NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22345, 17 February 1936, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS

PEACE BEGINS AT HOME The works manager of a large engineering firm with whom I was once discussing politics, economics and possible national progress made a very profound remark to me on this point, writes Miss Phyllis Bentley, the novelist, in the Yorkshire Post. He said: "Tho only really effective way to work for peace is to be a peaceful person. Ato we, in a word, really peaceful persons? Miss Bentley asks. Or are we irritating, provocative and hasty? And if we are not peaceful, have we tho right to expect tho rest of tho world to be so, in our default? It is only a modernised version of the old do as you would be done by, of courso, for wo all want a just world, so that it may be just to us. NOT SO " BRIGHT" Whenever I see a placard announcing that we are to have "brighter broadcast programmes " my heart sinks, writes Miss Hilda Matheson in the London Observer. It is not that I have a gloomy disposition, but that I distrust tho adjective " bright." Except in relation to intervals in the weather, and, of course, to material objects which shine, its implications do not appeal to me—a bright girl, for instance, a bright show, or projects for brightening the classics, or quiet country inns. The use of this term in advance publicity for broadcast programmes usually indicates a desire on tho part of the 8.8.C., or of somaone in it, to placate or appease. It has an apologetic ring, as much as to say: " Yes, we do have serious programmes sometimes, but we are going to squeeze them out or dress them up in future." " Brighter programmes " has, I think, been the phrase used in connection with every concession to supposed low-brow tasto. SCIENTIFIC CO-OPERATION The importance of the progressive application of science in industry was emphasised by Mr. L. A. Munro in a lecture on "Chemical Industries" given to the Chartered Institute of Secretaries in London. It was extremely important, he said, that those in Government quarters should appreciate that industrial progress depended to a large extent on the progressive application of science. That did not always appear to be fully realised. There would seem to be those who looked upon new applications of science as something to be taxed. There was little doubt that there was room to-day for more scientists — more men with tho scientific outlook—in Parliament and in public life generally. As in international politics it was at the frontier that interest developed, so, with tho sciences, it was where physics met chemistry, where chemistry met biology, that the greatest interest emerged. The interesting developments of the future would be those which would result from co-operation between tho sciences. CHRISTMAS IN MOSCOW No holly wreaths, candle-lit windows, jingling sleighfuls of merrymakers, carols, or trees splendid with tinsel and baubles greeted Christmas Day in Moscow, writes the Moscow correspondent of the Sunday Times. Ivan Ivanovitch trudged to the factory door and checked in, his boy and girl- were at their desks in school, and liis wife went to market as usual. In Russia December 25 has become just another day in the life of its citizens. Old Moscow once proudly .boasted "forty times forty" churches. Approximately thirty-five now remain open to serve those who still cling to religion. These are filled to overflowing on every great religious holiday—perhaps most of all at Christmas time. Most of the worshippers are old men and women. These services, and a scattering of half-hearted "festivities" carried on in back rooms away from the eyes of scoffing neighbours are the only notice that Christmas gets from the dwindling number of Muscovite believers. Religion is steadily losing ground in the Soviet Union, even though in recent years anti-religious campaigns have been carried on with lessened fervour. LEAGUE'S SUPERHUMAN TASK The Lord Chief Justice of England, Lord Hew art, adopts a legal analogy in a recent article to describe the obstacles impeding the success of what he describes as "that epoch-making movement which, under tho namo of tho League of Nations, is striving amidst almost superhuman difficulties, and in the interests of all mankind.' to substitute tho force of law for the lawlessness of force." It is hard, if not impossible, to find anything at all like a parallel, ho continued. But let anybody, whether he bo layman or lawyer, try to imagine tho task which would be involved in the attempt to "settle" an ordinary lawsuit where (for example) a sum of fifty thousand pounds was involved, and where the negotiations had to be conducted in circumstances somewhat resembling those that are now to bo suggested.. Suppose that one of tho parties to the suit strongly desired a settlement—say tho plaintiff—while the other party—tho defendant —was full of fight. Suppose that each of tho parties believed, for totally different reasons, that a grave question of honour was involved, over and above the question of mere money. Suppose that each of tho parties had a large retinue .of witnesses, including expert witnesses, all of them being strong partisans, and most of them in frequent communication with each other. Suppose, furthor, that at many critical moments tho Silk who was loading for tho plaintiff happened to bo detained in another Court, and that communication botwecn him and his learned junior was never easy and was sometimes prevented. Suppose, again, that the issues in tho litigation had excited great interest throughout tho press, and that tho. astute and alert journalists who favoured either side so far disregarded the rules about contempt of Court as to chronicle every step, and attempted stop, in tho negotiations and to comment upon each of them with extreme vehemonco. And suppose finally—not to mention somo other matters —that some of the plaintiff's advisers and friends were continually assuring the advisers and friends of the defendant that in no conceivable circumstances would tho plaintiff dare to go into the witnessbox. What possible prospect, what remotest chance, of a settlement would there beP,