HISTORY’S DEAD HAND

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25814, 9 April 1945, Page 7

HISTORY’S DEAD HAND

DISTURBER OF PEACE “I do not know if the House has heard the story of the negro preacher explaining the passage by the Israelites of the Red Sea,” said Mr F. W. Pethick-Lawrence, speaking in the Commons. “ The preacher said: ‘A cold north wind arose and the Red Sea was frozen solid, and the Israelites walked across the ice as though they were on dry land.’ “One of the congregation said he had been looking at his geography, and the Red Sea was somewhere in the tropics, where they did not get frosts. The preacher was not in the least upset by the suggestion. He answered that all this happened several thousand years ago, and there was no geography in those days. " I sometimes wish there was no history in these days, or, if there has to be history, that it had not entered into the bones, the heart, the blood and the emotions of the peoples who live to-day. I am sure the Foreign Secretary would have a much easier task if the blotted pages of history were not uppermost in the minds of those people with whom he has to deal.’.’