NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23274, 17 February 1939, Page 10

NOTES AND COMMENTS

STUDY OF LITERATURE The importance of English literature in any school curriculum is stressed in the report of the Spens Committee on Secondary Education in Great Britain. "The reading of literature is not only an important side of the work in English," states the report, "but with music and the arts, also plays its part in awakening and cultivating aesthetic sensibility. Literature is, of course, not the only subject of the curriculum in which the emotions are concerned. There is a strong emotional element in the sentiments that a pupil develops for any subject, but in the study of literature emotional training is more direct and more easily developed." The committee states its belief that prescribed books do more to injure the growth of a budding sentiment for literature than to encourage it, and recommends that books should no longer be prescribed in tho school certificate examination. GIVING LEADERS A LEAD In the Middle Ages England was so organised that, when need arose, each village and community could send out its quota of men, fully equipped, to serve their country, writes Lord Queenborough in a message to members of the Royal Society of St. George. The circumstances oi the time compelled our people to make provision for these emergencies and we were in consequence a hard.v and valiant race. The word compulsion lias an awkward sound in our ears, but democracy surely means equality of responsibility as well as equality of opportunity? To hang back now and leave it to others to send in their names and offer their services to the nation is a betrayal of democracy and something akin to a treason against society. If, for various reasons, our rulers hesitate to take drastic steps or make serious demands upon us, let us urge them to do so and make them see that the only lead we require is a lead to show us what wo can do and how we can do it.

HOPE FOR DEMOCRACY « Strength of mind is as much a necessity as strength of arms in the struggle of democracy against Fascism and Communism. This view is put forward by Mr. J. B. Firth in the Daily Telegraph. "There is no need to take a despondent, still less a despairing, view of the situation," he writes, "provided only that the democracies have learned their lesson from the events of last year, which is that they cannot drive away the Devil, like Luther at Warburg, by throwing inkpots at him. That only leaves a nasty mess on the wall, and the wily adversary, soon returns. The democracies have 'great allies,' in Wordsworth's noble words, if they are but true to themselves. They are proud to" profess high principles and to acknowledge the Rule of Law. They have on their side 'man's unconquerable mind' and the infrangible power of the spirit. They have drawn together in closer understanding and are showing a greater resolution to be firm in defence of the right. Whatever the new year may bring, we can face it cheerfully if we are strong, quit ourselves like men, join heartily in the common service and eschew like poison the hatefulness of extremes."

GERMANY'S SUBMARINES "There is one essential condition that must be fulfilled," writes "Scrutator" in the Sunday Times, with reference to the recent modifications in the Anglo-German Naval Agreements. "It is that Germany should not seek to challenge our naval supremacy. Her loyal observance of the Naval Treaty of 1935 has been the best guarantee of her sincerity in repudiating ambitions in Western Europe. It is some what disconcerting that she should now have put forward a request to be allowed to increase the number of her submarines to parity with ours; and her plea that Russia's submarine fleet is the biggest in the world is not convincing, for submarines are not the counter-craft to submarines. Inevitably the new request will raise the suspicion that its motive is to assist Italian ambitions in the Mediterranean as Italy had assisted Germany's on land. It should be made clear to Germany that any naval intervention by hei that might complicate the problems of the Mediterranean would raise grave doubts about the sincerity of her renunciation of Alsace-Lorraine and her protestation of political disinterestedness in the West; for France as well a3 Britain has frontiers in the Mediterranean. If Germany, directly or indirectly, became a Mediterranean sea Power, it would undermine the basis of many hopes Perhaps this is destined to be the chief issue in the new year—the last obstacle, one hopes, to enduring "peace." ARTS OF WAR AND PEACE "During the recent crisis many people said to me that if there is a war I suppose you will be busy. When asked why, the reply was: ' Making cartridges and shell cases, I suppose,' " said Mr. A. L. Molyneux, president of the Birmingham Metallurgical Society, in a recent speech. "This gives utterance to a commonly held belief that the chief concern of tlje metallurgist is the manufacture of implements of war. That, as all who are metallurgists know full well, is entirely erroneous. The metallurgist is essentially a man of peace. The knives, forks and spoons with which you have been enjoying your dinners, the lamp fittings which are lighting us, the wires that carry the electric current to the lamps, the wires in the lamps themselves and the door handle are but a few of the more obvious examples of the metallurgist's art. In the execution of that art he contributes much to the happiness and well-being of a community whom I feel and know has no other desire than to live at peace and charity with all men. From my knowledge of my fellow metallurgists, I know them to be men of peace. We are proud to be metallurgists and men of peace, and would far rather utilise our art and craftsmanship in the making of things of beauty ana permanence, which are a joy to the beholder and an inspiration to future generations, than in helping to manufacture implements of warfare and destruction. It is for us to pave the road toward a goal well worthy of our utmost and highest, namely, the manufacture and fabrication of metals in such wise that by their usefulness, permanence and beauty they may attain true value, and bear witness in time yet far lience to the faith that is in us all that the works of peace alone shall endure."-