NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23965, 15 May 1941, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS

TEACHING THE PARSONS We parsons set out to teach the people. We do our best, writes Dr. Archibald Fleming. But what of the things the people teach us? How many of them, often unwittingly, are graduates in the school of Christ? In a long life I have learned much at the feot of very humble folk. What I, so-called "college-bred," have tried to put in words they so often have already translated into deeds neighbourliness, charity, patience in tribulation, refusal of defeat, eschewing of hate. Here surely were the beatitudes in silhouette; brave hearts fashioned in the mind of Christ —though perhaps not much versed in the doctrine.

FAMILY ALLOWANCES IN KIND Viscount Astor suggests that famih allowances might take the form of food instead of cash. Speaking in the House of Lords, he said: —"One can relieve a family—a father and mother —of the expense of bringing up a large number of children either b.v giving them a grant in cash or a grant, in kind. It you give children free meals, one meal or possibly even more, obviously you are going to reduce the burden upon the family. If von relieve a family of the cost of feeding their children, obviously you are going to assist the children and assist the employer in industry. I believe thai if you were to do that, you would got. a greater economy of cash and of foodstuffs than if you were to give the whole of the money to the family and hope that they would spend it; to the best advantage. You would guarantee that the whole of the monev would be spent for the benefit of the children and that the right foods would be provided. 1 do not say that you would necessarily solve the whole problem of the familv income of the large family, but you would make a large contribution, and it may very well be that by a. combination of the two, of providing free meals for families with a low income, you may make such a large contribution that the burden involved in family allowances may bo verv substantially diminished."

BRITISH BACKS TO THE WALL "I Imvo boon in lots of strikes and fights," said Mr. Ernest Bovin, British Minister of Labour, in a speech to Durham miners, "and, whatever Churchill might liavo been in politics, however much you may have liked or disliked him, I have never mot a man of greater resource, greater courage and greater determination in a crisis than Winston Churchill." Recalling his own entry into the Cabinet last year, Mr. Bovin told of the limited nfr defences and equipment of the country. "With the knowledge of those facts,he said, "we decided that, we would fight on whatever the consequences, that we would go back to our departments and work, and get you to work, and make up tho deficiencies to save this island from invasion. I have heard criticism in the ! House of Commons because we had not planned this or that. God! When the enemy is at your door you cannot stop to plan—you have to get on. Everybody had tc grab anything within reach and try to build up a force, because in three 1 months tho battle of Britain had to be

fought, and that battle had to be fought by those young airmen who were outnumbered by 15 to one. Aeroplanes were coming down, workmen rushed to repair them, and the boys went up in the air again, some in very rickety machines." Turning to the present, he said: "Notwithstanding enemy attacks on our great cities ana the blitzing of our factories and workshops, production has gone up every day and deliveries are proceeding faster."

A NEW SPIRIT WANTED The democratic "order" implies an international association with some machinery, for which the League of Nations provides precedents, warnings and lessons, says the Round Table. It implies participation by all countries which believe in freedom rather than tyranny, in persuasion rather than force, so that there will bo enough weight of goodwill to outweigh any possible ill-will. But to work the new machinery a new spirit is wanted. Here we can learn something from Hitler, who has created and imposed on a nation an ideal which demands and receives .self-dedication. The Germans have their ideal, live for it, sacrifice porsonal interests to a greater cause. But the nations which believe in justice and liberty have not yet formulated their ideal. They have the material for it—as air, sea and earth witness. and the courage, endurance, selfsacrifice and faith of many peoples and of countless individuals. But they have not yet found their counterpart to Hitler, a prophetic voice to crystallise and utter the instincts and desires of millions, A sick world waits beside the pool of Bethseda for the ange] who will stir the waters. We have not yet developed the outlook demanded by modern conditions. Science, as we are so often reminded, has abolished distance, unified the world, and made the five continents adjacent countries. But we still keep the isolated, provincial minds of an earlier ago to which steam and electricity were unknown. Yet. the dawn is not so remote as it might seem. In the social order the parable of the Good Samaritan is ceasing to be literature and coming to life. Why should it not come to life in the international order, too?