NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23134, 5 September 1938, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS

BRITISH FOREIGN POLICY Not weakness but the bedrock of steadiness and steadfastness is at the bottom of British policy, writes Mr. J. L. Garvin. Day by day, as the Prime Minister, Mr. Chamberlain, says, tho nation is building up its strength. He adds: " Tho stronger a country is tho more it can afford to be patient and even generous." These are tho very accents of what used to be thought best in Liberalism. As between the National Government and the Oppositions—including the dwindling band of Conservatives who trumpet a more promiscuous belligerency—the whole case can bo put in two sentences. We are arming to buttress peace if we can and to fight as never if we must. But whether among ourselves or in tho Dominions and the United States what sane mind can urge us to fight before we need?

HIGH ADVENTURE TO ROUTINE The accelerator of mechanical progress is hard down, says tho London Observer. A decade ago the EnglandAustralia flight was a supremo and hazardous enterprise. Now tho trip is accomplished, according to one passenger, with "a complete lack of adventure." More than that. From tho reports it would appear that the flight is almost dull. It is on reality that the imagination feeds, and the air passenger's detachment from earth-bound things severs him from reality. In tho space of hours the travellers passes from fertile lands to desert, from continent to continent, from one set of alien sounds and sights and smells to an entirely different one. His imagination refuses to digest such diversity. The living map, unrolling swiftly thousands of feet below him, becomes, by the very speed of his transit, little moro stimulating to his curiosity than the wall maps of his earlier school room. Thus, within a few short years, high adventure becomes efficient routine. Pioneer hardships melt into standardised comfort.

LIMITS ON SELF-SUFFICIENCY Although we may be able to raise enough potatoes for our own needs, yet if wo cannot raise other things we need, then wo must raise a few moro potatoes for someone who does need them, and who may be willing to exchange what wo need for our potatoes, writes Mr. Walter Sandon in the Christian Science Monitor. Or if it is not potatoes, then it may bo our music, our peculiar form of art, or our scenery and places of historic interest, which we can offer as sources of interest and pleasure for holiday-makers from other lands. In other words, to strive for a state of exclusive self-sufficiency in the midst of a world order that is continually making demands for new things and improved processes, and which is continually moving forward to higher standards of living, is economic selflimitation. The notion of self-sufficiency is by no means new. Men in all ages have attempted to practise it, ranging from monks and hermits to the landowning barons and the city states of ancient Greece. Self-sufficiency has never proved a success. Only this year celebrations were held in Denmark for the purpose of re-recording the abolition of a past baronial attempt at selfsufficiency, that ended 150 years ago.

LORD RUNCIMAN'S MISSION The mission of Lord Runciman in Prague is approved both in Germany and France. "Non-hero does Air. Chamberlain sec unsurmountablo obstacles," says the Voclkischer Bcobachter, of Germany. "This optimism is not new in a man who right from the beginning refused to throw up the sponge. Mr. Chamberlain is stubbornly convinced that, with a little goodwill on all sides, tho unfortunate legacies of the Paris peace treaties can bo liquidated without bloodshed and be replaced by a reasonable order. Abovo all, Chamberlain refuses to repeat parrot-lilce the fairy tale of the 'unsurmountablo' contrast between Britain and Germany. Dr. Hodza (the Czechoslovak Prime Minister) will now be forced to lay his cards on the table." M. Leon Blum's organ, Populaire, states: —"The fate of Czechoslovakia and, in many ways, that of Europe, thus depends on the judgment of one man. This is a serious matter. But Franco has no reason to doubt Lord Runciman's impartiality. For tho time being she wishes to draw but two conclusions, both welcome to her: (1) The guardianship assumed by Great Britain is at once a security and a guarantee, and (2) the chance of a peaceful settler^:nt is increased or rather, the danger of a resort to force is lessened."

ECONOMICS OF TIN-OPENER The tin-openor lias become an indispensable part of the equipment of every modern home, says tho Economist. Labour-saving devices have radically transformed the home. On the -one hand, gas and electricity have facilitated the speedy preparation of food; while, on the other, canning has made much cooking unnecessary. The acceleration of tho tempo of home lifo has been accompanied by a notable chango in national dietary. In tho United States, the United Kingdom, tho British Empire and Japan a great canning industry has grown up, which has brought many varieties of fruit, fish, meat and vegetables within the reach of the less well-to-do sections of the community. At tho same time, tho industry has provided agriculturists, market gardeners, fishermen and meat producers with a relatively stable market, for part, at least, of their output. There are, however, many objections to any indefinite extension of tho uso of the tin-opener. Tho commodities which, it is generally agreed, aro most deficient in the national diet to-day—-fresh fruit, vegetables and milk —are precisely those whose consumption in canned form is most rapidly increasing. This anomaly may bo duo partly to defects in the distribution of the fresh article, and partly, one must admit, to tho natural desire of housewives and other consumers to conserve their own time and labour. So far as canned goods are consumed, because urban dwellers cannot obtain fresh produce in good condition at reasonable prices, their increased consumption might involve serious questions of national nutrition. Tho best safeguard against such a danger would be, not to impede tho progress of tho canning industry, but to raise the efficiency of tho distribution of fresh produce. Provided the British consumer obtains a sufficiency of cheap, fresh fruit, vegetables and milk, tho additional amenities furnished by canning may bo welcomed unreservedly.,