TOPICS OF THE TIMES

Southland Times, Issue 22296, 11 April 1934, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE TIMES

Methods of Government. “Montesquieu, in his great Treatise,” writes “Scrutator” in the Sunday Times “distinguishes three main varieties of government—the democratic, which he calls Republican, the legitimist and monarchic, which is aristocratic, and the despotic. The characteristic of the democratic form is, he thinks, virtue or merit; of the aristocractic, honour; but of despotic, fear. By that he means not that these several forms of government necessarily have these characteristics, but that they ought to have them insofar as they are true to type. But could you have a wider gap in worthiness than between the motives of virtue or merit in democracy, or of honour in legitimist monarchy or aristocracy, and the despotic motive of fear, which is the most distortjjig of all human passions, and one that man shares with the lower animal creation ? Our own constitution, being both monarchic and democratic, comes wholly under neither of this political philosopher’s categories.” Trade Agreements. While adding his testimony to the gratifying indications of trade recovery, Mr Rupert E. Beckett, chairman of the Westminster Bank, laid stress on the domestic nature of the recovery and considered the question how far the movement could go in the absence of mitigation of the numerous impediments which at present prevent the resumption of active world trade. He concluded that it was impossible tc forecast such a move toward prosperity as would absorb into work a large proportion of the two million unemployed unless and until there was a far larger volume of trade between nations. As, in company with most other authorities, he fails to see prospects of comprehensive trade agreements between all the great nations which will loosen the bonds of trade he believes that British policy should be directed toward achieving agreements for the freer movement of trade and for the greater steadiness of currencies within the largest possible group of nations among which such agreements may be immediately feasible. German Menaces. In a foreword to a pamphlet containing his House of Commons speeches on Germany, Sir Austen Chamberlain writes: —“It is true that we have had from high German authority reiterated declarations of a desire for peace —provided that it is a German peace. But the provocations and menaces to Germany’s weaker neighbours continue, and the daily broadcast, the cinema, the schools, and universities are all made instruments of a propaganda which belies these fair words and robs them of the meaning we would fain attach to them.” Referring to Germany’s withdrawal from the Disarmament Conference when the Bureau was about to submit a programme for the realization of equality of rights which the German Government had always placed in the forefront of their demands, Sir Austen says:—“Were these demands sincerely meant? Did Germany in fact desire to achieve security by disarmament, or was the real object to find an excuse for a rearmament which in due time would enable the German Government once more to use war as an instrument of policy, and to repeat the crime of 1914? These are questions,” ho adds, “which other nations must answer.” French Tourist Industry. France in depression has had her difficulties increased by a serious fall in what was once an important source of revenue. This was emphasized recently by the Paris correspondent of the Manchester Guardian, who stated that “Tourisme” was until recently the most important item of France’s invisible exports. The money left in France by tourists before 1930 averaged about 10,000,009,000 francs (£BO,000,000 at par) a year, and was almost I enough to wipe out the adverse trade | balance of the visible exports and im- , ports. But the tourist industry is now greatly concerned by the decline in the number of visitors. In 1929 2,000,000 tourists visited France, but last year there were fewer than 1,000,000, and most of these were “of a poor quality”—which means that they made only a short visit and spent little money. The cost of living in France is fairly high, especially to those foreigners whose money has depreciated. Although the prices charged by hotels and restaurants have come down during the past two years, the cost of living in Paris is in paper pounds substantially higher than in London. In the watering-places, however, particularly on the Riviera, prices arc hardly higher than in England. There is much talk of the need for “more intensive” tourist propaganda abroad, and, indeed, compared with Germany and Italy, which grant enormous reductions on railway tickets, the French have in this direction hitherto shown a certain lack of enterprise.

A High School boy had a narrow escape from serious injury on Monday afternoon when a five-seater saloon car proceeding along Tay street struck the bicycle on which he was riding. The bicycle was badly smashed, but the lad escaped with a shaking.