NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22619, 6 January 1937, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS

VOLUNTARY EUTHANASIA In a debate held by the Hunterinn Society in London on what was described as "The foremost sociological problem of the day"—the right to die, or voluntary euthanasia —Canon Anson, Master of the Temple, said that he was concerned only wit® tho moral and religious aspects of the question. "It is generally allowed that there are occasions when it is lawful for us to hasten by our own means the oncoming of death," he said. "We all know the man who gives his life for his country, and we do not think it wrong to hurry death except if .reasons are inadequate. We have to ask ourselves if intolerable pain is adequate reason. Many people remind us that we can never say how much good pain might do. But supposing, so far as we can toll, pain is so long and so intolerable that there seems to be no use in suffering further. Then, in those circumstances, thoro does not seem to be any reason why, with proper safeguards, a man should not be able to shorten another man's life." PHYSICAL WELL-BEING In an address at the opening of the Public Health Exhibition in London Sir Gwilvm Gibbon said that anyone who knew the history of thought about diets during the last 50 years would be cautious before accepting, without very definite proof, all the statements that were urged from authoritative quarters about needs in diet. The real test was the proof of these things in practice. They were embarking on a big campaign of physical training, and it was badly needed. He thought all in Britain desired not regimentation but discipline, of which there was abundant need, and development. A point apt to be overlooked was that mind was as necessary for proper physical training as was the body itself; and this new notion which was now being developed under the name of recreative physical training would need to be carefully watched lest it should develop not into the kind of thing which he believed the men of the country required, but into something of too mechanical a nature. LOCAL INSTITUTIONS The importance of local institutions was emphasised by the late Lord Mayor of London, Sir Percy Vincent, in an address during his recent tour of Canada. In support of his contention, he quoted the following passage from Finlav's "History of the Byzantine Empire":—The history of mankind in every age shows us that the material improvement of tho people, the first great public works of utility and the extension of commerce and trade, arc affected by the impulse of local institutions. The Government in which the family and the parish occupy tho most important part will ever bo tho best. It is in the family and the parish that the foundation of all virtue is laid, long before the citizen enters the camp, the Senate, or the Court. The energy of municipal institutions filled the Mediterranean and the Euxine with Greek colonies. Rome rose to greatness as a municipality. Great Britain affords an instance of the superiority of the individual patriotism and self-respect generated by local institutions over the strict obedience and scientific power conferred by the centralisation of authority. EMPIRE UNITY Group 1., nations aiming at world revolution; group 11., nations aiming at Imperialist expansion; group 111., nations anxious that the world should pursue the path of peaceful progress. Thus did Sir Henry Page Croft, M.P., divide the world when he spoke ill support of the Empire Unity campaign. Tho third (peace seeking) group comprised, he said, the 500,000,000 souls who lived in the Empire or under the protection of the British flag. " The achievements of our fathers in building the Empire and of their sons in administering it should fill all British people with pride and gratitude. Never before has any such system of free nations, dwelling together in friendship and goodwill, existed, and never before has one nation at tho centre of many sister and partnered nations been given such power to influence the course of civilisation. Our Empire may well bo the harbinger of a saner world order and it is for this generation in Great Britain and overseas to decide whether the wonderful pieces of machinery within our grasp shall be assembled, made up and rive_ted into an engine of progress, prosperity and safety, or whether they are to rust and become scattered or lost for lack of a lead." Sir Henry's criticism was that tho Empire was ill-knit and lacking in machinery for defence or consultation —a condition of drift principally duo to faulty leadership at the heart of the Empire since tho days when Mr. Joseph Chamberlain ceased to be a force in British statecraft. PATRIOTISM AND SELF-SACRIFICE The Marquess of Salisbury, in a speech in the House of Lords, said that the impression that everybody must have drawn from the debate on defence was that there could be no question whatever as to the need for rearming as quickly as possible. Let them then clear their minds of any reluctance in the matter. Wherever they looked they came to the same obvious conclusion. War was odious and horrible, but if they were in favour of rearmament at all do not let them boggle about and make limitations and conditions. In this respect it might not bo amiss to imitate the simplicity of the German character. Once they realised that the country was in danger let them all he united, to whatever party they belonged. Lot them be prepared to allow the young people of this country onco more to learn the old lesson of patriotism and self-sacrifice. Was it really a good tiling to tell the children of this country that war was unacceptable in any circumstances? Was it right to tell them that there might not be the necessity to fight in defence of their country on a just issue? He did not know how theso things were dealt with in the elementary schools, but in view of the difficulty of recruiting for the Services in some parts of England lie hoped that the Government wou 1 d reflect that a good deal depended on tho way in which these things were put to tho boys of the country in their elementary educatiou, <