NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21291, 19 September 1932, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS

j SILVER CURRENCY • j Addressing the shareholders of a Bengal iron company in London, Mr. W. Turner MacLellan remarked"l agree with Lord Desborough and Sir Roberb Home that the most hopeful quick method of improving trade and increasing credit throughout the world, and particularly in the East, is a reversion to bi-metallism. During the first three-quarters of the last century when bi-metallism was in vogue, silver varied very slightly round 5s an ounce, but in 1873 Germany, by collaring 200 millions of French gold for reparations, disorganised the financial world, and bi-metallism went by the board. Since then the fluctuations in silver have been very severe. 'Empty mangers make biting horses,' and the countries to suffer most were Mexico and China, and much of the trouble' in these countries, I think, has been really due to the silver fluctuations. If the principal countries of the world restored silver on a basis of, say, 2s 6d an ounce, it would stabilise finance among about half the world's population, and the reflex action on the rest of the world would be enormous, owing to their increased purchasing power on a fixed basis, and hoarding would be reduced." MIND AND THE BODY In his presidential address to the centenary meeting of the British Medical Association Lord Dawson of Penn urged upon doctors the necessity of considering mental conditions when diagnosing; appealed for the provision of health hostels for people with fat heads and fat bodies; contended that much illness could bo avoided if the faculty of a university would give popular lectures on medical subjects to the people of the neighbourhood; and took exception to Lord Moynihan's recent statement that modem surgery had almost reached perfection. "In , these days, when diseases of invasion are receding and diseases of stress loom larger, both personality and environment receive accentuated importance," he continued. "A man's physical and mental make-up—-his inborn trends—play no small part in the clinical picture he presents. To effect a cure both aspects must be studied. Pervading these problems there is a fundamental error of thought—namely, that disturbances of your mind are under your control and are, therefore, your fault, whereas disturbances of your body are not under your control and are, therefore, your misfortune. This false doctrine of control, and all the perversions of the doctrine of free will with which it has long been entangled, is responsible for much faulty thinking and human suffering. Self-control can be bought too dearly or sought where it ill belongs. NEW CONCEPTION OF WAR Speaking at the conference of the International Law Association, Professor J. L. Brierly referred to the "new conception" resulting from the League Covenant, the Kellogg Pact and the Convention for Financial Assistance signed by 28 States in 1930. He pointed out that the pre-war conception of war as an inevitable but unfortunately recurring event which was the private concern of the belligerents, and during which the rest of the world could best be employed in keeping the ring on the basis of strict impartiality, no longer represented the position. He emphasised the intent and purpose of Articles 11 and 16 of the Covenant, and said<the one thing for the future which was certain was that if any war broke out between two States it would be, and ought to be, the concern of the whole world. The draft convention on neutrality in land warfare was inconsistent with the post-war pacts which he had mentioned, and particularly With Article 1 of the Convention for Financial Assistance, which provided that if a State, in violation of its international obligations, went to war against a member of the League, the victim of the aggression would be entitled to receive- financial assistance from League States. He referred to the pronouncement of Mr. Stimson on the attitude of the United States, denouncing war as an illegal thing, and asked the association not to countenance propose? rules of war based on an outworn conception. PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY In a recent lecture Professor E. T. Campagnac, Professor of Education in Liverpool University, urged that one of the greatest needs nowadays was the enforcing upon parents of their own responsibilities for the welfare of their children. To-day most men and women were so busy earning their living that they had no time to devote to the training of their children. Even if the woman was at home she was so much occupied attending to house duties that, had she the ability, she had not the leisure to mind her children. Yet the fact remained that tho most potent influence on a child's life was tho influence of its parents. More and more was being done by that extraordinary body or power which was called the State to relievo parents of their primitive and natural responsibilities and to take tho child away from them. Ho believed it would be found wise in the near future, quite apart-from economic pressure and necessity, to throw back upon parents some of the responsibilities which teachers had been foolishly too willing to undertake. " My own belief," he said, " is that if we are wise we shall act before wo are compelled to in this direction, and see to it that some part of the payment and cost of education should fall not only indirectly but directly upon the parents of the child. They would then have a reminder that ultimately the people who are responsible for the welfare of the young are the people who brought them into the world/-