NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19601, 1 April 1927, Page 10

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

THE BRITISH CIVILi SERVICE. Addressing the gathering at. the annual dinner in London of His Majesty's Civil Serviice, Prince Arthur of Connaught said"lt is'characteristic of our race to dissemble our pride in our national institutions; but, on behalf of those who are outside its ranks, I can assure you that we a,re intensely proud of a Civil Service unsurpassed in its integrity, devotion, and achievement, and admired for those qryilities throughout the world. The- Civil Service is by far the greatest organisation .in, this country, but its. work is not. spectacular, and we are apt to take for granted the benefits we derive from it—benefits which affect every phase of the life of the community as well as of the individual Even events of such purelv domestic interest as our births, weddings and deaths are no secrets from'you. If we are fortunate enough to possess anv capital, there is-'sa Public. Trustee willing to take care of it for us; and if we are foolish . enough to. reject, his-offers of, help—well, there is an official receiver waiting for us. Then, again—l say it with all due respect—there is an omniscent de- - partment always ready and eager to help us (and itself) in matters relating to our incomes. The chain is complete—not a link missing." EMPIRE DEVELOPMENT. The relation between unemployment and migration was discussed by Sir John Ferguson, a member of the British Unemployment Grants Committee, in an ad-' dress to the 1912 Club in London. Could a cure lor the lethargy which had- oyer-;: taken workers since tho war be found in Empire development ? he asked. - He believed the Government intended' to go. "all out" , for a policy of. Empire migra-, tion.. and in that it would deserve the gratitude of generations to come, but it; would be necessary to bear in mind that the fiscal policy of the Mother Country and the Dominions mast be one in which - there was no danger of conveying the scourge of unemployment to the young partners. Trade depended on population,: and they could not 1 use their surplus popu*; iation unless they created trade. The Dominions wanted the best brain and 1 muscle, and it would pay ■; them.-a thousandfold to see that it was British.. After; all these years of experience as deputy-' chairman of tho Unemployment Grants Committee, and having ceen the demoralising effect of unemployment on the minds and bodies of young men and women, he regarded this problem as the one of greatest importance and human interest before the country at the present moment. On the one hand there were millions of acres of land in the Dominions waiting for the plough and on the other hundreds! of thousands of people in Britain living miserably on relief. What golden opportumties were being lest! There was a great work here for someone who would see that recruiting for our great Dominions was from Britain and not-from the surplus of foreign nations. As the "dole" worked at present it destroyed all initiative and paralysed all enterprise and consequently ail hope ,of a successful migration scheme. BOLSHEVISM AND FASCISM. 1 That either Bolshevik or Fascist ideas of government should become established in Britain is regarded as utterly improbable by Count Keyserlmg, an Estonian philosopher, who claims that .his prophecies are invariably realised because ho does not occupy himself with politics nor allow himself to be misled by political phases of the moment, but studies, the tendencies which lie m .the souls of races. He believes that the doctrines of Mars are less to blame for the present state of Russia (analogous to that in 1500) than tho disposition of its people, and that like conditions would' be impossible in.any other, country. Against Bolshevism. and other international movements nationalism is generated by the nations in unconscious self-defence. This reaction is seen in its most violent form in Italy, where Mussolini is to-day what "Caesar Diviuus' was to the Roman Empire. Fascism is the modern form of tho antique spirit which created a god from a man,, and is possible only m Italy. The symbolical figures of Mussolini and Lenin have always existed in the consciousness of tho Italian and Russian peoples las tho figure of Hmdenburg exists in the German consciousness). Modern dictators are not conquerors tike Alexander or Napoleon; ..they are organisers and politicians. And it must be remembered that the world, 13 ruled by facts and not by theories, and that dictatorships do pond upon whether tho nations are willing to bear them or not. Fascism, says Count Keyserling, is unthinkable in a country like England, where parliamentarism is deeply rooted in the conscious j ness of the people. He predicts with | absolute certainty that within a decade J the faco of England will suffer a radical , change.* The English, he says, possess the- germ of eternal evolution which, without shock or bloodshed, caii gradually transform andrenew the whole nation. \*- '