NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23203, 24 November 1938, Page 12

NOTES AND COMMENTS

• WAR NEVER INEVITABLE "There is one observation on the lips of many people at this moment: 'You have got to fight some day, fight now.' No greater fallacy was ever uttered," ] said Lord Baldwin, speaking in the House of Lords. "War is never inevitable, ami if there were a 95 per cent chance of war at some future date I would hold on to the other 5 per cent until I died. And there is one little thing—a straw —from which I. have derived comfort. All tho peoples of Europe have looked down into the volcano this last week, and they have begun to ask questions. I do not believe there is a country in the world, and I include Germany and Italy, where men are not. asking: 'Where are we going? What is there in the jiolicy of our leaders which has brought us to this vision?' When men begin to ask these questions they will never rest until they have had an answer." MR. CHAMBERLAIN DEFENDED A clamour of raucous voices has risen to drown one voice that dared to speak out for world reason and common sense, r writes a correspndcnt to the New York Sun. We Americans want what Chamberlain wants. I know how hard it is to trust anyone in public office to-day, but what could this man have up his sleeve? He is almost at the end of the road, and what he is going through now will in all probability shorten the little time he has left. The young men of the war generation were bitter against the old men, who they felt had sent them to slaughter. Here is an old man who with fine dignity has put away pride and humbled himself to save the young men of the present generation. Aro they going stand by and let him bo knifed ? And old men, are not they i going to speak out their pride in this man of three score years and ten who has taken the helm of a world drifting blindly toward chaos ? ENGLISH COUNTRYSIDE A visit to Sutton Courtcnay, a village near Oxford, inspired the late Mr. E. Y. Lucas to write of the rural riches of England as follows: —As I came away I thought again of the wealth of beauty spots in this little England of ours: how small it is and yet how impossible it would be, even in a highly-powered car, and doing nothing else, for one explorer to see, every one of them. All those delectable regions await the. phantom period of leisure that (of course) must some day set in. And yet I have been moving about, too, alert for what is fresh and beautiful and interesting and quaint, for more years than it is seemly to record; which is another testimony to the inexhaustibleness of this so-called tiny England in which we dwell. When we are told that the whole of Great Britain could be put into one of the States of North America and still leave a margin of room, we are properly humiliated; we know how contemptible we must appear. But no sooner do we begin to walk about it or even drive about it than our composure and pride return, and we hold up our heads once more, ,because England really is enormous. Compared with the desert of Sahara or the great alkali plains of tho West, it may be minute; hut it is they really that are small, because they have so little to disclose, whereas England is vast because at every step you must pause or you will miss something. SIR HORACE WILSON A man of the moment is Sir Horace Wilson, who, at 56 years of age, has become the flying negotiator, writes "Atticus" in the Sunday Times in giving a personal sketch of tho adviser who accompanied Mr. Chamberlain on his peace missions to Germany. A young journalist once wrote of him: "Ho never went to a fashionable public school or to Oxford or Cambridge and has charming manners." "And," be it noted, not "but." His skill in negotiation was valued long ago when, as a very young man, he assisted Lord Askwith in settling trade disputes. Such a reputation is a dangerous one to acquire in a country that boasts our rough island story. It is said that the method of Sir Horace is to encourage the other man to say all that is in his mind and then to encourage him to say some more. By this system, if rumour is correct, Sir Horace forces all reservations and suspicions into the open. He knows tho exact measurements of the problem which he must master. The fact that ho has a quiet voice and docs not give his opinion until it is required has resulted in his being dubbed a "mystery man" and credited with possessing an undue influence over his chiefs. That will not worry tho subject of this sketch. Nothing perturbs him. Whether it is planning the famous agreement at Ottawa, helping* to settle the general strike, dealing with a Mediterranean dispute or explaining the inexplicable to Herr Hitler, it is all one to him. DIET TO RESIST DISEASE Recent medical discoveries have given rise to the hope that it will bo possible at some future dato to stamp out, or at least greatly reduce, the incidence of disease by means of diet, writes tho medical correspondent of the Sunday Times. Wo know, for example, that certain diseases such as rickets, bori-beri, and pellagra aro duo solely to the absence from our food of certain essential elements known as vitamins. When thoso elements aro restored to the diet the diseases aro prevented or cured. Wo know, too, that many conditions of ill-health, not sufficiently pronounced to bo called diseases, aro duo to the lack of certain minerals from food, and can bo cured when those minerals are provided. More recent research suggests that diot may play a prominent part in tho fight against the moro deadly diseases caused by germs. Striking confirmation of this* view has been provided by some experiments conducted by three •workers at •tho London School of Medicine and Tropical Hygiene. They fed 100 mico on a normal diet. Another 100 thoy fed on a diot part of tho oatmeal in which had been replaced by dried skimmed milk. The mice fed on skimmed milk resisted infection approximately twice ns well as thoso without tho milk. A.4 the Lancet points out, the results are suggestive; If the addition of skimmed milk alone to the diet can double tho power of resistance to infection, might not other foods enhanco it still further? We have not yet reached the stage when dieticians can provide us with a diet that will enable us to resist all the attacks of germ infections. But these experiments give rise to the hope that .we may one day do so, i