NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume 78, Issue 24127, 20 November 1941, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS

QUALITY OF LIVING It is not the events of life that make life worth while, writes Father Aloysius Roche in his book "The Things That Matter." It is not by the quantity of things that keep happening to us that we are to gauge the value and fullness and completeness of our life. What matters essentially is our attitude to our life, the way in which we face up to it, the way in which we treat it. It is not the quantity of stuff that is in our life that counts; it is the quality. It is not enough to say: "My life is filled to the very brim with interests and activities." We must ask: "What sort of interests and activities are these?" It is easy enough, very easy to fill one's life up with things that do not really matter at all, with trifles, ft is not enough to say: "The vessel is filled. It is as full as can be." Filled! Yes, perhaps; but filled with what? Nowadays, it is considered a great thing to fill one's life up somehow, with no matter what. But it is what is in the vessel, it is what the vessel contains, that alone matters, not its fullness. Mere fullness is of no consequence. AMERICA AND EIRE in his book "Ireland —Atlantic Gateway," Mr. J. Phelan deals vigorously with the Irish problem—and in particular that of the Irish ports which owing to Eire's neutrality cannot be used by the British Navy. He suggests that America should take the initiative: —If Britain goes down, lie writes, America north and south will have to fight for twenty years—if thoy last so long. Irelaud is more important to America than Malta or Gibraltar to Britain. Malta I could go, with a shrug of the shoulders, and the war be won just the same. Gibraltar can be made unhealthy—it only means taking the long way round. But Ireland is America's doorstep, far out-ranking Guam and the Philippines and Honolulu. Every cobblestone on Bunerana quay, every fathom of water in G'obh Harbour, is worth a million dollars to the America of to-day and to-morrow. Why cannot the American Government he given "carte blanche" to "interfere," in a problem everyone knows they can solve within a few weeks, and which British departmental methods have made a festering sore in the otherwise healthv bodv of the West? Why not? WINGS OF FANCY The following are not the names of English inns—The Spotted Elephant, The Black Arches, The Ground Lackey. The Glory of Kent. The Green Forester. The Lulworth Skipper. The White Admiral. T he Purple Shades, The Brixton Beauty, The Rosy Rustic. The Beautiful Pug and The Dover Belle; nor are these the titles of books —The Crimson Speckled Footman. The Light Feathered Rustic, The Black Chestnut, The Cambridge Veneer (a gift to a social satirist). The November Dagger, The Belted Beauty. The Essex Emerald. The Long-Legged • Pearl, and The Ringed China Mark (two beautiful titles whioh might fit anything from detection to fantasy), and The Beautiful Snout

(which is like a gem from Thurber). They are the names of English butterflies, notes the naturalist, Mr. H. E. Bates, in the Spectator. It strikes me as rather odd that these names should be so fanciful and yet should somehow have kept themselves out of the common speech. I suspect them to be of eighteenth-century origin, but whether they are or not it is interesting to come upon another example of that genius for descriptive lyricism which is often a surprising expression of English rural life NAZIS AND GERMANS I am tempted to say a few words about the controversy which has arisen over the effort which Lord Vansittart is making to enlighten us about what he believes to be the true character of the German people, writes Mr. J. A. Spender in the Yorkshire Observer. He will not listen to the distinction which is commonly made between the Nazis and the German people. He is not deterred by Burke's warning against indicting a whole people. He does indict the whole German people, and insists that there will be no peace unless we realise that they are all guilty together and must all be placed outside the comity of civilised nations. Now 1 have enough of the old Adam in me to take a certain satisfaction in Lord Vansittart's fulminations. He gives vigorous expression to what I feel about the outrages which are being inflicted on the world in the name of the Gorman people. But. when I have had this satisfaction I begin to ask, "Where does' this argument lead?" and very little reflection on that pulls me up. The first thing I observe that it cuts right across what we must suppose to be the considered attitude of both the British American Governments. Mr. Churchill certainly does not mince his words in talking of our enemy in the war. But lie speaks not of the German people, but of the "evil men" whom we are out to destroy and with whom we can have no compromise. And in the eight points to which he and President Roosevelt have notified their adhesion as the result of their conferences we find the same discrimination. They wish to "further the enjoyment of all States, great or small, victor or vanquished, of access on equal terms to the trade and to the raw materials of the world which are needed for their economic prosperity." After "the final destruction of Nazi tyranny they hope to see established a peace which will afford to all nations the means of dwelling in safety within their own boundaries." Inferentially it disclaims the idea of persecuting or "destroying" the German people after the "Nazi tyranny" has been destroyed.