LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

New Zealand Herald, Volume 82, Issue 25347, 31 October 1945, Page 6

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

The Rights of Man Sir, —Whore ".Modern Hu.sband ' errs is in thinking that it is necessary for liiiu to go shopping. Let us look at a modern husband's Saturday morning. He takes breakfast to his wife in bed for her weekly treat, then he dresses and feeds the children and himself, washes the dishes, reds up the hearth, flicks over the house with broom, mop and duster, and by that time there is the dinner to see to. So why go shopping ? Let his wife do that in peace, and let him mind the children in comfort at home, while he makes the midday meal. Surely a better arrangement. Modkiix Graxdmothkk. Industrial Conscription Sir. —The preposterous debate in the House on the Opposition's amendment to onsurdthat there would be no compulsory labour ended by the Government passing the bill without the amendment. Surely the Government can afford to add this clause to guarantee that returned servicemen will not be forced by-law to take on jobs which they do not wish to. Kx-servicemen have" had enough of orders in the last six years. Surely the adding of a simple amendment to prevent any more ordering about, should bp in the minds of those who control our future and who wish to have our confidence at the next elections. A WoitKixt: Hktcrned Sehyickman. American Economics Sir, —The article "New Zealand's Part," by J. Johnstone, was well reasoned. To my mind there appeared only one flaw. Mr Johnstone assumed that the answer to his question, "Js America likely to be guilty of that lunacy?" must be "No." But America was guilty of that lunacy from 1919 to 1929, this causing the greatest trading slump the world has ever known, and there is much evidence that she may repeat her mistakes. At the conferences regarding air travel America showed a keen desire to obtain conditions which would allow her airlines to obtain the lion's share, thus creating large invisible exports. Hugo numbers of people in America think that if they allow imports, the output of American goods will decrease correspondingly. Such thinkers include not only workmen and farmers but also influential business people and Congressmen, and their influence has retained the high tariff wall which has been such a barrier to the free interchange of world commodities, if the Americans as a people could bo converted to the principles enunciated by Mr Johnstone, and were to put them into practice, world trade would receive a tremendous impetus. They have such wealth that on re they started to circulate it throughout the world the standard of living of all people would bo raised considerably. A.75., Jit. Problem of Palestine

Sir, —I suggest to your correspondent "Progress" that it would lie impolitic at the present juncture, to say the least, for the British Government to permit a large-scale immigration of Jews into Palestine or to go on blindly making that country a Hebrew State, and say that, come what may, this is the policy to ho enforced. After all, unless law and order prevail in that country neither one policy nor any other can bo worked. The mandate itself, drawn up with the utmost care by the British Government, has failed, If the Government had taken into its counsels the people primarily concerned, it would have known long ago that the mandate would never work. Why, then, before any scheme is actually launched, not take representatives of Tslam and .Jewry into the confidence of the British Government ? The obstacles in the way of such a course are considerable. It is one thing to take the opinions of representatives of the race you are dealing with, though they may happen to live outside Palestine; it is another thing to take the opinions of other Governments, with possible policies and ambitions of their own. This may freely be granted. It is over-simplification of the problem to assume that the British have but one choice, and that between the world of Islanj and the world of .Tewrv. These two worlds are riot irreconcilable. In the very nature of things, indeed, they should work together, each being monotheistic and the one containing a large element of Semitism, of which the other is wholly composed. Robert H. Neil. * * 1