TOPICS OF THE TIMES

Southland Times, Issue 25360, 12 August 1935, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE TIMES

Japanese Expansion. If we recognize, as we must, that Japan has no course but to seek relief from pressure at home by expansion abroad, we cannot censure the present method of expansion (in North China) unless we can show that there is a practical alternative, asserts Sir Frederick Whyte, writing in the London Observer. That alternative is economic, access to foreign markets; and if we cannot offer such access, we inevitably clamp down the pressure in Japan, which will find its outlet with increasing force in the direction of China. The tension in Japanese life is like a taut bow-string which speeds the arrow of military policy to its mark in the body of China. But militarism neither creates the problem nor supplies the driving force; It only exploits a condition favourable to itself. Therefore, no policy has any chance of success which does not construct itself round the economic needs of the two countries. And since we may as well admit that foreign action can do little to deal with the immediate crisis in North China, the only sound course is to devise a policy of long range to meet the fundamental causes of the whole Far Eastern problem. Bailing that, we shall one day find that the force which we cannot use to-day will have to be used without stint to defend the vital interests of the British Commonwealth. Newfoundland’s New Regime. The real cause of the change in Newfoundland from self-government to government by a British Commission was because that country had been living on deficits and loans, said Mr J. H. Thomas, Secretary for the Dominions, in addressing the House of Commons. He had no idea before the Commission arrived of the extent to which demoralization had set in in that island. For instance, free railway travelling seemed to be something that everyone expected. There had been a great reduction in the volume of traffic carried, but there had been an increase in the receipts. One case had been reported to him where persons did not travel free in twos or threes, but 90 people went together and demanded free transport on a boat. When they were challenged they said that it was an old custom .which was going to continue. Customs obligations were something that were not understood in Newfoundland. It has been reported to him. from St. John’s that one merchant during the past 12 months found that his tea and sugar sales had increased by hundreds per cent, and the Customs had therefore proportionately benefited. The House must not assume that that benefit was due altogether to prosperity; it was due to the check on smuggling of tea and sugar which had taken place before the new Administration was set up. This was only an indication of the kind of difficulty that those responsible had to encounter, but notwithstanding all the difficulties remarkable progress had been made.

Energetic Bishops. Speaking at the dinner given by the Lord Mayor of Londoil, Sir Stephen Killik, to the archbishops and bishops at the Mansion House, the Archbishop of Canterbury said that never in the long history of the Church of England had the bishops been more distinguished by devotion to their task or the energy with which they fulfilled it. “Indeed,” continued Dr Lang, “the energy is becoming so great that I lim sure that our predecessors, even within the last twenty-five years, who have now departed, must be thankful that they have been called to their rest before this era of multifarious energy began. And yet there is some danger in all this. We are obliged to be so energetic because we must keep pace with modern life. But that pace is killing much that is best and deepest in the national life, and may I say I think it threatens to kill what ought to be best and deepest in the bishops? I sometimes conceive of a new order ot bishops who, instead of running about, could spend their time in instructing their clergy in sacred learning and in conducting retreats for their clergy and their people.”