NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23993, 17 June 1941, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS

FREEDOM AND PROGRESS Lord Acton's well-known dictum that the idea underlying all history is progress toward freedom may perhaps ho challenged as a universal proposition, says the Times. But when it. was written GO or 70 years ago, it expressed the spirit which had imbued Western civilisation for MOO years; and few believed, in those times of optimism and faith, that that spirit would ever again be openly denied and rejected. In the chastened mood of to-day we know well that the battle for freedom is not fought and won once for all, but must be perennially renewed. The freedom of opinion, of speech, of action within the law, of association, taken for granted as an essential principle of civilised existence, is assailed by powerfully armed nations. "The freedom of every person to worship God in his own way," originally proclaimed and asserted against fanatical and persecuting Churches, must now be maintained against fanatical and persecuting totalitarian States. WAR DANGER STIMULUS It can be said with assurance that the standard ol fitness in Britain is higher than when the war began, writes a medical correspondent of the Times. Nor does this apply only to the young men and women; older men and women have rediscovered health in the numberless activities • which have been forced upon them. That is another way of Saying we have been deprived of the accustomed opportunity to think about ourselves, our advancing years, and the ailments which are attending them. The moral is clear enough; there is nothing quite so depressing as one's own troubles or anticipated troubles. None of us carries within himself enough resistance to throw trouble to the winds. Some call from without, some enthusiasm, is necessary to keep the wolf from the door. Some danger too, perhaps. Man does not seem to have been designed by his Creator for an entirely safe life, and if he happens to get it tends to fall into melancholy. Danger, on the contrary, awakens resistance and the awakening is nearly always joyous. There is a physical basis for all this. The human body, like the bodies of animals, is so constituted that its ordering depends upon stimuli received from the outside world. Every stimulus demands its appropriate reaction if it is not to exert a harmful effect, and by these reactions the creature lives and works and maintains its strength. Absence of stimuli means, therefore, absence of reaction; and that means a lower level of vigour. .

MISTAKEN PROPAGANDA On a recent Sunday morning, when Londoners, .still a little staggered (for they cultivate courage, not bravado) by the "blitz" of the previous Wednesday. were hearing of another heavy attack on the capital a few hours earlier, the British Broadcasting Corporation announcer took occasion to sound a paean on British night-fighters, mentioning the number of victories they had achieved in the post few

weeks, writes "Janus" in the Spectator. No praise, of course, could be too high for any department of the Air Force or the men serving in it. Our debt to them grows greater every day. But the public are not fools, and once they get the idea that something is being put across them that the facts do not warrant the effect on morale will be far worse than anything the Germans threaten. They read the papers, and they know well that, as a leading air correspondent in a leading newspaper put it that very Sunday, the night-bombers that have been brought down in recent weeks represent no more than perhaps 1 or 1J per cent of the total force engaged. From the point of view of effective defence that is not success; it is failure. There was no need to dwell on that at all. But to draw deliberate attention to it and represent it as success is folly little short of crime. False optimism invariably brings its own retribution Far better admit frankly that we have not begun yet to get satisfactory results against the night-bomber. Neither, fortunately, have the Germans. Both sides can night-bomb with relative impunity. IN A MYSTERIOUS WAY There is a legend in the traditions of the Creation which tells how, as the earth received its form, and the waters were gathered into the seas, God sent out His heavenly host of angelic beings to scatter seeds of flowers and fruits and grains all over the newly-made earth, writes Dr. llufu,s M. .Tones in The Friend. The Prince of Darkness watched with hate and scorn this new stage of Creation. Whereupon he sent out his crew of bad angels to destroy what the archangels had done. The bad angels were told to cover these seeds with earth and so spoil the work of the heavenly choir. They did this, and it was just what was needed to make the seeds sprout and grow! So was verified the ancient proverb: "The Devil is an ass—he wills the bad, but he promotes the good." The real battle, now as always, is in the soul. What is happening to minds is more important than what is happening to buildings or to ships. And as has happened since Creation's primal day, the darkness will be lollowed bv the light—and oven now God knows what is in the dark. BEGINNING THE DAY (Supplied by (he Council of Christian ContrrcKiitions) Text.—Lord, lift Thou up the light of Thy countenance upon us.—Psalm 4, 6. Prayer.—Gracious and eternal God, let Thy peace, we beseech Thee, rule in our hearts, and may it he our strength and our song continually. We commit ourselves to Thy care and keeping this day. Let Thy grace be mighty in us, and sufficient I'or all our needs, and may it work in us both to will and to do of Thy good pleasure. Prepare us for all that lies before uS, because we know not what a day may bring forth. Give us grace to deny ourselves, and to take up our cross daily, and to follow in the steps of our Master, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.