NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22700, 12 April 1937, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS

ROYAL FATHER AND SON Through the long years of depression that followed the war. George the Fifth, writes Mr. Arthur Mee, in his book. "Salute the King," brought up his sons to believe that the dark days would pass, and led the way in moving the mountain of despair from the path of our people; arid none of his sons was more earnest than he to whom he gave his name and with whom he shares his mind and heart. After George the Fifth and an interval of sorrowful remembrances comes George the Sixth, the Kir<g of buoyant youth and hopefulness, an optimist by nature and by wide experience, and it may he said that never has a nation been more happy in such a succession of kings. SAVING AND SPENDING

The danger of hoarding money and the value of spending wisely were stressed by Lord Macgregor Mitchell when he addressed the annual meeting of the trustees and managers of the Savings Bank of the City and County of Perth. 'There will be unanimity of praise." said Lord Macgregor Mitchell, "of the inculcating of thrift into the habits of the people. That is a big thing, but there is a bigger thing still. No person, in the cultivation of the virtue of thrift, should ever lose the power of spending money. Thrift is a mean's to an end, but if it is directed to the mere accumulation of wealth, that end is not wholly accomplished. If, however, with the capacity of saving is combined the power of spending properly, thrift, indeed, becomes a most potent power for the good of the world. There are three primary- necessities in life." he continued, "a comfortable, sanitary home, good health and good food. Wilt any individual venture to assert that he or she would- be acting with wisdom in sacrificing any of those necessities in order to hoard money when they could be happy from the wise use of the savings of thrift ?" INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION I should like to see a permanent commission of Industry and Labour, writes Sir Percy Harris, M.P., in the Contemporary Review. On it should serve a representative of the great joint stock banks, of the railways, and some of the primary industries; labour leaders should be there, but the commission necessarily should be small so as to be effective. I attach special importance to the banks which have, on the one hand, so much to lose by frozen assets and so much to gain in finding proper investments, for capital. The railways are vitally concerned in the proper use of the great trunk lines. Over this delegation should preside the president of the Board of Trade; who would thus become a president in fact as well as in name. The Ministry of Labour would be the technical advisers of this commission on labour supply and employment needs. The commission would be in a position of great authority to recommend to investors opportunities for investment of new capital in particular industries. And the time is particularly opportune for such an experiment with the vast State money now being spent on rearmament. SCIENCE IN INDUSTRY The activities of the British Department of Scientific and Industrial Research increase each year as more and more industrialists realise the use that they can make of them, says the Manchester Guardian. One of the main problems which research is now trying to overcome for industry is the problem of waste. The latest report of the department traces the developments which have been made. In a great many cases it is easy for a layman to see the benefits which the development of a particular line of research will bring. If, for example, it were usual for bread to remain edible for ten or 12 days instead of the usual two or three, the amount of bread wasted would undoubtedly decrease. This happens to bo one of the possibilities which need not be regarded as remote. It is a question not of elaborate chemical treatment, but simply of using the best flour and of baking it in the best way (that is to say, after a proper fermentation). Again, it has now been made possible to save a great deal of milk and products of milk which are at present lost through imperfect methods of milk-washing. The figure of £50,000 is mentioned by the report as the sum which might be annually saved if the new process, which has already been adopted in many factories, were generally applied. Some of the researches being carried out may not in the end prove economical, but the habit of co-operation between scientists and industry should bo of profit to everyone. IS WAR INDIVISIBLE? Is it true that if a war starts in Central Europe it must inevitably drag first France and then Russia, then Italy and Japan, then Great Britain, then the Dominions and finally the United States into the vortex? asks the Round Table in discussing questions of foreign policy that must-be answered at the Imperial Conference. That is the direction in which we are moving to-day. Yet is not an alternative possible? Might not the Pan-American system and the British Commonwealth system, if they both detached themselves from any commitment to any other continental system, form a bloc so strong that no other Power or Powers would dream of attacking it, and economically and politically so stable that it could stand outside a European war and yet exercise a decisive influence in preventing war, in isolating it if it broke out, and in ending it quickly and on reasonably just terms? If the European complex, which centres about the distribution of armaments and alliances, moves more and more toward a balance of power within itself, if British opinion continues to feel that it is not its business to take part in any European war that does not threaten the existence of France and Belgium, if the United States begins to feel that its present policy of neutrality will not suffice to keep it out of war once Great Britain is dragged in, then the creation of such a group of nations, dedicated to the preservation of liberal and democratic institutions, detached from the war-systems of Europe and the Far East, may become a practical possibility. It is precisely questions of this kind which it is the business of the Dominions to compel the Europe-fascinated politicians of Great Britain to face next month.