NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22524, 15 September 1936, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS

ART IN MODERN LIFE " We are living to-day in a material age, in times when mass production leaves no opportunity for the exercise of that individuality of effort which is one of the essentials of real artistic achievement," said Mr. Philip A. de Lazlo, in a paper read before the Royal Society or Arts. " We restless moderns have no use for sentiment, and in the hurry and rush of our daily existence there is no moment allowed to us for contemplation or quiet thought. We are dominated by a craving for sensation and our whole outlook on life is ugly and distorted. Is this striving after perfection for the glory of attaining it? Is thin sordid materialism the spirit an artist should bring to his work ? How would it be possible for him to claim that he is the worthy heir to a great tradition if, after the modern manner, he is mainly studying how to evade responsibilities and how to escapo from discipline and restraint? And how can he hope to create the perfect work that is required of him if, to -attain material success, he drags his accomplishment down to the level at which it will satisfy a debased popular taste? Look, I beg you, at the paintings which aro to be seen in pre-sent-day exhibitions and toll mo in how many of them you can discover evidences of earnest intention. Take your minds back to the art of those periods long past—how much of its sense of serious responsibility survives in the works of what is called our modern school of painting? "

BRITAIN AND GERMANY " Are wo going to keep alive the quarrel of the last 30 years between Britain and Germany," said Lord Lothian, in a recent speech, " or are we going to compose it, and open a new era for mankind? I believe that national feeling on both sides desires to return to co-operation,' a co-opera-tion for which there is a natural foundation in a certain community of race. I believe, however, in view of the events of the last year or two that the first and decisive move in seizing the present opportunity must now be made by this country. That move must be to abandon once and for all what is called in Germany the Versailles attitude of mind. The real test of the League lies ahead —namely, whether it can bring about those revisions by peaceful means which will give Germany a place in the world to which she is entitled, and so save mankind from the calamity of another world war." Lord Lothian declared that the colonial and economic problem was a question for the world. " I do not believe," he added, " that the crude transfer of territory, for instance, from Great Britain to Germany, is practical politics, or that the problem can be solved along the lines of the mere restoration to Germany of the old German colonies. That would not meet Gerneeds in the changed conditions of to-day. All the colonial nations must be willing to make th,eir contribution to a transfer of. territory. The new world, as well as the old, must be willing once more to reopen its doora to trade and. emigration."

ECONOMISTS DEFENDED Sir Josiah Stamp, the well-known economist, the head of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, and director of the Bank of England, is also a Methodist, and at the conference at Newcastle this year he delivered the Fernley Hartley Lecture for 1936, under the title of "Motive and Method in a Christian Order." One of the most interesting sections of the lecture dealt with the question of tho churches and economics, and in this connection Sir Josiah Stamp said: —"Dr. Temple says that the pulpit may feel bound to leave it to experts to diagnose the disease and prescribe the remedy; but that it is the Christian duty to incite the experts, even if need be to badger the experts, until they produce their answer to the problem. By all means goad and badger the expert, and even —as my own experience indicates — get easy applause from your own responsive congregations by mildly taunting him for the world's mess. Prevent him from becoming the complacent custodian. of economio inevitability. When the economic expert shows signs of relapsing into a museum attendant, incite him to new activity. Be his amplifier for the groans of humanity. But in all this, remember that it is just conceivable he is not so cold-blooded or apathetic as may appear; he may be as deeply concerned as you, and that anxiety may be a secret -spring of his calm toil. He may be patiently analysing, testing, and winning his inches of the way forward while you are spending your time wringing your hands and alternately scolding and giving directions."

PEACE IN SCANDINAVIA The observant visitor to the three Northern democracies —Norway, Sweden and Denmark —is first of all impressed by the culture and the high material standard of living which these small countries can maintain, says a writer in the Economist. Here are three nations, mustering only some twenty millions of inhabitants altogether, subsisting on lands of which more than half are mountains or uncultivable, yet living at the highest standards of living which bourgeois Europe can afford, and possessed of considerable capital assets in the shape of mercantile marine, foreign investments, etc. Their popular culture is much higher, and their systems of social welfare are incomparable. The neatness and good quality of their cicrthes; their particular understanding of hygienic problems; their universal cleanliness; the wealth of their technical labour-saving devices of all kinds; the care of their children: the excellence of their schools (most of which, together with the universities, are free of charge) and the surprisingly high level of general education; finally, their love for and knowledge of art, music and literature —these are .the things which most impress the observant visitor to the North. How do they do it? How is it possible for these small countries to have reached their present position, and to have maintained and even consolidated it in spite of a world crisis and the competition of more powerful nations? The outstanding cause of ordered prosperity in all these countries has been peace—the absence of ravaging wars and of their crushing legacies. Many decades of internal and external peace have enabled the Swedes and „ their fellow Scandinavians to turn their best brains to economic and cultural development., :