NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23400, 17 July 1939, Page 10

NOTES AND COMMENTS

NEED FOR TRIPLE ALLIANCE "We all hope," said Mr. Winston Churchill in a recent speech, "that nothing will happen to prevent the conclusion of the triple alliance between England, France and Soviet Russia." Knowing, as they did, liis inveterate opposition to Communism. Mr. Churchill continued, they would at first sight think it strange that he should advocate the alliance now being completed. But a great French soldier said to hin'i a little while ago: "Without Russia there can bo no Eastern 1' rout, and without an Eastern Front the whole weight will'fall upon the West. But with a strong Eastern Front war may bo averted altogether." CONSTRUCTIVE PEACE Even the creation of an effective deterrent against aggression affords no lasting solution of our ills, writes Mr. Anthony Eden in the Sunday Times. Other problems remain, and though to warn any would-be aggressor in terms of unmistakable action is an essential preliminary to any curative process, it is no more than this. The fundamental evils of the present international situation persist. Tho competition in armaments continues with ever-gathering momentum; national economies arc being twisted and distorted to lend it further impetus. That trend must be checked and reversed, or conflict will become inevitable. Moreover, will not the nations more readily bo brought to understand that methods of force must bo abandoned if to overwhelming military power to resist aggression bo added political reasonableness to solve admitted ills? On this issue there must bo no misunderstanding. There ,can be no question of buying temporary peace, nor of making concessions, to gain a further uneasy respite. Such moods will not recur. But while a short-term policy must be based on rigid strength, there is advantage in facing also the long-term problems from which there is no ultimate escape, war or no war.

SOUTH AFRICA'S EFFORT This relatively small nation—the Union of South Africa—is building up the largest Air Force outside of the Great Powers; its National Register contains the names of over 600,000 persons, which represents the extraordinary figure of one-third of its white population, and of those, 130,000 arcalready in training or registered for training, writes Sir lan Fraser in the Sunday Times. It is designing and proparing to make in its own countVy all manner of special armaments suitable to its > own kind of warfare. In addition, it provides harbours for the •British Fleet, and is making its coastal towns "battleship proof." Is the country behind the Government in all this activity? And would South Africa in fact remain neutral? She is an independent member of the Commonwealth and will decide her own course in her own way, and at her own time. But I have no doubt that the majority feel it is wise for South Africa to be strong at the present time. More than a majority value the British connection: the minority is not pro-German. War in Europe, if it occurs, will probably appear to most South Africans to be a threat to freedom. Those Afrikaans-speaking people who are cautious about'commitments at present belong to a race that is second to none in the world in its love of freedom.

LORD HORDER'S IDEAL SCHOOL

A definition of his ideal school was given by Lord Horder, the King's physician, speaking at Bcdales School. "If I were sending my ewe lamb to school for the first time," he said, "I should want to be satisfied that the child would be given the essential foundation of self-discipline, and would acquire good manners, cleanliness and punctuality. I would not bother about academic training—nobody bothered about mine. But I should bother about health, about food, and more and more about rest both of the body and of the mind. I should bother about the possibilities of manual work, about some chance of close contact with the good earth, and I should still make an inquiry as to the possibility of the pursuit of what used to be called the gentler arts. 1 should like to see the staff and to check over the typo of persons engaged in the tutorial work. I would run a mile from any crank, taking my precious bairn with me, and I would be suspicious of orange ties, hair which was too long, and tweeds which were too furry. I would assess progress in terms of human happiness and contentment rather than by the number of pupils who got their school certificate at the minimum age, or the importance of the positions 'filled and the size of the salaries earned by past students."

IDEA BEHIND THE PYRAMIDS In Egypt thero has always beon so slight a chance for a man to pull out of tho ruck, to differentiate himself from his fellows, to add that decoration to his.life, those windings and deviations, which can for a time obscnro its real direction and tho goal of his activity. Ho lived 011 the soil and from tho soil, and into the soil he would go. Tlio facts wore inescapable, writes Mr. Bobbin Fedden in his book, "Tho Land of Egypt." That is why tho Egyptians, perhaps more than any other people, found it necessary to gild tho bitter pill and turned to the palliative of resurrection with an unparalleled thoroughness and application. Their avid insistence on life after death, was the result of their familiarity with death in life, and of tho undifferentiated nonentity in which so many of them (0110 might recall tho namejess multitudes who built the pyramids) passed their earthly existence. Having beon nonentities in this world, they did not intend to become obliterated in tho next. Thus aroso tho whole process of mummification «i n d the cult of tho resurrection. In thoir death they, fled from tho all-absorbent soil of tho Delta to preserve themselves in the dry deserts. It is tho endless rocktombs and pyramids, those showcases for bones from which tho traveller oinerges blinking into a steady sun, that are inevitably tho most improssivo instances of Egyptian, consciousness of death Bat-haunted, impervious to timo, growing neither cooler in winter nor hotter in summer, they affirm and reaffirm, not that resurrection which their builders meant they should ensure, but the domination of death,.