NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20924, 14 July 1931, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

PEACE MOVEMENTS. "There are those who are so enthusiastic in the cause of peace that they seem to think that if only this country begins a process of disarmament it will make the rest of the world yive up the practice of war," the, Bishop of Gloucester, Dr. A. C. Headlam, wrote recently,, in his diocesan magazine. "As a matter of fact, it is very obvious that the situation in the world is very dangerous. There is a great deal of unrest about, and if this country and the British Empire ceases to be able to defend itself there is no doubt at all that they would be exposed to very great danger. . . . The Soviet Republic of Russia are only prevented by the uncertainty of the issue from attempting to extend their principles, which to most of us seem to be destructive to civilised society. Beyond the border the small States grouped around Russia are in a .most precarious state. It is quite clear that the Red Army might at any time get out of hand and-the Soviet Government, like all bad Governments, might have recourse to external war to keep its position at home. We have depleted the force of Germany quite as much as is safe for the protection of Europe."

THE ILLUSION OF HAPPINESS. "If anybody thinks he has a right to happiness in the shape of an uninterrupted flow of pleasant sensations, he is suffering from one of the grossest delusions that ever haunted the human mind," eays Dr. L. P. Jacks in the London Evening News. "No human being is fitted for such an existence, either by the constitution of his body or by the constitution of his mind. Merely to keep him alive as a human being, to say nothing of making his life worth living, he needs a lot of pain and a lot of difficulty, and is admirably fitted both in mind and body for dealing with both things. On any other terms he would perish miserably. And not only are human beings unfitted both in mind and body for a life of uninterrupted pleasure, but any God, or Universe, which offered them that, as end-all and goal of their existence, would be a God not worthy of worship and a universe not worth living in. It would be a universe without meaning, without value, without beauty —the silliest and most contemptible universe the mind can conceive; a fool's paradise, if you like, but a hell for everybody except the fools, and not much of a paradise even for them."

A NATION OUT OF DEBT. "A few years ago only an inspired madman would have dared to prophesy that the one country in the world which would be able to claim in the year 1931 that it possessed neither national debt nor unemployment would lie in (hat politically and physically torrid zone which links the two American Continents," said the London Financial News recently. " However, so it is. Thanks to the copious draughts of oil which Nature has poured upon the once troubled sea of her finances, Venozuela was able last year to celebrate the centenary of her Republic and of the death of her national heroes after a novel fashion. The whole of the remaining external debt to the amount of 24,000,000 bolivares (about £950,000) was extinguished during the year. There was then left some 26,000,000 bolivares (£1,030,000) of internal 3 per cent, debt outstanding, but as that amount is covered not. far short of twice by the cash holdings of the National Treasury, her claim to bo a country without debt is in fact a valid one. As the president is also able to assert that unemployment does not exist in the Republic, and that the aspirations of the people ' keep the masses away from internecine troubles which engender crime and, incite to rebellion,' it will bo Venezuela's own fault if she does not weather the world-wide depression with flying colours."

ADVERTISING ENGLAND. " With the Royal assent, given on June 11, the Local Authorities (Publicity) Bill has passed into law, supported by all political parties and without a dissentient voice. So swiftly and quietly has this event come about that its profound significance may well be missed. For the placing of the Act on the Statute Book marks, officially at least, nothing less than a complete revolution in the national outlook," says Mr. A. CorbettSmith, in the London Daily Telegraph. " The Act empowers local authorities to contribute to an ' approved organisation' the proceeds of a maximum halfpenny rate, for the purpose of collating and disseminating abroad information upon all I aspects of the national life and environment. In short, it empowers direct commercial and co-operative national advertising to attract foreign visitors. The ' approved organisation' in the case is the Travel Association of Great Britain and Ireland. Lord Derby is the president and the Prince of Wales is the patron. The society was founded at a, Mansion House meeting in December, 1928, and the two and a-half years of working have thoroughly justified its existence. The immediate result of the association's work is noted in a steady annual increase of 5000 foreign visitors to these shores. In 1930 we entertained 246,000 visitors, who spent an estimated £10,000,000. France, so Lord Marley stated in the House of Lords, entertains 2,000,000 visitors and nets £100,000,000 per annum." Mr. Cor-bett-Smith adds that the income of the association, including a Government grant of £SOOO, is £IB,OOO. Under the now Act, a. single local authority—Portsmouth and Southsea, for instance—may contribute £4OOO per annum.