NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22994, 23 March 1938, Page 14

NOTES AND COMMENTS

MORE BOMBERS THAN FIGHTERS "There is no doubt that we Europeans are planning to bomb each other," said Mr. Geoffrey Mander, M.P., speaking in the House of Commons. "It is not easy to give exact figures because all the machines are not the same, and some bombers in this country are also fighters. I believe the figures to be reasonably accurate. In regard to Great Britain the figures are: Bombers, 70 per cent; fighters, .10; Germany, bombers, 66 per cent, fighters, <'33. The figures for France are the same. Italy, bombers, 50 per cent and fighters, 50. Russia is the same, 50-50. It is a very horrible thing to contemplate."

NO ONE WAY OF SERVICE "Great causes are rarely to be served in one way alone, but rather in many different ways," said the Bishop of Coventry in a recent address. "If there seems little or no progress along one line of action, there may be others to which we ought to give more attention. Thousands of those who have rightly given time and energy to commending the claims of the League of Nations have never even asked themselves and are not asking themselves now whether the support of Christian missions or the furtherance of Christian reunion is not profoundly relevant to the groat cause of international order. If their efforts in one direction may seem for the moment rather futile, there are other promising lines of advance which still also claim their energies in act and deed." ADVENTURE FOR YOUTH

Safety first? Docs tlio phrase ever express more than a half-truth, merely a matter of degree? asks .Mr. Edward Shaekleton in a recent article. He is a son of Sir Ernest Shaekleton and has been a member of expeditions to Borneo and Greenland. The overcautious, he writes, is never the 'truly wise; on the other hand, the successful adventurer is the man or woman who never takes pointless risks. But God forbid that one should lead a life 'in which all risk has been calculated away, for that indeed would be to live dangerously. Is adventure a good thing, particularly for the young!*' This question Mr. Shaekleton answers indirectly by asserting that for adventure to give its maximum benefit it must provide a change of environment and •n ay of life, so that the adventurer may suddenly find himself transported in mind to a position of observer, away from the petty distractions which make up our daily life, where mere "importtance" shrinks to its true size, where honesty takes its rightful place, and where the individual can learn to know himself.