NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23390, 5 July 1939, Page 12

NOTES AND COMMENTS

OLD ADAM IN RUSSIA Wo learn from n Moscow despatch that Communism is having a hard time killing the gardening instinct and the proprietorial instinct which senilis to go with it, says the New York Times. Pravda, the Communist Party mouthpiece, complains that many residents on co-operative farms arc giving altogether too much attention to the vegetables on their own little plots and altogether too little attention to their duties in the communal fields. Some try to enlarge their plots. Some try to get two cows, whereas the regulations say one is plenty. Systems may change, governments rise and fall, dictators comcand go. Human society may be, in fact, repeatedly stood on its car and made to seem to like it. But Pravda may as well realise now as later that the man who likes to raise his own vegetables in his own soil and the woman who likes to raise her own flowers will be here after Marx, Lenin and Stalin are forgotten. N DOMINATION OR DOWNFALL I have been looking, sadly, at a dusty article, on "Germany and the Prussian Spirit," which 1 -wrote in the crisis of August, 1914, says Sir Edward Grigg, M.P., in a recent article. Its main burden was the baffling contrast between the German Empire then challenging the world in arms and that other Germany of music, poetry, philosophy, true scholarship, and almost child-like simplicity of mind which is even more completely submerged to-day than it was then. A weak ' and ineffectual Germany, it is true, that Germany of dreams; and yet an indestructible one, as Nora Wain, the American Quakeress, has shown in her account of four years' recent residence in Germany, "Peaching for the Stars." Voltaire's saying that while France ruled the land atul Britain the sea, Germany ruled the clouds is as true to-day as it was more than a century and a-lialf ago. There is something visionary in the spirit of the German race which sweeps even its military realists off their feet; and so for them it is always "Weltmacht odor Niedergang"—world domination or downfall and decay. It was so in 1914. It is once again in 1939. DEMOCRACY IN ECLIPSE

Serious students of democracy in France are carefully weighing—and not without some misgivings—the effects of government by decree rather than by legislative action which is the momentary French heritage of crisis, writes the Paris correspondent of the Christian Science Monitor. Since last March, decrees possessing the force of law have been issued by the Cabinet upon the authorisation of the Chamber of Deputies, granted tinder the spur of Germany's seizure of Czechoslovakia. The theoretical possibility remains that the Chamber, in session, could challenge the Cabinet on some decision and vote it out of office. But such a development, in the present strained international situation, is unlikely; and with an eye on Germany, where "decree law" was one of the forerunners of present dictatorship, French political circles are not strangers to the question: "Has rule by deciee, which is so convenient to any group in power, come to stay in France?" One frequently hears the fear expressed that the habitual use of the "decreelaw" is stimulating apathy and indifference to Parliamentary institutions. THE CHILD AS AN ASSET One of the most familiar posters to be seen in Germany—at least until recentlj'—carries the message: "All for the Race," writes Mr. Edward Fuller in the Listener. This slogan means much more than mere insistence on the doctrine of so-called racial purity. It is a reminder to the public at large that sacrifices must be made to maintain the population. The existence of the Reich Association of Families Rich in Children is evidence that such sacrifices do not go unrecognised. Of course, Germany is not the only nation that wishes to be "rich in children." Franco and Belgium, for example, have had Big Family Leagues for twenty years past. Italy offers many inducements to parenthood. But in the Reich the encouragement of parenthood has indeed become a major concern and it is probable that the supremacy of the child as a national asset has never been more passionately recognised than it is in Germany to-day. As Herr Hitler once declared in a speech, "I measure the success of our work, not by our road-building, our new factories or our new bridges, nor by the military divisions we can equip. The supreme factor to bo taken into account in judging the success of our work is the Gorman child." AS DR. INGE SEES IT The danger of war comes not from Germany or Italy, but from ourselves, asserts Dr. Inge, writing in the Church of England Newspaper. Our Reds are furious because the World Revolution lias been stopped by the despised bourgeoisie, who, as Mr. F. A. Voigt has shown in his admirable book, "Unto Caesar," havo borrowed and improved upon the technique of Communism, routing tho Rods with their own weapons. They feel as if they had been unexpectedly butted by a sheep. So, though they opposed rearmament, they are ready to pick a quarrel with Germany, Italy, Japan and Spain all at once. They are supported by the Jews (I. am sure wo cannot blame them!)j- who aro using their not inconsiderable influence in the British press and in Parliament to embroil us with Germany. Lastly, there aro the remaining supporters of tho unhappy Leagu'o of Nations, of which most of us enn say that wo began with faith, went on with hope, and now havo nothing loft but charity. Tho insensate folly of our warmongers surely needs no demonstration. What would bo the use of attacking Central Europe? Twontyfivo years ago wo drew tho sword with two objects—"to end war" and "to make tho world safo for democracy.'' Wo won that war after narrowly escaping destruction, and the results are what wo see. Tho wrath of man workcth not tho righteousness of God. Wo havo nothing to gain and everything to loso. \ Bishop Creigliton said truly that wo are tho vulnerable of all nations. France, Germany and Russia could recover from a knock-down blow; wo could not. One such defeat would bo tho end of Britain as a Great Power.