NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23718, 26 July 1940, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS

WEAKENED BY DIVISION The present distressing plight of the Allied countries in their heroic and determined defence against invading forces is due. perhaps primarily, to the face that neither in England nor in France, in the years immediately preceding the present conflict, has there been that complete unison of thought and purpose necessary to absolute national solidarity, writes Mr. Frank L. Perrin in the Christian Science Monitor There have been divergences of opinion as to ways and means, rather than differences as to the ultimate end which should be sought and attained. But the result is just as disastrous and the possibility of eventual defeat just as appalling as would have been the case had actual disloyalty divided those most concerned. BLOND BEAST UNCHAINED "At the end of the last century the German philosopher Nietzsche denounced Christianity and he proclaimed the philosophy of the German 'blond beast' who admires strength bocause it is strong and destroys weakness because it is weak," said Mr.' Richard Grossman in a 8.8.C. talk. "Nietzsche went out of his mind and died in a lunatic asylum. He did not have the opportunity to put his principles into practice. That has been left to Adolf Hitler and his National Socialists. They have killed or exiled or beaten into submission all who stood for the German tradition of science and art and humanity; they have carried through a revolution of destruction such as the world has never seen. And when they had destroyed all that was of value inside Germany, they were driven by the inner law of their own nature to seek to destroy all that is decent outside Germany." SPIRIT OF BRITISH LABOUR "You read and hoar, day by day, how our magnificent young men are striving to buy with their flesh and blood the time that we- need to build up our strength," said Mr. Herbert Morrison, British Labour leader and Minister of Supply, in addressing munition workers. "At this hour of all hours wo at homo cannot take things easy; for whether we have deserved it or not, the men of our fighting forces are struggling to give us time to iriako up leeway, to their undying honour. What are wo going to do with it —with this crucial time that we yet possess? Tho question answers itself. Wo, men and women alike, aro going to work our fingers to tho bone for our sons and for their future. We are going to do whatever lies in our power "to match, and to bo worthy of, the sacrifices that are being made for us. We are going to cut down our leisure, cut down our comfort, blot out of our thought every private and sectional aim. Wo mitstl We arc going to guard our health and strength; for these are assets in the fight. But we shall bo careless of all else—thinking only of arms for the men, arms for victory, arms for liberty. After all, these young fighting men are our sons. We bred them; t there must be something of their spirit in us."