NOTES AND COMMENTS

Patea Mail, Volume XLVI, 24 August 1923, Page 3

NOTES AND COMMENTS

(.% 0.5.) lire tumult and the shouting stii. continues witn regard to the f rench occupation of the Ruhr. My sympathies are wholly and solely with the French people. To my mind the depreciation of the mark and the pleading of poverty by Germany is part and parcel of a deep-laid scheme to evade the payment of the indemnities demanded of her. It is inconceivable to me that a nation which spent forty years in preparing for the Great War, and had every movement worked out to the last detail, would not have mapped out a course of action in the event of defeat being sustained. To suggest otherwise is to credit the German War Lords with being foolish in tho extreme and not masters of detail, when experience has proved the very reverse to be tho case. * « « » I saw Mr Jonah the other day, and he told me he had done quite a lot of travelling recently, but beyond being an hour late on reaching Marton from Auckland, nothing untoward had occurred. Ho said he had iseeu quite a lot ef the work of the guards, particularly those of goods and mixed trains, and he had come to the conclusion they were a body of men of which the country should feel proud. “No one," he said, “except those who saw somothiug of their work could appreciate what they' have to do. There is an immense amount of writing to be done ‘between whiles,’ and how they get through it all is a marvel. In addition there is shunting and other work to be carried out, often at risk of life and limb. Truly, if any body of men in the service earn their pay it is tho railway guards. I take my hat off to them every time.”

The fertility of land in the Alton district is strikingly illustrated in the factory balance-sheet recently issued, from this district, which comprises a comparatively smail area, over 500 tons of cheese were exported last year, valued at over £50,0(’ Truly a wonderful record. The shareholders of the dairy company are to be congratulated on the far-seeing and able body of men they have on their directorate, who me i expansible for the excellent record of nearly 1/10 per ib buiterfat that the farmers in this district will receive for their season's output. One could not help being struck by the firm grasp that the chairman had of the company’s ulfairs as he delivered his address on the year’s working. Clear and to the point, without any frills and without a single superfluous word, it showed clearly that the company had a record to be proud of. May the coming sea • son be equally as good.

1 feel sorry that the Allies have not occupied Berlin and cleaned Germany up. Why 1 Because the Germans know not the meaning of the word “cricket,” and have never played the game. Let me give an instance that came under my notice the other day, showing what callous brutes the men who were responsible for the torpedoing of unarmed merchantmen, the bombing of defenceless towns and the shooting down of civilians in cold blood were. The story was told me by a padre who saw service with the New Zealanders on the Western Front. This is whux he said; —“You all kuow that stretcher bearers, doctors and Eed Cross workers go about on the field of battle without arms of any kind, and so are not to bo fired upon. The reason is obvious, for besides being non-combatants they are there to succour the wounded, whether friend or foe. Well, I was going along with a party of stretcher bearers, during the latter part of the war, when the Germans were being driven back. One stretcher was on wheels, whilst another was being carried, so there could be no mistaking who and what we were. Yet, syould you believe it, we were ruthlessly fired upon by a party of Huns we came across. The doctor was shot through the steel helmet, and a ease containing bandages was riddled like a colander, yet ho himself escaped. His companion was shot through the abdomen, and died in agony. The rest of the party jumped into a shell hole and lay there whilst the Germans played a machine gun over it. We lay there for some time, every minute expecting to be hit, but Providence was with us, and a friendly tank coming along caused the Huns to retreat. It was a close call. Later in the day I assisted the medico in patching up more wounded Germans than British soldiers, and yet they had tried their best tb kill us.” Wherefore 1 say with all reverence, “God damn the Huns. May they never become a nation again until they have learnt to play the game.” * •* # * Talking about the craze for amusement at the present day and the negelct of things spiritual, it is interesting to note that the South . Dakota Legislature passed the following series of resolutions recently:—“That the people of South Dakota be enjoined to at once address themselves to renewed effort to restore the balance between the spiritual and the material; that our children be reared up in the precepts of fundamental righteousness. That the Churches and Sabbath schools bo constrained to intensify their work and to extend it to every child within their respective spheres of influence. That parents be adjured to exert every effort to restore the old-time influence of the home in moulding the lives of their children, for the development of conscience and morality; that the family altar be restored and that in self-sacrificing love the little ones be trained in the simple virtues of truthfulness, honesty and respect for the rights of others. That the schools promptly reform their methods, so that the rudimentary studies, as well as the

sciences, bo taught only as subordinate to righteousness. That it is the judgment of the Legislature of South Dakota that only upou the lines herein suggested can the true balance be restored and the crime wave checked, and civilisation preserved.” People in other countries might well take these resolutions to heart.