TOPICS OF THE TIMES

Southland Times, Issue 21109, 14 June 1930, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE TIMES

“One of the chief obstacles in the path of that great reform of our age, which aims to eliminate international war between civilized countries, is the over-simplification which comes from thinking of all countries as essentially alike,” writes Dr. James T. Shotwell in the New York Outlook. “The differences and not the similarities of nations create the problems of international politics. There is no very great difference in the fundamental desires of all the civilized nations. But when we translate these ideals into practice, we find that what one nation regards as liberty another' thinks of as anarchy, and the pursuit of happiness may be conceived of either as the disciplined subordination of the individual to the welfare of the State, or the forceful assertion of personal desires. And even the guarantee of personal safety may reach all the way from the prevention of national and international violence to preventive medicine. The terms are universal, but the practical measures for their attainment are never quite the same in any two countries. The supreme problem of international politics is the building of a world community, which will give effect to these ideals in terms that each constituent nation will understand and apply.”

“In the ‘humanizing’ of war, and especially submarine war, a Five-Powers Agreement has been found not only practicable, but positively easy’,” says London Truth. “France has taken a leading part in renouncing the use of submarines—as submarines. She holds, and, of course, we agree, that no merchant ship should be sunk without her aggressor making full provision for the safety of the crew. To do this a submarine must come to the surface, and probably get her conning tower knocked away while she is. trying to be humane. In fact, she is to sacrifice the one inherent advantage of her type. All this talk about ‘humanizing’ war is very soothing, but, unfortunately, the benevolentminded statesmen who try to frame new rules for the conduct of civilized warfare are not the people who fight wars, otherwise they would realize that war is an inhuman business and must always remaiif so. If there is another war in which submarines take part it can only mean that the Kellogg Pact has gone by the board. If the Kellogg Pact goes by the board, what earthly reason is there to suppose that a treaty to stultify submarines will be faithfully observed?”

Surveying the public health problems of India, Dr. B. C. Oliver, of Poona, says there is probably not more than one medical practitioner to 50,000 people in rural areas. Besides the scarcity of doctors, there is a terrible prevalence of disease. A missionary who has worked for years in rural areas said that he thought very few people were really well. The vast majority of people are underfed. The infant death rate is appalling. The average for all India is 174 per thousand births, and the mortality rises to 359 in Bombay and 420 in Cawnpore. “Malaria and other fevers caused over 50,000,000 deaths in a decade. There were over 7,000,000 from influenza in 1918. Leprosy affects nearly 1,000,000 people Hookworm incidence is 80 per cent, in some places. Typhoid fever is very common, tuberculosis is on the increase. Post-mor-tem examinations in the Medical College Hospital, Calcutta, show a ‘higher mortality in Calcutta from tuberculosis than from any of the so-called tropical diseases.’ It is exceedingly common among women who live in seclusion. Lack of proper food, fresh air and sunshine causes a disease of the young mothers resulting in bony deformities that frequently result in the death of both mother and child?”