THOUGHTS OF LEADERS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22366, 13 September 1934, Page 13

THOUGHTS OF LEADERS

POINTS FROM SPEECHES BRITISH EMPIRE’S RIGHTS AND PRIVILEGES. (Thom Oob Own Correspondent.) LONDON, August 4. Sir Thomas Inskip, Attorney-general, at Ipswich: ' " There are plenty of people ready to govern your, country; ior you if you do not take a share in ,It ■ yourself. Sir Oswald Mosley and Sir Stafford Crippa are quite prepared to undertake everything for you, and although they are so ready I hope we shall all feel for once that we can do the thing much better than they can. If ever any of these estimable gentlemen are allowed by our indifference to carry out their arrangements our parliamentary institution would be but a pale ghost of the democratic principles upon which- this country has been governed for so many generations. In no other country in the world would you witness such a spectacle at was seen a few days ago when Mr Baldwin paid a tribute to the former leader of the Liberal Party, Lord Oxford;Can you picture General O’Duffy paying ; ,a tribute .to Mr de Valera? ”.. x ... , “ At this time in the history of Europe we may, I think, take a look round and congratulate ourselves that without the help of ‘dictators or Fascists we. have made a tolerable success of our own Government. We have not required the assistance of . gunmen or of- concentration camps. Bloodshed is happily a stranger to the British Empire. No, racial terrors need prevent anybody who is a loyal subject of the Crown from having his full rights and privileges; We are almost the only country in Europe of which these facts are true.” “NO ONE IS WANTED VERY MUCH.” The Dean of St. Paul’s, preaching in the Cathedral: “This is, perhaps, a world where everyone is wanted, but. - no . one is wanted very much: Our real reluctance to give up our task is more because we wish to have the credit of it than because we fear the work will be undone when we are gone. Few men are vain enough, to think themselves, indispensable. One who has been an actor all hislife doesn’t quite like the idea of becoming a mere spectator, and so, he very often hangs on at his work too long. • ' - “We don’t pride bodily beauty so much as the Greeks, but nfany have wished not to survive their good- looks., and many men have dreaded the humiliation of decrepitude and wished to die in. the vigour of life. And yet we have a feeling that a life -cut short before old age is- ipcomplete. Length of days has always been a boon some, men have prayed for, though Solomon was sensible enough to pray 'for wisdom instead, We ought, I am sure, neither to fear death nor to wish'for it. We-ought to, feel that death simply does not count. AH- that matters is that a life should be well lived up till the time of its close. If we are not the creatures of 'to-day, but immortal spirits, what can it matter if we spend a few years more or less in this state of our probation? I like the brave words of Sir Thomas Overbury in the seventeenth centffry, that man feels the advance of age rather by the strengthening of his soul than by the weakening of his body. Childhood is not merely > preparation for manhood,' and old age is not merely, a preparation for death. Th* rich colours of autumn are as admirable and rightly fashioned as the delicate greens of spring.” PROPER DEFENCE OF BRITAIN. Mr Anthony Eden, Lord Privy Seal, at Crowle, Lines.: ' > “The development of civil aviation has made less progress in this country than on the Continent of Europe. The area of this country is so small that there, is less scope for the! use of civil aircraft. Britain lies at the terminus of air traffic, and therefore cannot expect the development of civil aviation to be comparable with that, for instance, of Germany, which lies at the centre of much of the European air traffic. No Goveimment with aiiy sense of its responsibilities for the security of this country could ever consent to abolish all military aircraft unless civil aviation could, be by some method effectively controlled. The future of military aviation and of civil aviation are not separate, but are twin problems. The recent proposals with respect to air armaments announced by the Government in no way conflict,with the effort to obtain the results which we set before ourselves in the draft convention. To suggest that our proposals are in any way calculated to jeopardise the success of the Disarmament Conference is to misjudge the nature of the; Government’s proposals. There is nothing rigid and invariable about the programme that has been announced. : It is clearly understood to be capable of adjustment if international agreement can bo reached. We have-got to continue to make every effort in our. power to reach an arms agreement; But there is ho inconsistency between such an ambition and a proper care for the defence of these islands.” ; COMMUNICATION WITH THE DEAD. Sir Oliver Lodge, in an article: “How can the dead communicate with the living since the'dead have no organs of speech, writing, hearing, or sight? Communication is possible by means of telepathy, for though a person who is dead has no bodily organs still belonging to him, and therefore is in a difficulty if he wishes to transmit some fact to a relative, the telepathy channel is still open.” A WOMAN S HINT TO INDUSTRY, Mrs Walter Elliot, wife of the Minister of Agriculture, opening an exhibition of products of a Dunfermline linen- and silk factory.: “ I do not know, whether the gentlemen in this audience will agree with me when I say that we members of the weaker and more garrulous sex are the people who really both influence and make fashions to some extent. It is very important that our necessity should be catered for by industrialists all over the country. If we mean to wear a silk or cotton dress the manufacturers in the big cities will have to eater for our tastes.”