THE LITTLE NATIONS

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 53, Issue 3800, 26 August 1936, Page 6

THE LITTLE NATIONS

“Up to now men have paid respect to what is visibly big rather than to what is smaller. This is mostly due to a materialist and mechanical turn of mind. In politics men strive after material greatness, territorial aggrandisement, colonies, etc., so we have war. A big army and a big State make a striking impression on the human mind. Imperialism always. . . “On the other hand, there are the small States. As a small nation the Jews produced the Testaments and Christianity, with the aid, of course, of the Greeks and Romans. Then, again, the Greeks were a world people living everywhere, gifted and active, and yet were subjugated by the Romans. Is not our richest heritage from antiquity principally Grecian? So it comes about that a great nation and a small nation have equally influenced the world for succeeding generations.

“Take the case of Switzerland and Holland to-day,' and other such countries. These small nations are extremely active and industrious. The Norwegians have a large merchant navy, and a considerable literature which deals with world themes. The problem of the small nation is to find a plan of its own to follow in every-thing.”—Ex-president Masaryk, of Czechoslovakia.