NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21899, 7 September 1934, Page 10

NOTES AND COMMENTS

BRITAIN'S AIR DEFENCE Following are two expressions of opinion from leading papeVs in France and Germany as to the proposed increase in Great Britain's Air Force. "The moderation of the British air programme," says the Temps of Paris, "shows that the British Government is not yielding to the spirit of panic . . . but does not wish to be taken by surprise; it means that Britain intends to be in a position in any circumstances to fulfil the obligations which she has assumed. That is a warning to anyone who is toying with the idea of aggression, and is in itself calculated to strengthen confidence in the consolidation of peace." Berliner Tageblatt takes a rather different view. It says:—"The new project means over eight hundred machines, that is to say, a home air fleet so strong that, if one remembers its superiority in quality, it need scarcely fear the French rival. . . . There iB no doubt that Britain has now taken a great step forward toward equality in the air with its strongest neighbour, France." FREEDOM OF SPEECH Concerning freedom of speech, Professor W. H. Fyfe, principal of Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, said recently:—"The ideal of suppressing inquiry and free speech, which has for the moment established a tragic dominance in many parts of the world, is nowhere more absurd than in a university, where men and women gather to exercise their faculties of curiosity and logic. Those faculties in them are necessarily immature; their utterances are often crudely dogmatic. But to stifle thought and utterance would be in a university the basest treason. As Penn said, ' Whoever is right, the persecutor must be wrong.' If we are to stimulate in our pupils objective thinking, we must be equally free in speech and thought ourselves—but not equally rash. Propaganda is no part of a teacher's proper function. He is not concerned to produce opinion, a temporary state of conviction which can be quickly changed by counter-propaganda. His aim is to stimulate the growth pf intelligence, the power of detached judgment. To that end he may exercise in the class-room every art of sophistry, but if he blinks his way into the outer world, where opinions clash unanchored both from fact and reason, it behoves him to remember what astonishing weight that world attaches to a professorial pronouncement. The dignity of the university stalks beside him on'the platform, sternly demanding judicial sobriety. A university teacher should certainly be clever; he needs to be wise; and of the factors of wisdom not the least are selfrestraint and kindliness and patience."

THE TRANSLATORS In doing honour to Robert Morrison we do honour to the great company of translators, says the Times. They receive for the most part scanty rewards for their toils, but they may have the satisfaction of knowing that they are busy upen things which are essential to the family of nations. "Translation," as Mr. Belloc has said, "is a condition of order between nations, qnd therefore of peace. In a still wider field it is the condition without which a common culture cannot exist." If ever all languages were merged into some common speech something might be gained, but in the spiritual inheritance of mankind there would be an immeasurable loss;' for, as Stresemann said at Geneva, "language is the shrine of a people's soul." If such shrines are to be preserved, and at the same time their treasures are to be in some measure available, then translators must be found. Much may be lost in the process, but enough will be retained to provide the material of a common culture. If China is to bring to the family of nations . its own ancient inheritance, such scholars as Morrison are still needed. And it must further be remembered, to quote Mr. Belloc once more, that "translation is a function of religion," for religion is by its very nature universal. Though there may be but one tongue for tho immortals, there are many for mortals; and, if the witness of the spirit of man is to be carried into all the many sanctuaries of the many nations, there must be found those patient, unselfish, hidden servants of mankind, the translators. In giving a salute to Morrison we do not forget the honourable company to which he belongs.