NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21783, 24 April 1934, Page 10

NOTES AND COMMENTS

NATIONAL CHARACTER " . . . I am of opinion that the national character is still fundamentally unchanged," writes Mr. Arthur Biyant in his book. "The National Character." "On the surface —in the smart hotels of the West End of London, say, or the board-rooms of limited liability companies—the rather unstable nature of our modern social system tends to collect types who are not altogether typical of the nation, but represent rather some more cosmopolitan ideal. Below the upper crust lies the rich, varied meat of our native English character—its ancient prejudices and stolid conservatism, its passionate longing for justice, its mulish stupidity and instinctive wisdom, its patience, its courage, its incorrigible good humour. When I travel in a first-class carriage, I sometimes find myself in a perhaps wider but alien world; when I go third, I feel that I have returned to England. There, spiritually starved as I hold them to be, yet rich in the accumulated traditions of their past, are my own people; that is my country and I love it."

WHEN A DICTATOR DIES "Whatever defects there are in our form of government, we are not going to find a remedy by appealing to the nation to favour Fascist doctrines," said Sir Robert Horne in an address to members of the Scottish Conservative clubs at Edinburgh. "For one thing, I do not think the name is one which is likely to appeal. Until the British Fascists find some good British word by which thoy can designate themselves they will never have any real success with the British electorate. The whole policy of Fascism is alien to the traditions of this country. We are not at this time of day with our traditions of freedom going to surrender our views into the hands of any single man. You could not induce the British people to do it. There is a practical difficulty about dictatorship which is sometimes forgotten. Who succeeds a dictator? If your nation is going to last beyond the lifetime of a single man, what is the system by which you can provide a successor?" Sir Robert went on to appeal for a speeding up of Parliamentary procedure. "If Germany were to resort to war it would bo done on the ipse dixit of a single man, and the whole nation would move the instant that he had spoken, whereas in this country we would have arguments in the House of Commons for weeks before wo arrived at a decision. The rules of the House of Commons have not been revised in our time and for long before. I think it is timo that we now set to and put the methods in the House of Commons more into consonance with the modern desire for speed."

PRODUCT OF THE WAR Speaking at a function in connection with a soldiers' home, Mr. It. H. Mottram, author of "The Spanish Farm" trilogy, recalled how almost exactly 20 years before ho had stood in a crowd of men at Norwich eager to take upon themselves the onerous and narrow duties of a soldier. The dominant expression, he thought, on that day was ond of intense surprise. They had not been brought up to enlist as soldiers; they had never expected it; and 95 per cent of them, ho was sure, did it from a sense of duty. Perhaps it .was a niisttvken sense of duty, but it was a sense of duty. Twenty years went by, he said, and he had recently listened in Norwich to a young German speaking in excellent English and trying to win the friendship of the old Roundhead Norwich public for the point of view of the present rulers in Germany. According to this young man, the Jews must be crushed and the Communist? must be crushed, and Communist seemed to be a generic title for any who disagreed with the views of the rulers. It was difficult, Mr. Mottram declared, to understand that this was the product, in an indirect way, of what they had done 20 years before, yet so it was. He had asked the speaker at what date in the future would it be possible to argue or to question principles of government, and the reply had been that the Germans did not believe in individual liberty, and no date was given. It loft one with a feeling of groping in the darkness. One wondered how it should be" that intentions so good as in 1914 should give rise to such an extraordinary result.

ATHEISM AND CLASS WAR Dr. Inge, speaking at a meeting in support of the Young Briton Movement, said that he did not think there was any real danger of Bolshevism sweeping the country. He referred to what had happened in Russia and described it as State barbarism such as the world had never seen before. The essential thing about the Soviet Government was not Communism, which really did not exist there. What they had there was State capitalism, which was not the same as Communism.. What was essential was the omnipotence of the Government, and that was what they must have when any government of that kind was established. In Russia the life and livelihood and liberty of every Russian man and the honour of every Russian. woman were absolutely at the mercy of some State official. That was the state of things brought about by the revolution in Russia, and apparently it was the state of things which some people would like to establish in Britain. It would be rash to prophesy how the movement in Russia was likely to evolve. His feeling was that they would gradually drop the philosophy of Karl Marx and that there would bo an approximation to Fascism. He was tokl that the movement was becoming more national, more militarist every year, and he thought that the war against religion 1 would be dropped. They could not have a Government which did not to some extent lean upon the Church. Commending the work of the Young Briton Movement in combating atheism and class warfare, he said he could not imagine a moro virulent poison to give children than to teach them such things. The Fascist movement and the Hitlerite movement were really at bottom against class war. National ruin must follow the acceptance of class war. It was amply worth while to try to combat the 6vils which the Young Briton Movement was fighting against.