NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23000, 30 March 1938, Page 12

NOTES AND COMMENTS

OIL FROM COAL The most important question before the Falmouth Committee on the production of oil from coal was whether Britain should aim at self-sufficiency in oil supplies; the most striking feature of its report* notes the Spectator, is the decisiveness with which it answers in the negative. Its arguments are extremely strong, and the strongest is that to produce the 4,327,000 tons of petrol consumed by this country in 1936 would involve a cost of £232,000,000 in plant and also to the Exchequer of £43,000,000 a year. The increase in employment in the coal industry would be in no way comparable. The report therefore concludes that the most efficient and economic method of supplying British needs, in war as well as peace, is by the present system of importing foreign supplies, combined with arrangements for storage.

FOLLY OF ARMAMENTS RACE * The folly of the race in armaments was stressed by Mr. Neville Chamberlain in a recent speech at Birmingham. Ho said: "I ' must confess that the spectacle of this vast expenditure upon means of destruction instead of construction has inspired me with a feeling of revolt against the folly of njankind. The cost is stupendous, and the thought of the sacrifice that it must entail upon us, and upon those who come after us, drives the Government always to search for a way out, to seek to find some means of breaking through this senseless competition in rearmament which continually cancels out the efforts that each nation makes to secure an advantage over the others. We cannot hope by ourselves to discover a means of escape. It can only be done by frank and full discussion with others who share our desire, and by showing our readiness to make our contribution to the common cause of peace if others will do the same. All - I would say is that the Government has given, and is giving, anxious thought to this question, and that in so far as goodwill and an earnest desire to succeed can contribute toward success, those qualities will not be lacking."

CHURCH REUNION The memoranda about possible lines of approach to reunion between the Church of England and Protestant Nonconformists, which were submitted to Convocation at its last sessions, raise all kinds of problems. Into these it is unnecessary to enter, since at the present stage the matter is one of purely speculative exploration, says the Church Times. It is, however, an agreeable fact, that the two sides are able to enter into any sort of discussion of reunion. The mere dissidence of dissent, in Matthew Arnold's phrase, has enormously abated in those circles which concerned themselves with inter-denom-inational questions. The old ecclesiastical Toryism of Church and State has also faded off the screen of current churebmanship. It would be an astonishing thing to-day if Anglican and Nonconformist leaders felt and spoke about one another in the terms common thirty or forty years ago, when so broadminded a man as Scott Holland said that Dr. Clifford's "Wild, antisacerdotal screams" had been "intolerable." The cause of all this is mor© than an abstract recognition that Christians should be all one. There has come about a real measure of knowledge, understanding and sympathy.

BOMBING CONVENTION The efforts the British Government is making to secure international agreement to prohibit the bombing of the civilian population during the progress of any war, was referred to in a speech at Birmingham by Mr. Anthony Eden, the Foreign Secretary at» that time. "The argument has been used," said Mr, Eden, "that it is no use making this new convention because other conventions have not been kept. That is nob entirely true. There were international conventions which, throughout the last war, were observed, and I cannot accept the doctrine that because certain people have not kept their engagements wo are never to try to improve the existing situation. 1 believe we are not alone in the anxieties which wo feel about this problem to-day. I feel confident that the French Government will certainly join in any wider international, endeavour. The German Chancellor, Herr Hitler, also expressed himself in favour of an endeavour of this kind, and [ feel sure that we can in this matter count on his sympathy and support. It is difficult to exaggerate the significance that that support might have. Germany is not only a great Power, perhaps potentially the greatest, military Power in Europe, but she is also at the centre of Europe geographically, and therefore for her the problem of the future use of the aerial weapon is ono of great significance, as it is for us."

NATIONAL SERVICE Britain enjoys at present the curious distinction of being the only free nation in Europe which demands no form of national service from its young men before they obtain and use the franchise, says Sir Edward Grigg, M.P., writing in the London Observer. Many people in Britain still seem to think that conscription, ns they call it, is a mark of aggressive militarism, natural to dictatorships, but inconsistent with the democratic faith. If only they would faco the facts! In democratic France, for instance, the period of military service obligatory on young men of every class is now two years, and conscripts, if needed, arc bound to tl) ree years' immediate further service after that. The duty of military service is universal and compulsory in all the remaining democracies • Scandinavia, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, and the smaller Baltic States. In war the service prescribed by law is universal and unlimited. In peace time it is whatever the State requires; the period of training with the Colours is in some cases six months, in none more than a year. The strength thus given to the State is not a preparation for war, "though—as Belgium showed in 1914 —the greatest Powers cannot with impunity ignore it altogether. Far greater than any military worth which it may possess is the recognition which it entails that in democracies no less than dictatorships some duty and service are due from youth to the State. Without some practical acceptance of that principle in Britain wo shall not deserve or long enjoy our present power and peace.