the clerk. It is also true that ho has more security of tenure and the guarantee of a pension. But against these advantages must bo set the fact that his occupation is a dead-end. It leads to nothing. Tho prizes in his profession are few, and they are small prizes. The clerk, on the other hand, can rise to any height in the world of business, provided that he possesses brains and industry. Tho work of the teacher unfits him for any other job, whereas the work of the clerk often gives him an insight into business methods which enables him to escape from his illpaid drudgery. Many of our most successful business men started life as clerks. There is a fortune in every clerk's inkpot. I admit that some teachers have fought their way out of tho schoolroom ii\to literature. But a novelist can how wealth out of any occupation. He may be a seaman like Conrad, and coin money out of his power to read the riddle of the sea. But genius is rare, and most teachers, like most clerks, stick in their groove till they die. Something may be said for tho dull monotony of the clerk's lot. It arouses tho restless demon that ought to be in every young man's breast. It fills him with that divine discontent which breaks barriers and overleaps obstacles. There is nothing more terrible than a contented young man who resigns himself to the acceptance of defeat before he is thirty. It is foolish to beliovo in the maxim, 'Once a clerk, always a clerk.' Yet there aro thousands of young clerks who have tamely resigned themselves to being what they aro for the rest of their lives. They are not worth more than £3 10s a week, and they do not wish to make themselves worth more."