NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23273, 16 February 1939, Page 12

NOTES AND COMMENTS

APPROACH TO POLITICS A more intelligent study of history and geography as an approach to political understanding is advocated in tho recent report of the Spens Committee on Secondary Education in Great Britain. "Tho importance of history," says the report, "and in particular of recent history, for its own sake is obvious; moreover, since, with pupils under sixteen, the theoretical discussion of economic questions is impracticable, and the objections to the direct discussion of current political questions are considerable, recent political and economic history is the best introduction to the study of politics, geography also can give a conception of tho world and of its diverse environments and peoples tvhich should enable boys and girls to see social and political problems in a truer perspective, and give them sympathetic understanding of other peoples." DUBLIN'S CITY MANAGER In 1930 legislation was passed in Eire which only imperfectly carried out the recommendation as regards the fusion of Dublin local authorities, notes the Irish correspondent of the Sunday Times. This Act, however, did carry into effect one important recommendation which was that the whole basis of city government in future should be recast, and that the functions of policy and management should be kept separate and distinct. Policy was to be the function of the elected representatives, while management was to be entrusted to a new official called the city manager. Their respective spheres were prescribed by law. City government thus became not unlike a commercial business, with a manager responsible to a board of directors elected by the shareholding ratepayers. A break was made with the bad old days when every petty appointment involved intensive canvassing and a bumper attendance automatically indicated that some job was on foot. This city manager method has proved a success, and has since been extended to other Irish boroughs. LITERARY EXCELLENCE Why does time define and confirm literary excellence? asks Mr. Hilaire Belloc in a recent article. How does time work on this task? The answer is often given: "Because with the passing of time the adventitious drops out, is forgotten, loses importance, and only the essential interests, those which are common to all mankind, remain." Now I cannot help believing that this answer, which has been so universally given, especially during the last century, is at fault. For the greatness of verse does not lie in its subject, but in its manner. The soul of verse is form. Men think that what is affirmed in such and such a great lino appeals to them by its truth. That is—by its correspondence with experience. But indeed it is not so. The great verse strikes not by wisdom but by magic. Poetry lies in magic. That which purports to bo poetry but fails in magic has missed its aim, and is commonly, as poetry, worthless. When Shakespeare wrote: "The Glimpses of the Moon," he rang the bell—and the operative word is "Glimpses." If he had written "Intermittent Appearances," he would have spoilt the dish. FASCISM IN SOUTH AMERICA

The speeches at the recent PanAmerican conference held at Lima show with what anxiety the operations and intrigues of Nazi and Fascist Governments in South America are watched by all those who cans about preserving democratic institutions in the New World, says the Manchester Guardian. A writer in the current number of the important American quarterly Foreign Affairs describes the methods by which the control exercised by those authorities over Germans and Italians at home is extended to Germans and Italians in the South American States. In Brazil Germans are herded into Nazi organisations and the Gestapo is at work. Germans who resist are boycotted and their businesses are ruined. Italian firms boycott non-Fas-cist Italians and the Rome propaganda office maintains a free press service which is hostile to the United States and democracy. Other States are treated in the same way. The writer points out that the largo banking and commercial interests might be used to interfere with the flow of supplies in the caso of war. The effect of a rebel victory in Spain would be to add a new Government to the anti-Comintern group, and the pressure now applied to Germans, Italians and Japanese in the New World would bo applied to Spaniards. It is of supreme importance to the United States that the grave problem that occupies its attention at this moment should not bo made still graver. The effect of a victory by Franco would be felt in every State that has a Spanish population. CARDINAL SUPPORTS ARABS

Sympathy with the Arabs and the conviction that tho British Government will see justice (lone were expressed by Cardinal Hinsley, Archbishop of Westminster, addressing a meeting of the Royal Empire Society in London. Cardinal Hinsley said they had mot to advocate the cause of peace and to work for goodwill among men. "I say," ho continued, "that whether white man or black man, Russian, Mexican, Spaniard, Jew or Arab, if there is suffering among them they aro my neighbours. I am for the Arabs of Palestine. I cannot help but express my deep sympathy with them and my hope to give help if I possibly can. There aro between forty and fifty thousand Arabs under tho Holy See and they have suffered grievously. The British Government has done an immense amount of good since it was entrusted with the care ot the Holy Land. I would observe, however, that if you touch the language or the land of any peoplo you strike at tho most sensitive and vital part of their organisation, and tho land of the Arabs belongs to them. The Arabs contended that they were being robbed, for others were being given the opportunity of buying them out. I think this is an important part of tho question now before Britain, but I am quite confident that tho Government intends to do justice to all parties." Tho primary principle for colonising Powers cr mandatory Powers was the wellbeing of the people, Cardinal Hinsley concluded. Commercial interests were secondary and unimportant compared with the good of the people who had been given into Britain's charge