NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21875, 10 August 1934, Page 10

NOTES AND COMMENTS

WEALTH AND GREATNESS " It is a common misunderstanding among foreign nations that wealth means greatness. These two things are often associated the wrong way about," said Sir 11. A. F. Lindsay, H.M. Trade Commissioner for India, in a recent speech. " Greatness must come first, and wealth must be regarded as a byproduct. Greatness has for one of its necessary attributes the power to deny oneself those, things that 'are usually associated with wealth. We find a world in which the individual seems to be striving toward a uniformity of thought and outlook which must in tho end work for his own undoing. In Britain wo have achieved much by exactly contrary methods. Under all the uniformity there ltirks in every individual an inherent difference of view, outlook and ideals, so that every man and his neighbour, and his best friend, and his own kith and kin, may have different views and yet remain true friends. 'J'lio result is that instead of the individuals of tho nation growing up to any uniform type, we are able to draw upon an enormous range of qualities for the support and defence and continuance of the nation."

INTERNATIONAL TRADE Mr. Harold Butler, the Director of the International Labour Office, replying to the speakers who took part in the debate on his annual report, said that if industrialists all over the world wore to combine in a movement for lemoving restrictions on international trade their influence would produce farreaching improvements. But it would be an idl© dream to suppose that there was any likelihood of the world returning to free trade, or anything, approaching it. Tho real problem was how to reconcile the national eeonomio systems which had been built up behind tariff walls and exchange restrictions with the need for freer movement of goods, capital and services between nations, a need which was being more and more acutely felt. Mr. Butler said there was a type of monetary action entirely different from exchange depreciation. It consisted in taking deliberate steps to increase the volume of effective demand on the whole market by means of controlled public expenditure, financed if necessary by controlled credit expansion. Such action, if successful, made for a type of recovery which benefited other nations instead of handicapping them. It made for a larger production and a wider distribution of material goods. A number of experiments in that direction were now being witnessed, the most important of which was that in the United States.

MOUNT EVEREST Major-General Sir Percy Cox, president of the Royal Geographical Society, in his address at the annual meeting of the society, referred to the results of the Mount Everest Expedition of 1933. He said that no expedition could have been run with better judgment or with greater efficiency and determination. It was a great credit to the leader that he brought his party through without casualty. But it had now been abundantly demonstrated that oven a perfection of human effort could not be expected to achic\ e success unless reasonable favour on the part of the elements was vouchsafed to the climbers at tho final critical stage. Some luck in the behaviour of the weather was essential. It was the last 1000 ft. that had become the crux of the problem, and they must face the fact that from whatever angle it wa3 attempted the final climb was going to be exceedingly difficult. The now proven difficulties of the northern approach of Mount Everest naturally tended rather to turn their thoughts to the southern face, and that face the flight photographs had shown to be composed of magnificent truncated spurs and couloirs, not at first sight promising, but nevertheless inviting reconnaissance; while the high glaciated area between Mount Everest and Ohamlang, to the south, seemed to be of outstanding beauty and geographical interest, guite different from tho terrain on the north side of the mountain.

MR. HENDERSON'S MIND Mr. Arthur Henderson, M.P., speaking at the National Confercnco of Labour Women at Cheltenham, paid a tribute to the work of women's organisations, national and international, in the cause of world peace. As President of the Geneva Conference he said he could testify to the splendid efforts of the women of Britain and other countries. It was worthy of notice that the countries in which women participated most fully and freely in public affairs were tho most democratic and peace-loving countries. Commenting upon what ljo described as the "disappointing features" of the Disarmament Conference, Mr. Henderson said that after 30 months of effort tho outlook was not very promising. Tho conference decided to continue with a view to arriving at a general convention for tho reduction and limitation of armaments. To those who were sceptical about securing a convention in present •circumstances, and in view of tho long drawn-out proceedings of the conference, this decision might not be very convincing. Moreover, tho failure to produce practical results had shaken public confidence in the collective peace system, so that there was a danger of ardent peace-lovers being so discouraged as to become weary in welldoing. Ho asked them to remember tho great advance in public opinion on tho question of disarmament. Tho public mind in most countries had become so impregnated with tho idea of disarmament that Britain could never go back to pre-war conditions. The idea had becomo firmly implanted that national armaments were a matter of world concern. The fundamental reason why armaments were so vast and so appallingly dangerous to-day was that there was no international agreement as to tho purpose for which armaments were to be used. Uncontrolled armaments led inevitably to a race in armaments. Once an agreement was ratified each country's armaments would ceaso to bo a matter for its solo concern, as tho national defence systems would then be regulated by a world treaty. The international situation was uncertain and almost bewildering, .but one tiling was clear - Should Geneva and its peace-keeping system fail, then the policy of isolation—whichever form it took—and the policy of increased armaments could not guarantee Britain national safety. No policy of isolation could prevent her being dragged more and more into a mad race in armaments, and the longer and more intensely nations competed with one another tho inoro terrible would tho war be when it came.