NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume 78, Issue 24103, 23 October 1941, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS

DEFENCE A NEGATIVE WORD It was the passive concept of defence, says the New York Times, held by all the democracies, that proved fatal to France and nearly so to the British. Major-General Porter, chief of the I'nited States Chemical Warfare Service, expressed the belief recently that the very word "defence" has actually hindered American military preparations. Defence, lie continued, is "a negative word, an insincere word, and no word at all around which to rally a military effort." It is not necessary to agree with him to this extent to recognise the rightness and importance of his main contention. "Wat \s, M as lie points out. "are not won bv gas masks or other defensive material. To overcome the enemy we must take the ollensiv e." THE WIND IN THE CORN

The wind ill tlio trees and iho wind oil tiio sea have stirred tlie imagination 11! many a great writer, l>nt. the beauties ol the wind in the corn—less dramatic and less acclaimed—have not gone wholly unnoticed, writes "Lucio" in the .Manchester Guardian. Tennyson sang how "a light wind blew from tiie gates ol the sun, and waves ol shadow went over the wheat." Karlier, Keats had been entranced by the play of the wind over the fields in summer; Severn tells how he would sometimes leap upon a gate to watch, and how once lie exclaimed. "Ah, look! The tide!! The Tide!" Later. Francis Thompson admired when "The grasses, like an anchored smoke, ride in the bending gale." And doe* not the picture in the tir-t. verso oi a Invourite children's }i.v 111 n owe much of its charm to the word "waved"?—" Fair waved the golden corn." All ripe corn is golden to the townsman, but he who watches the play of the wind will perceive the gradations —from the near-white of oats to the rich copper of wheat. Soft breezes are wholly delightful in their wooing of these waiting crops. At a distance the subtle changes of light and colour under the gentle stroking of the wind give to fields the appearance of shot *ilk. and at closer range there is the revelation of scarlet poppies, white campions, blue cornflowers, lemon charlock, and many another weed whose wickedness is matched by its beautv IT!E VICIOUS SPIRAL "Jn wartime the supply ot goods for civilians to buy and use and consume is strictly limited at any one moment. 110 matte.- how much money people have to spend," said .Mr. Donald Tverman in a recent address. "As the British White Paper puts it: 'This curtailment is inevitable whatever money wages, salares or profits are paid out; and increases in wages or other income.*; cannot make more goods available ' And if Tom Jones or Hill Smith does in fact find himself better ofl because of a ri-e in ivngfis or salary. n«. of course, does happen, it must mean that someone else, someone less well-paid is correspondingly worse off. To quote the White Paper again: 'Such increases (in wages, salaries or profits) would not raise the general standard of living; they would merely tend to send up prices—more money competing for no more or fewer goods—and to de- |

nude the shops, making it difficult to secure a fair distribution of the limited supply of goods; and those with the least amount of money, or least able to spend time in shopping and standing in queues, would suffer most.' It does not need a White Paper to tell anybody that the prices of the things that most people want tend to rise, unless, of course, thev are controlled, and then the goods tend to disappear. Supplies are short and the shops are emptied by the shoppers with most time or most money, and the point of this obvious argument is that, when the supply of things to buy is limited as it is now, raising wages or salaries or profits just makes matters worse. There's more money to spend, and there's a scramble for goods. Obviously, all this bumping-up of prices is a bad thing. People with low wages, small fixed incomes, pensions or insurance benefits become hard-pressed to make both ends meet. And what is more, increased prices mean more increased prices still, because when prices go up. people want more wages to cover them. And more wages mean higher costs of production (unless there is some corresponding increase in efficiency. in productivity), and higher costs mean higher prices again, and so on round what they call the Vicious Spiral." THE COMMON MAN'S WAR This is the common man's war, writes the Rev. L. B. Ashby in the Daily Telegraph. That is perhaps true of all wars; but in a special measure i.s it true of this one. in which all of us are in the front line. Once again there has been revealed what all historv teaches — namely, the essential soundness of the common people. It is the average man in his millions who has proved to be the strength of Kngland in her severest hour of trial. He is seen to be the foundation on which Kngland is built. "Once again," says Lord Klton, "the floods are out: and once again the common man carries us on his shoulders." For it is quite ordinary, unspectacular men and women who have manifested so abundantly those great virtues of courage, cheerfulness, discipline, unselfishness" and endurance by which wars are won, and it is their quiet heroism and sound qualities which are going to bring us through The strength of Kngland lies in the character of her people, who have been nurtured in liberty; and in war character counts supremely