The Timaru Herald FRIDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1926. “THE YEAR IS GOING”

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXIII, 31 December 1926, Page 8

The Timaru Herald FRIDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1926. “THE YEAR IS GOING”

The wave is breaking on the shove: The echo fading ivom the chime: Again the shadow moyeth o er The dial-plate of time! “Historians may regard 192 Gas a landmark,” remarked m Observer,” in its comment on the passing year, “for it has been full of vicissitudes and contrasts at home and abroad.’ IScaeitheless, there is a general feeling of thankfulness in the Old Land and on the Continent that the year is ending better times in 1927. 1 he year is g'oing—let it go!” ho one even regards the first <■" January with indifference. Of all the sound of the hells, there is nothing more solemn or touching than the peal which ring.-, out the old year. “I never hear the peal of'the hells which ring out the old year,” wrote Charles Lamb, “without a. gathering-up of my mind to a. concentration of •II the images that have been diffused over the past twelvemonth. All I have done or suffered, performed Or neglectedin that regretted time.” In the hearts of all thoughtful citizens there is a consciousness tv! solemn leave-taking. Nevertheless, the year 192 G has been a notable if anxious period. In the Old Country, industrial depression aggravated by a protracted and costly coal striae involved the nation in a loss of at least £400,000,U00. The discontent of eeitain sections of the workers was maliciously exploited, and industrial condition; were kept in a state of ferment. No one can measure the financhu loss inflicted on the country by the disturbers of industrial peace. Nevertheless, it is not drawing the long bow to say that the sufferings of the British masses and the financial losses being borne by all classes, have brought some compensation by convrncing the industrialists of Britain, and indeed, of other nations, of the fallacy and futility of the general strike as a weapon with which to win industrial and economic* battles. Moreover, there is a growing conviction in the minds of all sections of British public opinion that the goes forward into the New Tear with renewed courage, since it is generally agreed that throughout :.he country there is an earnest, discussion regarding means of improving the relations between Capital and Labour. This is interpreted as giving the surest promise of prosperous times in 1927. Contrast Britain’s troublous year, with the “prosperity Christmas” enjoyed by the United States!. Traders reported that Christmas purchases reached the greatest volume in the history of the country. . . . Festivities in the large cities assumed unprecedented heights. The inference is irresistible; the people of Britain who sank all their differences in the face of a. common enemy; must pull together in times of peace if the nation is to hold its place in the forefront of the free peoples of the world. But the year is going, and few desire that the feet of Time should slacken. The international outlook is unusually bright. The nations are striving to cultivafe relations based on peace, honour, law and good fnith. The guiding principles of the Covenant of the League of Nations, to which Germany, with many other Powers, lias now subscribed are: the acceptance of obligations nob lo resoit to war;"the prescription of open, just and honourable relations between nations; the firm establishment of the understandings of international law as the actual rules of conduct among Governments; and, the maintenance of justice and a scrupulous respect for all treaty obligations in the dealings of organised peoples with one another. It requires few words to show how complete a reversal of the system of international affairs; generally accepted in the past, would he brought about, were these principles genuinely acknowledged and carried into practice by all nations. If peace, honour, law and good faith are now to' he the determining principles of international action, all peoples must examine the very basis of international polity and build anew. It is a hopeful sign that the nations have become members of the League of Nations and have accepted the Covenant as the basis of international relations. If, however, the year 192 G has been a landmark in international affairs; it has certainly marked a notable advance in the development of close relationships between the Motherland and the Dominions. It was said of the lvaiscr that in a single blow of his mailed fist—in 1914, he consolidated the British Empire. The year 192 G has witnessed tin,birth of a more dosely-knh commonwealth of nations within the British Empire, and the fashioning of a sheet anchor which should play a vital part in ensuring the safety of tß.t world. Unquestionably there are justifiable grounds for the high hopes with which the peoples of many lands face tin, coming year. The international horizon is almost without ominous. clouds; Britain’s industrial outlook is more hopeful, and what is vital to the peace of the world, the nations are approaching the perplexing problems of the day in the spirit of the Covenant of the League. Nevertheless, the coming year is all uncertainty, and the frailties of human nature have to be

reckoned with. The year now dawning is, as the poet suggests, despite implicit international understandings and lofty aspirations of peace-loving peoples:

A flower unblown; a book unrend A tree with fruit unharvested:

A path untrod; a house whose rooms Lack yet the heart’s divine perfumes : A landscape whose wide border lies In silent shade ’nenth silent skies: A wondrous fountain yet unsealed: A casket with its gifts concealed:—• This is the Year that for you waits Beyond to-inorrow’s mystic gates.