NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22583, 23 November 1936, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS

PROPAGANDA BY AIR Broadcasting was fast becoming not a blessing but a curse, said Professor J. Coatman, news editor of the British Broadcasting Corporation, speaking at the International Colonial Institute Conference. Delegates from a number of European countries were considering methods of spreading thought and ideas in tho colonies. Professor Coatman said that broadcasting to the natives of Africa was a matter of extraordinary difficulty. "Broadcasting," Jie added, "is being used in various parts of the world not only for the purposes of policy, but for the purposes of military policy. We must keep that out of Africa." Mr. C. F. Strickland suggested a system of small broadcasting stations of different wave-lengths, with sets capable of receiving only on the local wave-length. A foreign Power would then be unable to broadcast to more than a small section of the population at one time. THE POPULAR GAZE We live in an age of hustle, writes Mr. Ivor Brown in the Sunday Times. When there is something worth looking at, who, save a few inconsiderable cranks, will stop to stare? Our main conversation about our countryside is to boast about tho speed with which we cover it, a speed which makes observation impossible, and a cursory glance the only form of survey. However exquisite the landscape, the traveller's one idea is never to pause, but to knock a few minutes off his usual time in getting from here to there. But we cannot altogether obliterate the human impulse for a lingering glance. What we so oddly do is to transfer it to tho ugliest and most depressing places. People will stantl for hours in urban queues staring at blank walls of sports grounds and cinemas. They will huddle and jostle for a momentary glimpse of some silly paint-encrusted features. But when it comes to the face of England there are few who wish to stand and stare. MR. BALDWIN'S PLACE Mr. Neville Chamberlain is considered to be Mr. Stanley Baldwin's logical successor as Prime Minister of Britain, and this year he represented his leader at the annual conference of the Conservative Party, using the occasion to pay the following tribute to Mr. Baldwin's influence on public life. " The time iias happily not yet arrived," said Mr. Chamberlain, " to make a final appraisement of Mr. Baldwin's long and eminent services to his party and his country. But when we remember how since he first became our leader he has by his own example and his own character raised the whole tone of our political life to a higher level; how he has never allowed personal interests, personal popularity, or even personal prejudice to deflect him from the course that he thought right; when we recall that no statesman has ever shown a truer perception of the fundamental principles of democracy, or a profounder understanding of the mind of the nation, so that in any national crisis he has never failed to express in noble words what we were all feeling in our hearts, we cannot doubt that in years to come his name will be counted among the greatest of those who have guided the fortunes of the Conservative Party." ARCHBISHOP ON PACIFISM "Many earnest men were asking, is there not a call to every professing Christian to refuse to countenance the use of force at all?" said the Archbishop of Canterbury, in addressing the Canterbury Diocesan Conference. This complete pacifism was urged with great and passionate sincerity. It could be commended with great impressiveness; it had all the advantages of non-com-promising clearness. But there were always men in any community who were dishonest, unjust and violent. They would not be impressed by nonresistance. They would only take advantage of it. Were they to be left to work their evil will upon the community? The State existed to give protection to multitudes of individuals. In a mixed world containing men of evil will it could not so protect them without having force at its command and without being ready, if need be, to exercise it. The use of force, of the sword, by the State was the ministry of God for tho protection of the people. If that wore true of the State in its domestic relations it was equally true for the State in its international relations. Certainly there was no difference in principle between force in the hands of the police and force in the hands of an army. All depended upon motive or intention. If the force of an army was used for national aggression or acquisition or self-asser-tion, it was wrong. If it was used for the defence of the people it was right. MEDICAL INSTRUCTION In the war against disease, notable victories had been, and were being, achieved, said Lord lliffo in addressing students at Charing Cross Hospital Medical School, London. The progress of preventive medicine had been remarkable, but tho appalling thing was that, in a highly civilised community, the ignorance of the public on this subject should be so great. It was probably true that most people knew more about their motor-cars than they knew about their bodies, and such medical knowledge as they had was founded mainly on folklore. I hey still relied, metaphorically at least, on " an apple a day," and so on. It was a pity that another saying, " A stitch in time " had never had any association with surgery in the mind of the public. Tho people of Britain were being instructed, with a wealth of detail, in how to avoid tho unpleasant consequences of air raids. They all hoped that air raids would never come, but what measures had been taken against bacilli which were already here? He understood that the maternal mortality rate was higher now than it was 20 years ago. Much of the tragedy caused by sickness and disease could he prevented by early diagnosis, but the public, never having been taught, was unable to recognise the warning symptoms. Much of tho public was hygienically in the bow-ami arrow stage of development. It was possible to make the public much more " health-conscious." They wanted to bring about an enlightenment which would ensure that still greater use would be made of the knowledge and skill of doctor!.