NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22352, 25 February 1936, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS

VIRTUES OF THE POTATO The advice, given by the investigating committee of the League of Nations on nutrition, to eat more potatoes involves, if it is carried out, changes of very great importance, remarks tho Times. It is, incidentally, advice which will cause some surprises, since a few years ago the potato occupied a very low place in the esteem of dictit.a.is. It was described, usually, as "a ball of starch" without great energy-value and wholly contemptible as a source of nourishment. The committee declares, on the contrary, that potatoes provide extra Vitamin C aiid more readily available calcium and phosphorous than are present in cereals. They also yield more iron and B Vitamins than milled grains. Thus the wisdom and tastes ot ordinary men and women find once again their scientific justification. BY-PRODUCT OF SLIMMING Mr. E. Major, warden of tho Carnegie Physical' Training College, Leeds, in a recent address, said that women were leading a keep-fit movement throughout the country. "Why is this?" lie went on. "Is tho keep-fit work for men not sufficiently attractive or interesting, or do men not care whether they are fit or not? Perhaps it is for the more subtle reason that women are much more concerned than men about tne aesthetic and practical disadvantages of putting on weight. The modern craze for slimming among women, even among schoolgirls, may bo largely responsible for the rapid growth of the keep-fit movement among young women. Suffice it to say that the women of this country are taking a very active part in the campaign for physical fitness, an example which might usefully be followed by many more men. WAR TO END WAR Of a truth, the path of the peacemaker is harder than that of the warmaker, writes Dr, George Glasgow in the Contemporary Review. For instance, Mr. Baldwin and Sir Samuel Hoare, in union with M. Laval, attempted to stop the Italo-Abyssinian war and to avert the danger of a general European war. They received no help from Rome or from Addis Ababa. They were abused by the idealist ideologues in their own country, who vehemently stuck to the ideology that, by general war, aggression must this time be proved unprofitable to the aggressor. To the mind of the so-called idealist this was to be another war to end war. The interesting thing is that so soon after the indescribable horrors of the last Great War —itself waged by the same idealists as a war to end war —there should be those who were prepared to face still another war to end war. Endless war to end war is a grim conception. "For what can war (asked Milton) but endless war still breed?" It must surely be recorded unforgettably as one of the gaunt paradoxes of all history that in 1935 a peace proposal stirred the so-called pacifist feelings of many idealists to demand war instead. MODERN PAGAN TRENDS "The real bid for power on the part of the claimants for leadership in the modern world is increasingly a bid for the control of education and people's thoughts," said the Rev. F. R. Barry, Canon of Westminster, in a recent address. "A Hitler, a Mustapha Kemal, or any other leader of the modern fashion, knows his regime can hope to survive only if he can get effective control of the educational system. All the pressure of forces in the contemporary world seems to make it clear that the State everywhere is bound by necessity to become increasingly totalitarian. Politicians have begun to rediscover what Plato taught, that the ultimate key to politics rests in religious education. Tho inspiration of what is best in our country and the driving force behind most of its progressive social movements is still—whether avowedly or not —Christian. How long will this last? I find it hard to evade the feeling that the Churches are in tremendous danger of falling behind in the race for mind and soul of the modern man, and that, specifically, Christian education is in real danger of losing its initiative in the conflict. The great majority of our countrymen are beginning to adopt an attitude to life that is a kind of pagan secularism, kindly tolerant, to a large extent humane and liberal, but wholly of this world. The supreme issue before the Churches is to recapture the minds of the educated classes, because we cannot hope for the cause of Christianity to win unless it is in possession of tho minds of those who, in tho long run, direct and run the country." "BODY ON THE BRAIN" When the doctors disagree, what shall the layman do then, poor thing? asks the Times. Something like that must have been tho thought of many who read lately tho conflicting views about physical training expressed at one of the educational conferences which mark the beginning of the year. One day brought an account of a definite advance, mental no less than physical, secured by diverting to gymnastics a part of the time usually allotted to ordinary lessons. Another day heard a heartfelt protest against " tho man who has body on the brain." The man who has no specialist interest or knowledge can only leave it to the experts to reconcile views stated so uncompromisingly, trusting that tho golden grains of tho middle truth will ultimately bo hammered out in the clash and conflict of extremes. But no man, however little he may bo versed in tho theory or practice of educating others, can help facing tho problem in his proper person. Ho himself is a queer mixture of mind and body, and it is very far from easy to get them to dwell together in unity. Tho difficulty is not felt in early life, when the small body's imperious desires and needs get satisfaction as a matter of course. Having tasted the sweets of power, the flesh is ever afteillvards roiuctant to relax its monopolistic grip. But the growing awareness of other personalities and tho widening rango of contacts and responsibilities bring mind into the field and set it fairly and squarely over against the body. Then conies the tug-of-war. Tho tension enters into self-consciousness. Thenceforward a man is a house divided against itself. He can know no peace and has won sufficient mastery to keep until he has allotted its proper province to each of the warring elements them within their bounds.