NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22629, 18 January 1937, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS

BREACH OF TREATIES The American Ambassador to Britain, .Mr. Bingham, who attended a gathering of the English Speaking Union, said there was a good ileal of ignorance in the United States about Great Britain, but he eould assure his fellowmembers of the union that in the British Kmpire ignorance of the United States was absolutely colossal. They stood to-day in a world which was very seriously menaced, and it was idle not ito recognise it. Almost the worst feature of the situation was that they had btfen compelled to lose most of their faith in international good faith. AVlien they saw solemn and secret, treaties broken they realised what a very serious situation the world found itself in DEFENCE PLANS "I am asked whether the Government has prepared plans for any eventualities which may overtake the country," said Sir Thomas lnskip, Minister for the Co-ordination of Defence, in a Hampshire speech. "Well, of course they have. You don't suppose that the heads of our defence Services are sitting twiddling their thumbs and never preparing for events which we hope will never happen, but which the defence Services exist to meet. It is one thing to prepare plans and another thing to publish them abroad. 1 think any enemies that we may have would be very glad to know what exactly we propose to do in certain events. The best plan is for us to make our plans and keep these plans to ourselves, but to be quite sure that we have plans to meet every possible form of attack." MORAL IN INDUSTRY The Institute of Industrial Psychology discusses in its 16th annual report the factor of moral in industry. "When," it says, "the worker is able, to some extent, to 'identify' himself with his work and with the firm that employs him; when he feels that his work is of value; when he works under a supervisor who is just and sympathetic; when he is reasonably secure in his employment and feels that he will get a 'fair deal' from the management, then, and only then, is he likely to do his best—and may indeed achieve high efficiency even under physical conditions that are far from perfect. When, on the other hand, he believes, rightly or wrongly, that the management are concerned merely with profits, and care nothing for the worker as an individual; when he is on bad terms with his supervisor; when ho feels that good work is unappreciated, promotion going by favouritism and dismissal by prejudice; when he is Harassed by a sense of insecurity or injustice, then he will be unhappy and inefficient, *»and the strictest discipline, the most elaborate of bonus schemes and the best of welfare services may count for little or nothing." SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH Addressing the Royal Society. Mr. Neville Chamberlain said that the association between the society and the Government had in recent years taken on such a new strength and intimacy that one might almost consider that they had entered upon a new era in their relations. Indeed, they might look upon one another not as receivers or dispensers of favour, hut rather as partners in a common task —the advancement of science for the benefit of humanity. The cumulative effect of scientific investigations, quickened by the improvement in communications which promptly transferred to tile common pot any advance no matter the sourco from which it sprang, had extended man's command over the forces in Nature at a rate which showed a constantly increasing acceleration. Since it was in the nature of Governments to have the instinct of self-pre-serration strongly developed, Governments had quickly seized on this fact, and because they knew that many of their troubles sprang from natural causes, or perhaps it would be better to say, from human interference with natural laws, they had come to the conclusion that they would do well to seek the advice of those whose lives were spent in probing the secrets of Nature. All useful applications of science were really founded upon the discoveries of the pioneers in pyre research. When they set themselves to encourage researches for special and material purposes they were just exploiting knowledge that had been gained for them by those who had gono before.

CHANGED OUTOOK IN EUROPE Tn moving in the House of Commons for an inquiry into British defence measures, Mr. Winston Churchill asked, where should they bo this time two years? He hesitated to predict. Ho did not accept tho mood of panic or of despair. He did not for a moment suggest that Germany had any idea of attacking Franco or Great Britain; he was dealing only with tho actual balance of armed forces, which in no way determined tho intentions of nations but which might conceivably enable them to carry out any intentions they formed. The British Navy was, and would continue to be, incomparably tho strongest in Europe; the French Army would certainly be for a good many months to como at least equal in numbers and superior in maturity to tho German Army; the British and French air forces together were a very different proposition from that of those two forces considered separately. But it seemed certain that in 19.37 the German Army would become very much more numerous than the French Army, that tho German Army would be very much more efficient than it was to-daf, and that the German air force would continue to improve upon the long lead it had already over Britain, particularly in respect of long-distance bombing machines. He believed that the efforts of rearmament which France and Great Britain could make would not by themselves be sufficient and that it would bo necessary for the Western democracies, oven if there was some extension of their risks, to gather around themselves all the elements of collective security, or, as he preferred to call it, combined defensive strength against aggression, which could be assembled on the basis of the Covenant of the League of Nation*.