NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23072, 24 June 1938, Page 10

NOTES AND COMMENTS

' ONE VIEW OF MUSSOLINI A remarkable pen-picture of Signor Mussolini is drawn by Dr. Kurt von Schuschnigg, the ex-Chancellor of Austria, in his book, "Farewell Austria." It is only in personal contact and in discussion of practical matters, Dr. Schuschnigg writes, that one obtains a correct impression ol the Duce. Not that the gaze of the eyes is different, but they speak, perhaps, in a different tone and make ono aware that not only harshness, but also goodness, n profound humanity and considerable culture dwell side by side in this characteristically Latin head. One remark made by tho Duce in the course of our conversations seems to me to bo typical of tho man. "The hardest and most essential thing," he said, "is to bo so strong that one is able to remain good." ENTRANCE AND EXIT Being a scholar and something of a philosopher, the British Foreign Secretary, Lord Halifax, may well ruminato concerning his latest mission to Gene\a on tho strange workings of history. Fifteen years ago ho was sent to a League of Nations meeting at Geneva, when he was Mr. Edward Wood, President of the Board of Education in tho first Baldwin Government, recalls "Autolycus" in tho Sunday limes. His mission then was to oppose the admission of Abyssinia to League membership, a step which Italy was proposing. Now he is given the task of bringing about the removal of Abyssinia. Had his view prevailed in 392.3, he would not now have such a delicate task, and ono of the most unfortunate chapters in post-war history would not have had to bo written. FRENCH NEW DEAL SEQUEL Nobody in Paris has been made very happy by the new devaluation of the franc—the third in less than two years —except tho lucky owners of the four milliard francs which flowed back to Paris on the day the new devaluation was announced, and of the 60 or 70 milliards which are still abroad, writes the Paris correspondent of tho Sunday Times. A nice little profit! They may have bought their pounds at 75 francs, and aro selling them now at 179. No investment in France could have yielded so fat a dividend; small wonder that Frenchmen with a little money (or a lot of money) should have sent it to London rather than build houses or invest it in new factories and be bothered with strikes and other unpleasantness. But it is hard lines on the retired official living on a meagre pension, or on the widow whose interest coupon buys fewer and fewer kilos of bread, and on all those people whoso wages, for ono reason or another, do not catch up with the increasing cost of living. Tho little man. with no pound notes hidden under his mattress, and the peasant, with his woollen stocking full of Government bonds, feel that it is all very unfair. In fact, the chief beneficiary of the Front Populaire, as somebody cynically but not untruthfully remarked, has been the speculator. WOMAN'S EVOLUTION r : "Emancipation. has brought about a new, and far more natural and normal, relation between the sexes," said Mrs. Mary Agnes Hamilton, speaking of tho future of women in a recent, broadcast talk. "The qualities that go to make companionship count for inoro than they did, mere physical attraction for less, with both young men and young women —and this although, at tho same time, tho standard of women's looks has gone up, thanks to exercise, games, sensible clothes (or an equally sensible absence of clothes). This docs not apply only to the young. There was a time, not so very remote, cither, when the woman of 40 retired into her bonnet and was definitely, to her own sense and everybody else's, off the list. There has been a real prolongation of the active years of a woman's life, which is making her real life as long as that of her husband. Work has helped, here, too! It used to be thought proper that the middle-class woman who had enough money should enjoy a certain delicacy of health. That attitude is no longer admired, and no longer found. That false female delicacy was a barrier to happiness and to companionship be- | twecn men and women. The stringy robustness that has taken its place is a far better equipment for what may bo the stern years ahead. It is—and this is all important—a robustness of mind as well as of muscle." AT THE CINEMA The film world is an indoor world,® writes Miss C. A. Lcjeune, tlie cinema | critic. It thrives on artificial light and ! a forcing-house atmosphere. It is what i the gardeners would call a good stove j subject, luxuriant but tender. For con- | venience of working, that is excellent. [ It means product all the year round, jindependence of natural conditions, continuity and uniformity of output. In no other way would a prosperous industry be possible. But in the general zeal for efficiency, ono thing tends to be forgotten. That is the inescapable, incurable affection' of human nature for the things and places that tliey know. All art —and the cinema, I am sure, would prefer to be called an art —from the earliest times, has roughly fallen into two classes, the abstract and the representational. Western taste has always swung round toward tho representational. We have not, as a civilisation, tho blessed and comforting power of the East to lose the urgency of our immediate surroundings in the span of an infinite cycle. Wo have to catch at least a wrack of what wo know in tho things that move us; a native cast of face, a sunbeam across a room falling as we have seen it fall, little homely things like a worn pair of shoes, a flower, to tell us that another man is recalling in paint, or words, or photography, what is already dear and familiar to us. The ordinary man wants romance, and adventure, in his films, but ho wants familiarity, too. Ho is anxious to escape from the drab round of work, the routine of office desk or factory, but not too far. Tibet and Hawaii and Borneo are useful spots for pictures. Anything may happen there. We won't stop to ask questions about them. Synthetic studio sets have their purpose, too. But it is the unexpected flash of a familiar down, the white ribbon of a road wo have often tramped, the wide, wind-swept canopy of a friendly sky, that brings us back a second time , into-Jh^pinema* X