Poverty Bay Herald PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING GISBORNE, MONDAY, NOV. 27, 1933. A NATIONAL STOCKTAKING

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18256, 27 November 1933, Page 4

Poverty Bay Herald PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING GISBORNE, MONDAY, NOV. 27, 1933. A NATIONAL STOCKTAKING

In :t world .soothing with so lmioh turmoil and disruption it, is gratifying

to reflect upon the* tribute paid to Britain by so distinguished a scientist as Professor Einstein, who declared in an address at the Albert Hall recently that the British people had remained faithful to the traditions of tolerance and justice which ror centuries they had upheld with pride. “Lot us hope,’-' lie said, “that an historian delivering judgment in some future period, when Europe is politically and economically united, will be able to say that in our days the liberty and honor of this Continent wore saved by its Western nations, which stood fast in hard times against the temptations of hatred and oppression, and that Western Europe defended sue- 1 c.cssfully the liberty of the individual, which brought us every advance of knowledge and invention —liberty without which life to a self-respect-ing man is not worth living.” Einstein, of course, may be swayed by feelings of gratitude towards a nation which lias given him sanctuary in the

hour of oppression, and it is necessary i therefore if a true estimate of British | ideals is to be formed that there should be something of a national stocktaking. This has been instituted recently by the 8.8. C., which has engaged a number of prominent personalities to probe into the British character. The first of the speakers was Mr. Baldwin, whose wide experience in the life of his country, whose erudition, and sound judgment enabled him to give u calm and dispassionate survey. Mr. Baldwin’s was a very notable address, tracing down through the centuries tnc strains of blood which make up the Englishman. We

ought never to forget, he said, that for.a period as long as from the Reformation to the present day we were an integral part of the great Roman Empire. It is hard to believe that a people could have lived in England 400 years and not left a mark that consciously or unconsciously would be felt for generations afterwards. Likewise with the Saxons, whose characteristics of self-reliance, boldness and loyalty had become part of our

own; I lie Scandinavians, who had transmitted to our people tlicjfi; love of adventure; and (ho Normans, one of the greatest nations that had ever lived on this earth, a nation which hud brought, to England a sense of unity, of nationality and of ordered government. 1 1 The English character," said Mr. Baldwin, “is largely made up of contrasts. We grumble hut do not worry, and the more diHi- , cult, times are the more cheerful we become. We are not a military nation but. we are great lighters, ns we ought, to be from the sto,:k of which I have told you. Kindness, sympathy with the under-dog, love ol home —an* not all these character-1 islics of tin* Englishman that you and 1 know? He is individualist in this that he. does not mould himself into j any common mould like everybody else. He likes to develop individuality. Some of the best things in this land have originated among our own people, without any ‘help from Gov*

eminent,s —friendly society work, trades unions, hospitals and education. Then the Englishman has a profound respect for law) and order, at the moment one of the rarest things in this topsy-turvy world. Let u.s hold on to what, we are,” he adds. “Let us not try to be like anybody else. We can respect the fine qualities of other countries, but lot us keep to our own. With our pertinacity, with our love of ordered freedom, with our respect for law, with our respect for the individual, and our talent for combining in service, indeed, in our strength ami in our weakness, I believe from my heart that our people are fitted to pass through whatever trials may be before us. and emerge, if they are true to their own best traditions, a greater people in the future than they have been in the past.” Mr, Downie Stewart, in an address at Vancouver a few weeks ago, declared the British ideal to be that self-govern-ment is better than good government, and that the most perfect mechanical organisation is far inferior to a society where men are allowed to develop their own individuality and are taught the art of governing themselves, of accepting responsibilities, and maintaining independent vitality. A highly efficient dictatorship, he added, may make more immediate progress but at the cost of further development Mr. .Stewart reviewed the trend towards dictatorship with Hitler as the latest and most militant example, and showed that there was nothing new in this dramatic swing towards dicta,torship which lias happened again and again in history. The speaker quoted the great, French writer He Toc.qucville 10 show that! anarchy is not, tho greatest foe which faces democracy, but rather the long secret process which loads into servitude through despotism. Tii Europe we have seen safeguards such as freedom of the press, independence of judicial power, the right, to form trade unions interfered with or swept away. Mr. Stewart warned against Lie popular fallacy that the art of government can lead people to some Utopia where all is perfection. “No miracle can produce a sudden and perfect form of government,” he said. “My own opinion is that these dictatorships of Europe will fall one by one. They were born oj’ war and live by wartime methods. It is popularly believed that they get rid of bureaucracy. Experience has shown that a dictator cannot do everything and that actually bureaucracy has become more powerful under that form than under democracy.” Finally let us quote an estimate of English character given by the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford] -Many good people deplore youth’s departure from the conventionalitiesl of the Victorian era and believe that it, delights in wild license of conduct and an archaic lack of

principles. The Vice-Chancellor, out of the practical experience of disciplining the morals and manners of 4000 men and 83 women undergraduates, assures us that this is a delusion. He lias been astounded by the rarity of serious misbehavior. “Those who can impartially recall the universities of 20 or 30 years back,” declares the Daily Telegraph, “and know something of tlie university of to-day, will have no doubt that there has been a great advance toward quiet living and strict-kept pleasure. The number of undergraduates is now much larger; the great, majority have to practise the virtues of frugality perforce, and are urged to industry by the -certainty that they must provide for their own future. The strenuous life is the rule of the university now, and earnestness the common habit.” With such material as this to build from, and with national ideals of freedom firmly held, there is no reason to fear for Britain.