NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19320, 6 May 1926, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

MAKING THE LEAGUE WORK. " To make the leaguo work —as work it must and will—wo must each bo careful for the susceptibilities of others," said Sir Austen Chamberlain, in his speech at the ceremony of admitting him to the honorary freedom of London. "The leaguo is not a super State, and anyone who tries to make of it a super State will destroy it. It is an association of powers, each one of which retains its own sovereign right. It is a meeting of equals in which every man's judgment is entitled to consideration and to which every man should bring the same spirit of goodwill and sweet reason. Foreign affairs used to be the mystery of the few; they have become in these days the affair of all. The claims of democracy to control, to be informed as to all events of importance, to have, perhaps, prior knowledge of all possible commitments, to preserve to the democratic organs of Iho state their predominant influence over public affairs, may clash sometimes with the work of tho League of Nations, and, unless those necessary rights of tho democracy in democratic States, arc handled wisely and used with discretion, you will find that Geneva, instead of opening a new chapter of conciliation, repeats the old story of irreconcilable claims, of the clash of national pride, of points of honour, and all the consequences to which those lead. "How can we reconcile the rights of each democracy in its own country with tho spirit of the League, which calls for conciliation, which refuses to admit the right of any nation to dictate, and which claims and requires for its successful use a certain freedom of action and a certain discretion in decision among the representatives of tho nations which meet in that Swiss city ? I do not doubt that with good will these and many other problems will bo overcome."

MOVIES AND RADIO. Within recent years two exceedingly interesting experiments in emotional expression have been initiated on the greatest possible scale—the so-called "moving picture drama" and the "radio-drama," says the Times. In both cases a single sense is made to perform work which, in nature, is divided between seeing and hearing. It is the object of the maker of moving pictures to discount, so far as may bo possible, the sense of hearing; it is, or will soon be, the object of the authors of dramas intended for broadcasting to discount sight. The spectator at a moving picture entertainment is, in a sense, tricked into forgetting that, for the time being, ho is a deaf man. The "listenerin" is not suffered to realise his blindness. Immense numbers of young people now receive their emotional education in "picture houses." The time cannot be far distant wheu thoy will supplement this training by "listening-in" to dramas specially constructed for wireless transmission. No student of psychology doubts that the loss of either sight or hearing exercisos a potent influence on the mind, and even on the character, of the loser. Are the feelings aroused, when one or other of these senses is temporarily placed out of action, identical with the feelings aroused in the normal way ? Again, is there any difference between the effect on an impressionable mind of silent action or invisible action and the effect of action as apprehended by both eyes and ears'! In everyday life, people are accustomed to correct one sensory impression by means of the impressions conveyed by the other senses. Human emotions are evoked, usually, by a "parliament of the senses" rather than by one single sense acting alone. It may well be that singlo senses acting alone awaken feelings which could not be awakened by any other means. The complaint is constantly made to-day that emotions arc becoming crude and unrestrained, and blamo for this is freely showered on the nature of the fare provided at cinema houses. No doubt there is justification for that attitude. But the possibility cannot therefore be dismissed that the manner of presentation may play a part not less important than that of the material presented in debasing or, at any rat.o, in changing the character of popular feeling.