NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21759, 26 March 1934, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS

THE SHIRTS "There is, I think, every objection, from every point of view, to political or any other organisations aping and usurping the dress, training and discipline of military organisations," writes Sir Wyndham Chilcls. "Their actions stand condemned by laws, international and national, by custom and by convention, and the sooner they are suppressed the better will it be for the well-being and constitution of Britain. It is, in my opinion, a matter of urgency to take steps to prevent misguided people from acting in such a manner as is calculated and likely to produce a collision, from which they will be extricated only by the intervention of the forces of law and order between those who hold divergent political views. They are invoking internecine war in our own country when they should be, striving to prevent wars of any description."

BRITAIN'S TRADE POLICY At a commercial function in London Dr. Leslie Burgin, Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade, said he gathered that most of them did not want men at Whitehall to take part in the conduct of their business. (Cries of " Hear, hear.") It Was quite right, therefore, that Whitehall should reply. " Very well, we won't until we are asked unanimously by the industry." The coal trade had asked them to perform certain limited tasks. One of them was to get back some of the markets which had been previously lost. Some of the markets had been retrieved as the result of trade agreements with foreign countries. Such trade agreements had only just begun. There was not a trading country in the world with whom Great Britain was unprepared to explore the possibilities of new treaties of trade and commerce. Some countries had chosen to discriminate against Great Britain. They received very short shrift. Great Britain would not tolerate discrimination against her goods. He understood that the French Government had that day telegraphed a desire to give notice to put an end to the treaties of commerce and navigation between that country and Great Britain. If it was to be a question of a trial of strength between those two countries the quicker they got down to facts the better. While Great Britain was willing to -trade on proper terms with every country, itwould not see other countries preferred and have the most-favoured-nation clause made into a sham.

DIET AND HEALTH ,

Dr. .T. N. Leitch, principal of the London School of Dietetics, recently described how, during a period of influenzal infection diet could be used not only as a restorative for invalids but for the purpose of protecting the healthy. He pointed out that toward the end of the winter the previous summer's stores of sunlight in a body begin to run low and the * body becomes less capable of resisting infection. A weary man at the end of a hard day's work may well be too tired to digest his dinner, and if so it were better for him to have none, as it would do him no good. But if his appetite were gently stimulated 10 minutes or so before the meal the natural juices would become active and his dinner would then serve to rebuild the strength. For such a purpose a beef extract serves a most useful purpose, although not itself a food. Both for the purpose of preventing infection and of restoring the strength of an invalid after infection, Dr. Leitch praised the virtues of cod liver oil and halibut liver oil and remarked that tomato juice was invaluable as the basis of a healthy cocktail. Admitting that oil extracted from the livers of fish did not appeal to all palates, Dr. Leitch spoke of the need for persuading the invalid to take an interest in and welcome the appearance of the food appropriate for his condition, as tho digestion responds to a favourable impression produced in advance through the senses of sight and smell, even before taste is called upon to function. Hence the best of food if badly served in an unappetising manner may well fail to be digested. He spoke, therefore, in favour of the practice of obtaining invalid foods, made up in advance so as to bo " fool proof," as it were, and leave nothing to the risk of domestic clumsiness or inexperience in preparing them.

MOTHER OF PARLIAMENTS When opening a collection of photographs of the Parliament Houses of the Empire, got together by the Press Gallery Committee of the House of Commons, the Speaker, Captain E. A. 'Fitzßoy, said that even in Britain one heard hard things said of Parliament and of the system of representative government, and it was becoming the fashion—ho hoped it was only a fashion —to condemn the procedure of the Mother of Parliaments. Before an assembly of the Press of Parliament, as far as he knew the most generous and tho most fair-minded press in the world, lie knew* that if ho said a few words in its defence he would not he misunderstood and certainly not misrepresented. Their practices and procedure had been evolved; they had not been created. They had not been written out by a committee sitting round a table; they had grown up over a long series of years out of situations as they arose. They might need reform —all human institutions did—but he would offer one word of warning. If those rules and practices wore altered they must be very careful what they put in their place. They were founded on the principle that they were the guardians of the liberties of democracies, and he ventured to say that in that respect, so far as had hitherto been devised, they were the best in tho world. The fact that the Parliaments of the Empire had founded their procedure 011 that of Westminster was something which they in Britain not only ought to bo proud of, but which they ought not to ignore or forgot. Statesmen of the highest rank had referred to the fact that in England, against all factions and " isms," the greatest safeguard was the British Parliament. That was only true if at the same time the rules of procedure and th'o practices of Parliament —amended, if they liked, to meet new circumstances—were substantially maintained and jealously guarded. While they did not curb the rights of majorities, they undoubtedly safeguarded the rights of minorities. They were most adaptable to meet all circumstances, however changeable, which might ariso. If the young ones followed the old mother's example, the old mother's ways could not be so bad as some would have them believe.