NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23487, 26 October 1939, Page 10

NOTES AND COMMENTS

FREEDOM UNDER-VALUED 'ft**"""? • Quoting Lord Baldwin's saying that democracy must bo protected against tho "enemy within" as well as the "enemy without," Mr. Charles E. Gratke, foreign editor of the Christian Science Monitor, remarks that against the "enemy without" a major war is being waged. The internal enemy, he says, is loss visible. It is not Communism, Fascism or Nazism on democratic soil; these are but other phases of the enemy without. Nor is it, as many pretend, the disagreements between different schools of liberal thought. For in the large democracies and in the small ones —in States whero varying degrees of liberalism still obtain —the same fact becomes apparent. The only possible enemy from within is the lack of appreciation of the meaning of freedom. EMPIRE'S UNANIMITY The perfect unanimity of Great Britain and the Dominions in this most momentous of all struggles for freedom and justice is a phenomenon without parallel in the history of the world, writes Lord He wart, Lord Chief Justice of England. It is nearly a hundred years since a great statesman wrote to Sir Robert Peel: "The only way in which the soul of a great nation can be stirred is by appealing to its sympathies with a true principle in its unalloyed simplicity." Never was there a principle more simple or more clear than that which explains, as it inspires, this righteous crusade. It is no local or temporary difference that now engages the minds of men. The conduct and the aims of the enemy leave no room for doubt that the very continuance of tolerable life is at stake, and that men are threatened with the loss of all that makes life worth living.

BRITISH OUTLOOK CHANGES Nothing bettqr exemplifies the contrast between Britain's attitude to-day and a year ago than a comparison between two speeches by the Prime Minister, notes "Janus" in the Spectator. On August 24, Mr. Chamberlain declared with deep emotion in tho House of Commons that if we were forced into conflict, in spite of all our efforts, "we shall not be fighting for the political future of a far-away city in a foreign land. We shall bo fighting for the preservation of those principles the destruction of which would involve tho destruction of peace and liberty for the peoples of the world." That is separated by almost tho distance of the poles from the Prime Minister's broadcast on C/.echo-Slovakia on September 25, 1938. What he said then was: "How horrible, fantastic, incredible it is that we should be digging trenches and trying on gas-masks here because of a quarrel in a far-away country between people of whom we know nothing." We have travelled far in 11 months; and in the right direction.

PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH "We see around us people differing in opinions, differing fiercely from one another in respect of almost every probiem under the sun," said Dr. S. J. F. Philpott, of London University, in a broadcast talk on psychological research. "Like jesting Pilate we might inquire 'What is Truth?' and pass on. And, in fact, it is not always tho business of psychology to inquire into the truth or nature of opinions. But it is our business to study how people think and how they behave. Let me then tell you how we try to measure the extent to which people agree in their opinions. For example, wo may not know what beauty is. - That's a philosophical problem. But we can at least find out whether people agree in what they thing about. Suppose wo take a set of postcard reproductions of famous pictures, telling someone to range them in order, most beautiful on the right, least beautiful on tho left. Having recorded his judgments, we can get someone else to range tho said postcards in order, and so on, for, say, 50 people or more. If there is a standard of beauty to which all people conform, then our 50 judges ought to put the said postcards in the same order. On the other hand, if there is no consensus of opinion, if beauty is really a matter of personal prejudice, then there will be.as many different rankings of the postcards as there are judges. Or it may be, of course, that there are schools of thought. Some of the judges may agree in favouring futuristic work, others agreeing in liking the chocolate-box typo of beauty, and so on."