NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23021, 26 April 1938, Page 10

NOTES AND COMMENTS

"LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR" It is very many years since it was laid down as the second commandment of God to man that lie should love his neighbour as himself, writes Mrs. Grace Stuart, in her book, "The Achievement of Personality." I am not sure, she adds, that that has not now become the first commandment. In a -world given over to the folly and sin of the preparation and practice of the modern methods of killing the bodies of our neighbours, I can imagine that God may say that we cannot love Him at all—that indeed He does not want our love—until we learn to love our neighbour, not perhaps very much, but with at least a small fraction of the love which we habitually give to ourselves. So that, in saying we must love our neighbour, psychology says nothing new In telling us why we have found it so difficult, and how we may do it better, it is ljiy belief that it gives us a new knowledge which is indeed a "good news," and that it points the way through and beyond these terrible death struggles of our old individualism?*, to a love of man for man such as the world has not yet known. SEA AND AIR POWER Over a century ago prophetic writers visualised the effect of aerial warfare on British naval supremacy. A contributor to Ackermann's Repository, a journal published in 1824, prophesied the supplanting of sail by steam in the Navy, which did not take place for nearly two generations, and the further'defeat of steamships by air fighting. He said: "Men-of-war have made way for steam-vessels, with a chimney for a mast and a column of smoke for a pendant. Naval officers command them, with a thermometer for a speaking trumpet; the captain stands over the boiler, and directs the paddles. The story of the British navy evaporates in steam, or is condensed into a bucket, and the safety of a gallant crew lies in a valve. O! that I should live to see the day when a British line-of-battle was led by the nose by a floating tea-kettle." AJter this outburst of eloquence the writer went on: "Balloons, I suppose, will next come into play. Then adieu to the greatness of Old England! Wo cannot expect to cut such cap6rs in the air as we have done on the sea. We shall have too many and too powerful competitors on that element, which is alike open to all."

SINGAPORE BASE Now that the Singapore base is built British possessions over an enormous area are reasonably protected, says the Manchester Guardian. The sea routes over which it watches are long. It is nearly 2000 miles from Singapore to Port Darwin in Australia, 1440 miles to Hongkong, and 1630 miles to Calcutta. These distances do not hamper Singapore's usefulness!, for it plays the part of a castle in ancient warfare. So lone as there is a fleet "in being" at Singapore an enemy could not go on to more distant conquests ■without attacking that standing menace to his communications. Singapore is fortunate in having an ideal harbour, for 110 other position could have been found of greater strategic strength and none less threatening to any other Power. Set at the foot of the Malay Peninsula, it looks out toward the Pacific, Indian, and the Southern Atlantic oceans; it is placed astride the route from Japan, China and the antipodes to Europe. On the other hand, if Singapore has much to defend, the great distances around it limit its usefulness as the starting-place of an aggressive attack. No country cyn reasonably complain that it is intimidated.

THE OTHER POINT OF VIEW "Everyone in-the course of his own life," said Sir John. Simon, Chancellor of the Exchequer, in a speech at Birmingham on the diplomatic negotiations opened with Italy, "was sometimes faced with the difficulty of removing causes of differences between himself and a former friend, or perhaps of trying to bring two people together who were mutually suspicious and resentful. There was only one way to do that. It was to strive to put oneself in the other man's position and to try to understand his point of view. It may well be that one is convinced that all the fault is on the other side and that our own behaviour has been just and fair throughout. Probably the other party, rigbtlv or wrongly, thinks the same about his conduct. Reconciliation is difficult, but no reconciliation is possible in any other way. If this is so between two Englshmen in a matter of private difference, how much more difficult it is when the distrust and suspicion exist between ourselves and a foreign country speaking another language, inheriting different traditions, proud of a quite different system of government. Yet the need for exploring whether reconciliation is possible is all the greater and that cannot be done without seizing tho opI portunitv to meet and discuss."

FIRE-EATERS ON THE LEFT | I cannot- remember any situation quite like tho present one in British politics, in which a Conservative Government is being reproached by a Liberal and Socialist Opposition for taking a too peaceful course, and I hope it will not be prolonged beyond necessity, writes Mr. J. A. Spender, the veteran Liberal, in the Yorkshire Observer. If the present negotiations aro to be extended to include Germany and to seek the four-Power pact which is ultimately the way of peace, and (at present) tho only way back to "collective security," we British must he prepared for give and take on a pretty largo scale. As negotiations go forward it will probably bo found that substantial concessions, some qf which may bo very unpopular, are necessary on our part and ought in justice to be made. When that times comes a Liberal and progressive Opposition, which will support the Government in making these concessions and refrain from making party capital out of them, may very well be one .of tho essentials of peace. Looking ahead. I think all opponents of the Government, but especially Liberals, have to beware lest, in the atmosphere of recrimination, they may fail in this essential part. For them to be ready to pjay it at the right moment, and in the meantime to keep recrimination within bounds, seems to me most desirable in these dangaroun times.