TOPICS OF THE TIMES.

Southland Times, Issue 20045, 6 December 1926, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE TIMES.

“More and more are employers of labour trying to organise their factories so that the workers too may get some joy in their work, and share the benefits of the rapid means of production which science has put into their hands,” said Sir Oliver Lodge in a

lecture in London. “Ability is limited to no one grade of society. Among the workers there must be a lot of ability which lies latent and undeveloped; much of this might be pressed into the service of industry by a suitable partnership system. Those who have associated with artisans, with laboratory assistants, with many in the intermediate grade of society, have been impressed with the ability which they find there, and have been inclined to lament the lack of opportunity for its free and complete development. Reorganisation is required: the difficulties of the present situation will compel it. No outsider can lay down with wisdom what that organisation ought to be. It must come presumably like other things, through a process of evolution; but it can be aided by conscious effort, and by the growing sense of responsibility and goodwill, rlnother century will see a great change in the conditions of labour, and in the relations between labour and capital; and, when the nascent ability of all mankind is liberated, it will seem astonishing that we have been so slow in recognising the power which we all the time possessed.”

An explanation is given by the Asiatic Review of the so-called militarism with which China is now cursed. “When the Chinese Republic was established it was felt necessary to set up an army for the protection of the constitution,” it says. “We may call it the President’s Army. But with a countrv of such vast extent the army had perforce to be divided into sections, each under its own commander-in-chief. This commander-in-chief was placed in full control, political as well as military, in the region where his army was located. It is easy to understand how, in such circumstances, any one of these commanders was in a position to ignore, and even defy, the presidential mandates. The only means by which the Presillent could bring a recalcitrant general to heel was to call upon other generals to compel him, by military force, to obey the central authority'. Naturally, such a possibility prompted one and another of these generals, in self-defence, to increase their armies, and the revenues which eventually came under their control enabled them to do this. It was not long before the spirit of aggression supervened on the instinct of self-defence, and the armies were still more inordinately increased. Hence militarism,” The military situation in China is complicated by the political factor which the Asiatic Review says is the struggle between two political ideals-—local autonomy and centralisation—more or less subconscious, but to some extent articulate. “There two ideals may be said, with something of truth, to coexist in every Chinese breast,” the journal continues. “You will find a passionate resentment at the bare suggestion of a partition of China, and at the same time a not less passionate demand for provincial independence ; and so we find that at one time this or that province will declare itself independent, and at another time be fighting for a unified China. The trouble is that the Chinese people themselves have not yet realised that there is thjs confict of ideals, and that in their reconciliation alone lies the road to a permanent peaceful solution of the present chaos. But deeper than either of these two is the newly awakened race consciousness. This is a fact of overwhelming significance. It changes the whole aspect of Far Eastern affairs as compared with, say, 50 years ago, and makes it futile to suppose that a policy that was effective then would necessarily be so now. Force was the only thing to which the old psychology submitted. The new psychology will do nothing of the kind. It is extremely difficult to convince, however reasonable you are. But it must be convinced, and therefore to reasonableness must be added conciliatoriness and to conciliatoriness patience, and to patience persistence.”