NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20604, 1 July 1930, Page 10

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

BRITISH JOURNALISM, The tendencies of British journalism wore discussed recently by a writer in Bon Accord, a weekly illustrated paper published in Aberdeen. "Every now daily paper," he says, " is the same as every other new daily paper, and one might imagine that they had been got out under some system of mass production. I may be wrong, of course—for wo make no pretensions to inerrancy in Aberdeen — but I bcliovo thero will bo a big swing back ono day to the sober, steady-going si andards of daily journalism which such papers as the Times and the Manchester Guardian havo consistently preserved. This 'new* journalism is not truo to pattern; it does not reflect the real character of the British pe0p1e,"..., t REPARATION PAYMENTS. " At last the whole question of compensation and indemnities for 1 -- war damages has been lifted clear of the sphere of politics and placed securely on Iho -more sober plane of the routine transactions of international finance," the Times remarked recently. "With the final disappearance from tho political arena of this thorny problem, which for mors than a decado has poisoned the diplomatic relations of the various European Governments, the task of pacification has bocn formally completed. Seen in its proper perspective tho Young Plan is an immense achievement. It has brought a solution to a vast tangle of financial and political issues which year after year had been agitating the peoples of Europe from tho Rhineland to tho Black Sea and from the Baltic lo the Mediterranean. Germany and her former allies havo been released from the indefinite liability for war damages which has been injurious to their credit, and tho complicated congeries of financial claims and counter-claims, which for so long havo threatened tho tranquillity of Central and Eastern Europe, has been definitely liquidated. . . . It

would be a mistake to suppose that tho vast economic problems connected with reparations and war debts havo been finally solved. The Young Plan, liko its predecessor, is to some extent a leap in tho dark, and tho event alone can show how far its provisions will require to bo modified. It is impossible to envisage to-day with any degree of accuracy tho eccnomic condition of Europe 50 years hence. The most that can bo accomplished at this stage is to lay down, as tho makers of tho Young Plan havo certainly succeeded in doing, tho fundamental principles on which tho final solution of theso pioblems will eventually bo worke3 out."

A BULWARK AGAINST SOCIALISM. Political developments in Britain since the war and the part taken by tho Conservative Party were the subject of some interesting remarks by Mr. Stanley Baldwin in an address beforo the 1912 Club in London. " After the war wo found ourselves. facing a new democracy, and for the first time a suffrage which was practically a manhood he said. " I was afraid of ono thing— tho Socialist propaganda bringing in a Socialist Government with a clear majority beforo any of their leaders had had practical experience in government. I believed that to be the realdanger, and I saw clearly (hat the greatest obstacle to that disaster, as I deemed it, was in our party, which was tho largest of tho three partios in the country; which was, on- tho whole, moro homogeneous than either of the others, and which had a great tradition and was competent to hold the forts until the education of the country had proceeded a good deal farther than it had then. But it was essential to my mind that if our party was to fulfil that function it must keep itself absolutely clear from any entangling alliances with any other party in tho country; it must remain the Unionist Party, or the Tory Party—a name we all love; it must not allow itself to bo diluted in any direction. Tho other thing was that- it must face the future with a post-war mind, and not a pre-war mind, and that it must use every endeavour to attract to ftself tha young men and tho young women. History will decide whether we havo accomplished those two things in the last eight years. Wo have kept ourselves free from entangling alliances, and wo have attracted to ourselves, I think, tho best youth of the country. Witness the largo numbor of our younger men in tho House of Commons—men of whom any party might bo proud; men whom other parties would x - cjoice to have; men in whoso hands tho future of our party will be assured." MACHINERY OF EMPIRE. New facilities for moro regular consultations between all tho parts of the British Empire was advocated by Sir Gilbert Vylc, in an address beforo tho Royal Empire Society in London. Referring to tho Imperial Conference, the first since 1926, he asked how it was possible to havo continuity of policy by consultations onco in four years. r ahe League of Nations met at Geneva every three months and every quarter Britain sent its most prominent Ministers to help put the nations of Europo on their feet. Why should they give all this time and thought to the affairs of oilier nations? Had not the time coino when they should givo more thought to the nations that formed tlie British Empire? lie suggested that the Empire should have a League of Nations all to itself, with a, regular Assembly of the British Empire and frequent and regular consultations between tho responsible Ministers of tho various Governments, with power to decide and to agree. ."Wo :iequire more," ho proceeded. "Wo require a permanent establishment, a . Ministry if you like, of all tho Ministries of tho Empire, devoted solely to tho work of developing the trade of_tho Empire. It must havo powers to investigate and to advise as to tho policies that will give us what is needed to develop inter-Imperial trade. The peoples of tho British Empire aro bound together by, and owe allegiance to, ono ling. Yet when it comes to arranging how they shall conduct their trade, each to-day goes his own way. We have seen the great benefits resulting from the policy of preference. That is-an indication of how we may help each other. . . 'lha British Preparatory Committee for the next Imperial Conference, of which I have the honour to b<? chairman, has had theso matters mulct consideration for some time past. Tho report will soon be issued. There is general agreement that it is necessary thero should bo new machinery for consultation. 1 personally believe that until wo get that machinery wo shall mnko no progress. If we do get it thore are § reat hopes for the future."