NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22949, 29 January 1938, Page 12

NOTES AND COMMENTS

COMMUNITY DRONES Lord Winterton, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, said in a recent address that a national danger to freo institutions and democratic and representative constitution at a time when democracy generally was under fierce criticism from dictatorships, was the undue proportion of persons who refused to vote at local government and Parliamentary elections, or to take any iuterest in politics, religion, local government,- or the social life of the community. They were the real drones and parasites of modern life, and their conduct was almost on a par with that of conscientious objectors in the war. BETTER BRAINS AND BODIES Speaking at a schools' exhibition, Mr. A. P. Herbert, M.P., said he had never accepted the theory that the best poetry was written by tho half-starved genius in a cold garret, nor did he think that learning was best in a mean; cold, ill-ventilated room in dreary surroundings. The great old public schools were great not only by reason of their training and tradition, but because of tho beauty and the inspiration of the surroundings in which they purveyed those advantages. Education in the widest sense included all the miscellaneous forces which moulded, or fertilised, or influenced their minds. In that wide field tho press wJts not the least powerful. His definition of education was, "Building better brains and bodies." THE JAPANESE ARMY " There aro certain facts on the march in the Far East which wo dare not smother with soothing syrup," said General Sir lan Hamilton, when addressing a Christmas party given by the British Legion at the Services Rendered Club, Wandsworth. "It is being put about that Japanese army efficiency is all founded on her easy defeat of the effete Empire of Russia. Do not, I beg you, think their forces are composed of bogey men who woidd curl up on contact with the European fleet, army, or air force." Senior officers in Europe who had seen tho Japanese in action eluded Marshal Caviglia and himself, ho added. " If a Japanese division were to bo fairly launched against a line held by French, Gorman or British divisions, nothing short of a loss of 50 per cent would stop them. Looked at in tho proper light, surely this Easteiyi danger may be a warning to stop our squabbles in Spain and to get all Europo together in a new league." ENGLAND AND ITALY Nothing is worse than going back to the beginnings of a quarrel if you want to make it up, wHtcs Mr. J. L. Garvin in tho London Observer. You must take things as they are and see what can be dono about them. The League attempted sanctions and committed suicide. Italy has left the League. Nothing on earth can make her, any more than Germany, subject to its control. That part of it is all over and finished. We are brought back to direct and simplified negotiation with Rome as with Berlin. Italy has annexed Abyssinia. It is another accomplished fact. That fact could only be reversed, if at all, by a war which would not be the sort of duel between Britain and Italy that some tyros suppose. It would be a general war. Abyssinia would be a bagatelle by comparison. Everything would be in tho melting pot. More passive refusal to "recognise" what has happened has done no good either to Abyssinia, Geneva or the British Empire. But it has strengthened the Berlin-Rome axis; it has helped to bring about the Triple Pact between Germany, Italy and Japan; and if we continue to look for figs and grapes in the same manner we shall find more thorns and thistles. To maintain the official attitude of the sand-blind ostrich in the name of principle and dignity is neither useful nor impressive. Much bettor to recognise Italian sovereignty ever Ethiopia, and to do this not as an isolated measure but as part of a constructive policy of common sense. Such a policy would aim not only at the restoration of friendship, but at substantial co-oporation and security by the interlocking of interests. The economic strain on Italy, though not deadly, is very severe. The financial power of this country is very great. It could work wonders in this and other connections if boldly employed.

IN A DRESS MUSEUM

A suggestion for a National Institute of Dress is made by Dr. C. Willett Cunnington, of London, owner of the world's largest private costume collection. He wants a centre where, at the same time, research may bo carried on and modern fashion and fabric designing encouraged. "You remember the cloche hats of 10 years agoi'" he said, when conducting a journalist through his museum. "Here's one. You see how it was modelled on the airman's helmet, how tho woman who wore it must have had short, close hair. You won't find one in any museum in this country, yet it reveals many things about its period. By way of contrast, here's another I'vo just included —what I call tho liiglicockalorum hat of to-day. Students of the future will be able to learn from it how tho English returned to their native Gothic sentimentality after the post-war period of straightness and severity in dress and architecture, of tho unemotional in music and literature. It will illustrate for him tho period after tho depression, when the pretty-pretty began to be almost permissible again. All just as it happened after tho Napoleonic wars. See what dress teaches you about different kinds of society. Look at this child's frock of tho eighteen-sixties. No modern child could get her arms into those openings, or her feet into thoso tiny shoos. It's the same with grown-up clothing of that period. When I compared their clothing with photographs of people in the 'sixties, it confirmed my belief that they had all suffered from rickets. The period of plain' living and high thinking. Too little food and not of the right kind. Those ladies' dresses of tho 'forties—notice how they all button up the back, how the sleeves are so made that the arms couldn't bo raised above a certain height, and how narrow they are across the chest. An idle period, when .women did little for themselves and wero often consumptive—tho period when novel heroines 'fell into a decline.' Seo how padded their clothes were. They felt the cold keenly because they stayed indoors and took little exercise."