NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22149, 1 July 1935, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS

ISOLATION IMPRACTICABLE Mr. Anthony Eden, British Minister in charge of League of Nations Affairs, in his first public speech since the illness which followed his tour of fire European capitals, set out to answer the question as to what should be Britain's policy in existing European conditions. Her greatest commitment — and let there be no doubt that it was a commitment —was membership of the League. There had been no greater Imperialist in the present century than Joseph Chamberlain, yet he was one of the first British statemen to see the impracticability of the policy of isolation. Isolation, if it ever had more than an ephemeral existence, died in the early years of this century and was buried when Britain signed the Covenant of tho League. If isolation was of no avail, neither was a system of separate and selective alliances as a permanent solution of our difficulties. There remained one solution only—a collective peace system and the only practical form of such a system in existence to-day was the League of Nations. The membership of the League was as yet far from complete, and there were varying degrees of faith among those who were members. "In these conditions," said Mr. Eden, "it is of the first importance that our own country should be no laggard in faith and in action. We must not imagine that we can do this without fulfilling obligations." There was only one way in which Britain could keep out of a great war, and that was to prevent it

VITAMINS FOR WORKERS The results of a three years' investigation by Lever Brothers, Limited, suggest that whiter absence from work may he appreciably reduced by a regular ration of vitamin A. Two years ago Lord Leverhulme, in an address to the Royal Institute of Public Health, discussed the heavy loss which industry suffered by reason of the common cold, and announced that the experiment in question was being undertaken at Port Sunlight, near Liverpool. Following a more limited experiment in the late winter of 1933 vitamin A concentrates, with or without vitamin D, have been made available during the last two winters to all members of the staff who wished to take them. In the winter of 1933-34 a group of about 300 workers taking vitamin had a sickness absence rate more than one-third lower than that of a like number of workers in the same departments who were no vitamin. The respective figures were 2397 and 1555 hours' sickness absence per 100 persons. In the winter just past, for which figures are only available down to the end of January, about 550 workers were receiving vitamins, the "control group" numbering about 850. The number of hours lost was then reduced by approximately one-quarter, from 1037 hours to 784 hours per hundred persons. Detailed figures show that the reduction was more in the length than in the number of sickness absences. "It is interesting to note," Mr. R. S. Morgan, of the Central Technical Department comments, "tljat the advantage appears not to be confined to increased immunity to any particular kind of llliiess, but rather to be spread fairly evenly over all the causes of sickness absence.

TRADE AND FASHION Recent protests in England against the habit of going bare-legged were based on the damage done to the hosiery industry. Changes in fashion often have that eifect, the Manchester Guardian notes. Whore now is that once-flourishing trade in long lacc curtains, and what has happened to the many beads and "bugles" that used to decorate tho bodices of the nineties? Or the closer parallel to the case of women and their stockings would be tho young men and their hats; there, too, the hatters have protested that the fashion for going without spells ruin to an ancient and important trade. Whether such protests have much effect seems a matter of considerable doubt. Fashions, except in the case of those who serve them professionally, are seldom concerned with economics; they are a matter of the look of the thing and the mood of the hour. Will young men wear hats or will young women wear stockings merely in order to support the deserving trades which produce those articles? It seems a little doubtful; the argument from appearance is the one that counts most strongly, and if it cofild ; be shown that a young man in a hat looks more handsome than a young man without one, or that the female leg in a stocking is a more appealing affair than the limb which relies on its own unaided charm, then the industries concerned would have little to fear. And it is, as a matter of fact, quite an arguable proposition that many a leg loses half its grace by losing all its stocking, and when legs are numerously exposed the note of novelty will soon disappear.

HUMAN ELEMENT IN SOVIET Round M. Stalin's newest watchword, which may be freely translated as "Everything depends on the human element," the Soviet press has developed a sort of campaign urging that greater care be taken of Soviet specialists and the rank and file of the workers, writes the Riga correspondent of the Times. The usually reticent Dictator has made several noteworthy pronouncements since the beginning of May, the latest being addressed to the new graduates of the Red Army's Military Academy. M. Stalin in this speech briefly reviewed the progress of Bolshevism since the Revolution, announcing that the time had now come for changing the treatment of human beings employed in the Soviet machine. Hitherto they had rightly laid almost the whole stress on the machine itself. Sufferings and privations were inevitable at this stage, as without adequate machinery permanent victory was impossible. The difficulties created grumblers and opposition even among Bolshevik leaders, some of whom had attempted actively to compel a change of policy, "even threatening to shoot some of us." But the Leninists had remained unafraid. Having now achieved adequacy in machinery and equipment, they must turn their attention to the people, not only to the leaders and directors, but also to the rank and filo man who worked the machinery. Ho was still neglected, often the victim of a "soulless bureaucracy." He must receive proper esteem, as machinery without him was a dead thing, and until ho was raised to his proper placo in industry, agriculture. transport, and the Army "we shall be lame on both legs." The Moscow newspaper Pravda describes the speech as "one of the most noteworthy in the history of the world."