NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23512, 24 November 1939, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS

CALL TO CRUSADE ! When Urban 11. proclaimed the First Crusade, his words are said to have evoked the general shout, "Deus le volt"—"God wills it." We have travelled far, writes the Bishop of Durham, since the simple and half-barbar-ous people of medieval Christendom discerned a divine vocation in the Pope's summons to the Holy "War for the rescue of Palestine from the infidel, but surely we do not deceive ourselves when, confronted by a worse menace than that of Mohammed, we also discern a divine vocation in the summons to battle, not for an empty tomb in a distant land, but for the moral heritage of civilised Christendom. On that crusade for justice, liberty, and the reign of law iu the intercourse of nations, we may dare to invoke the blessing of the Almighty, Wbose service is perfect freedom, and -Whoso will is man's duty. "Clouds and dnrkness are round about Him; righteousness and judgment are the habitation of His seat." STARTING BEHIND SCRATCH Her shortage in the materials for munitions of war is not the only disadvantage under which Germany labours in standing the threatened siege, writes "Scrutator" in the Sunday Times. In 1914 her people were in the pink of condition, prosperous, well fed and well paid. She lost the war largely because the naval blockade, by depriving her of fats and other essentials of diet, had caused a general depression which did even more than any defeats in the field to convince tho Germans that they could not possibly win. Germany begins this war much where she left off in the last war. She no longer thinks herself invincible, her people hare been overworked and underfed for a long time; for before Hitler came into power the country's plight was ofton miserable. If one translates these national handicaps into terms of a garrison about to undergo a long and hard siege there is good reason to believe that what happened in the last war will happen again and happen sooner. NAZI TRADE- DIFFICULTIES Anxiety is being displayed in German industrial circles concerning the capacity of the Reich to produce the necessary goods to pay for the great volume of imports which Germany requires from the South-East European States, according to a Berlin correspondent. Trade between the Reich and the Balkans, by no means without difficulties under normal circumstances, has been enormously complicated by the war. Germany's refusal to pay her debts in anything but German manufactured goods, combined with the inability of many of the South-Last European States to absorb such excessive manufactured supplies, has already resulted in the piling up of enormous German debts. While this circumstance was at first welcomed by Nazi politicians on the ground that it rendeicd the Balkan States dependent on the Reich, a point has already been reached where exporters from tho Balkan countries are unable to supply further goods until their earlier bills have been paid. MAKING A JUST PEACE "The most radical fault of the Treaty of Versailles was that it was imposed and not negotiated," said the Archbishop of York, Dr. Temple, in a broadcast talk that was later re-broadcast in translation to Germany. "This may have been true of treaties which the Germans themselves have made, but, nevertheless, let us as Christians determine at all costs to avoid any repetition of a procedure by which it is hardly possible to create a general sense that justice has been done. In other words, let us determine and declare that when the fighting stops, the terms of peace shall be drawn up in a true Congress of Nations, in which Germany, freed from the Nazi tyrants, shall take her place among the rest, but in which also the rights of Czechs and Poles shall have a first claim to consideration. If there arc matters on which no ,agreement can be reached, let these bo referred to a Court of Equity formed from neutral nations which are neither beneficiaries nor sufferers by the Peace of Versailles. Nothing, surely, could so clearly establish the disinterestedness of our aims than such a declaration. Nothing, surely, could give to the peoples of Poland, Czecho-Slovnkia and Germany, so clear an assurance that they .will receive justice so far as the tangle of facts bequeathed to us by history permits it and the wisdom of men can secure it. This frees us from the dreadful responsibility, and indeed the indefensible arrogance, of ourselves attempting to decide what is just and imposing it on others."

KEEPING THE FAITH In an exquisitely pathetic poem, entitled "Theology in extremis," Sir Alfred Lyall has pictured, the mental conflict of a young British officer, recalls the Bishop of Durham, writing in the Sunday Times. The officer has been taken prisoner by Mahommedan tribesmen, and is confronted with the choice, either to profess himself a Mahommedan, or to be forthwith put to death. He asks himself why he should die for a religion in which, though nominally a Christian, he has no real belief. Martyrdom could bring to him no immortal reward. Apostasj' could bo 110 more in his case than an empty form. Moreover, he is alone with his persecutors. There is 110110 to witness his confession, or to record his denial. Why, then, should lie hesitate to take the course which common sense and obvious interest unite to recommend? His decision is stated thus: I must be gone to tho crowd untold Of men by the cause which they served unknown, Who moulder in myriad gruves of old; Never a story and never a stone Tells of the martyrs who died like me. Just for the pride of tho old countree. "Tho old countree" can but mean the English tradition of faith and duty in which the young officer had been bred, and which had shaped his character, and determined his points of view, far more than, perhaps, he had himself realised. He had learned the obligation of self-respect, and the deep shame of professing falsehood under coercion. These things belong to the essence of Christ's religion, and the man who holds to them in the teeth of all hostile pressures is, albeit unconsciously, His dieciplo.