NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23276, 20 February 1939, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS

INFLUENCE OF MUSIC "Music is well said to bo tho speech of angels," writes General Evangeline Booth, of the Salvation Army. "There is no ear that it will not arrest, no heart which it cannot melt. Now we who have thought upon music have discovered that tho secret of its marvellous influence is its quick appeal to the human heart. The direct relation of music is not to ideas but to the emotions. Music does not first sound the depths of knowledge. Music first sounds the depths of feeling. Music does not incite to argument; it awakens a desire to listen, to receive, to follow. The strains of a country's national hymn do not offer an elaborate definition of patriotism, but they quicken the heart-beat of every patriot. This is how it is that music goes such a long way to nervo energies, to subdue passions, to comfort sorrow, to evoke aspirations after high ideals." THE ESSENTIAL VERITIES A defiance of Christian principles in tho international sphere is deplored by the Rev. Dr. W. Lansdell Wardle. president of the Methodist Conference of Great Britain. "The real tragedy of tho present time," lie says, "is not primarily the cruel persecution and wanton slaughter of inoffensive victims —terrible and tragic as they are — but tho growth of indifference to the elementary principles of truth and honesty in world politics. The whole of diplomacy seems to be tainted by makebelieve and pretence that certain positions are founded on fact when the ordinary observer —like you and me—sees perfectly clearly that this is only pretence or, as many would and do put it, window-dressing. Not only are tho basal qualities of mercy and justice being defied, but the fundamental quality of truth is ignored. In such dangerous times the witness of the Churches to tho essential verities, not j only in theology and morality, but between statesman and statesman and followers and leaders, is the one and only hope for a distracted age." NAZI COUPS DESIGNED An admission that, after all, the Nazi coups of last year were not spontaneous developments but carefullyplotted designs was made by Dr. Goebbels. German Minister of Propaganda, in an address at the New Year. In the past year, he said, a thousand-year-old dream had been fulfilled—tho Greater Germany had become a reality. "We live too fast in these stirring times," he added. "The years are filled with dramatic thrills, and as fast as one great event is over another onefollows it. Owing to this abruptness and speed we are often inclined to forget the difficulties involved. We take the success of the regime for granted. If, in the coursp of a year, we reap an unprecedented historical harvest, we suppose that it is only the result of luck, or of some sort of historical miracle. There is no doubt that luck is necessary to obtain historical success, and in its totality the work of the Fuehrer must be regarded as a miracle. But miracles come not. when one just waits for them, but when one works and fights for them. That is what happened here. The Fuehrer did not wait. He collected the forces of the nation, organised, and boldly engaged on the big historical decision of this year. He succeeded. There was risk, but without great risks there aro no great successes in history." THE EXILE OF DOORN The thoughts which must have inspired a desire for world domination were reviewed by the Times on the occasion of the 80th birthday of the ex-Kaiser last month. It is easv for us to realise, says the Times, why he did not really understand the English temperament, although he knew nsi so well. Englishmen are outwardly the simplest of mortals, inwardly the most complex. Many who come to this country for a short time go away thinking that they understand us and become authorities on Great Britain in their own country; and-yet, if they knew us only in times of tranquillity, they may be violently disillusioned as soon as circumstances change from security to danger, from peace to war, Relaxation is dear to the heart of every Englishman, and he is apt to relax to the point of appearing soft or at least incurably idle, if he does not think there is any special need for effort. He seems, moreover, to be careless of causes, indifferent to principles. Nothing could be farther from the truth. When the threat to his freedom comes, to his safety, to his interests, good nature makes way in a flash to energy, determination and concentrated effort. England did r. >t want to quarrel with the Kaiser. She does not want to quarrel with Germany now. But there are some things she will not stand. The unprovoked invasion of Belgium was one. An attack on the Empire, or the Empire's allies and neighbours, would always be another. FRENCH VIEWPOINT Nothing makes a Frenchman dislike the English more than the assumption that in' She next war his country should provide the infantry while the English fight on the sea, in tho air and in the factory, writes Mr. D. R. Gillie in the Spectator. He is acutely aware that the very stuff of France is threatened, its flesh and blood. There were 43,000 more deaths than births in | France in tho first half of 19:38. The suggestion that this irreplaceable material should bo used as cannon-fod--der while the Anglo-Saxon makes shells strikes him as indecent. In the Great War 1,325,000 Frenchmen were killed as compared with 744,000 soldiers from Great Britain. Since the total population of France is smaller and more stable (so that the age groups are more equally proportioned) this meant that 8.8 per cent of the men of tho United Kingdom between 20 and 45 were killed, but 18.2 per cent of tho Frenchmen of the same age. This proportion was only surpassed in tho case of Hungary with 18.7 per cent, whereas that for Germany was 15.5 per cent. In comparison with England tho losses of the agricultural population were probably •proportionately still heavier, for the industrial workman waa rarer and could therefore be less easily spared from the factory. English visitors to France will do well to count the names on the village war memorials and ask what is the population of the parish. They will then understand why the country population is inclined to sup- : port M. Bonnet and the Munich agreeawnfti