NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21893, 31 August 1934, Page 10

NOTES AND COMMENTS

STILL HOPING " The Disarmament Conference, during its recent meetings in Geneva, passed through what was undoubtedly the mos|b critical period in its existence, but goodwill was, fortunately, in the end forthcoming, and a compromise was successfully reached," writes tho Rt. Hon. Arthur Henderson, M.P., in Labour. " A further opportunity was thus afforded to the Governments to come together on essential questions. Meanwhile, tho Conference is still in being, and tho committees and the programme of work established by the General Commission is being carried into effect at Geneva. The practical outcome of our efforts is that the Governments have still a chance of at last emerging from the difficult situation which was created for the Conference by the withdrawal of Germany,. I have no illusions as to the difficulties to be overcome, but I feel confident that, if the Governments make an effective use of the opportunity afforded them, it may shortly be possible for tho Conference to meet again in a more hopeful spirit and with a firm determination to succeed in framing a Convention for the limitation of armaments." RUSSIA AND THE LEAGUE "For the League of Nations Soviet adhesion would mean a mighty access of power from* a quarter least expected, and at a time when it was most sorely needed," writes Mr. Miriam S. Farley in Current History. "Believers in the peace machinery would rejoice in seeing bourgeois and proletarian governments find at last a basis of co-operation in advancing the cause to which both profess profound devotion. Yet supporters of tho 'League idea' cannot avoid tho ■disturbing thought that Soviet Russia and the League are being brought together not by international but by purely nationalistic forces. Despite Litvinov's protests that Franco-Russian rapprochement is not a return to tho old policy of alliances, the similarity between the present situation and that existing before 1914 has been pointed out by many observers. If the entry of the Soviet Union into the League should turn out to be merely a disguised form of a new Franco-Russian alliance, the League would have paid dearly for its new member. Russia would then be joining not Wilson's League but Clemenceau's." PROBLEM OF INDIA "The answer demands one of those signal displays of political instinct united to courageous decision which leave an indelible mark on history," says Sir James Crerar in the Asiatic Review, in reference to the Government's Indian White Paper proposals. "It will be determined by resolving upon a very few great issues and not by interminable talk and contention about the multitude that are subsidiary. I would submit as considerations which point to a decision three propositions. Firstly, the existing system of government, both in what it has done and what it has not done, has exhausted or completed its potentialities. We have reached the limits of the period of transition for which it was intended to provide. Secondly, a further period of transition has now to be contemplated and provided for, because we have not yet in view conditions ijvhich admit even of that very relative degree of finality which is all that is attainable in politics. The proposals of His Majesty's Government are based on an inquiry more prolonged, more minute and more comprehensive than any on record. They represent an effort, commensurate with the magnitude and intricacy of the problem, to offer a constructive solution for difficulties that are generally admitted, a reasonable satisfaction to Indian ambitions and the scope for natural and organic development which may obviate any drastic readjustments in too near a future. It is possible that this might be done by other means, but none has hitherto been put forward. Thirdly, it is better to proceed upon a maturely considered plan than to postpone action until a time when we should be obliged to improvise dangerously under the compulsion of events what should have been opportunely done with deliberation and goodwill."

SPIRITUAL LIFE

At the first Methodist Conference to be hold in the provinces since the consummation of the Union opened in Leicester last month, the Rev. William Younger, the president, said that conversion was not another name for education. Spiritual life was not the mere natural unfolding of the promising elements of human personality. Ministers and people must prepare for and expect conversions. This generation was indifferent to that Gospel. Yet what ago was not? Man found those , things most attractive which appealed" to him in his earthly sense of values and in his confused and often ,unfriendly environment. The natural man at . first revolted against the Gospel, but they should not bo discouraged or attempt to introduce substitutes for the message of conversion. There was no alternative to it. Behind the indifference of the ago, and behind its contradictory experiments to recon-' struct life upon a rational basis, there was emerging the conviction that the solution of man's - problems and tragedies was not within man himself. They should not be sidetracked by controversies about methods. All types and gifts must labour for conversions. Scepticism and naturalism wero silent in front of spiritual miracles. Great revivals swept everything before them. Schools of thought wero led into a region of spiritual reality which transcended tho horizons of intellect. It was hero, too, that they would ultimately find a common bond of fellowship among Protestant believers. Churches which lived constantly in the joy of conversions were sympathetic in their relationships. And was not this the way to lead the people, of this country back to a right use of the Sabbath? That work of grace in man was indispensable to tho creation of a harmonious system of human society. Tho security and progress of democracies did not live within themselves. Society had no inherent power of communal and racial direction. The leadership of nations was ineffective bocause there was a too exclusive concentration upon the natural solvents of human society. If the Churches could only daily add to their number those who wero in the way of being saved a new tone aud temper and outlook would be seen.