The Timaru Herald WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1935 FACING UP TO FACTS.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXL, Issue 20282, 4 December 1935, Page 8

The Timaru Herald WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1935 FACING UP TO FACTS.

Notwithstanding the almost clownish antics being indulged in by Signor Mussolini in the name of the Italian people, the plain fact remains that the Covenant of the League of Nations means what it says, and the enemies of peace in Europe, now know that the Member States of the League “stand for the collective maintenance of the Covenant in its entirety and particularly for steady and collective resistance of all acts of unprovoked aggression.- ’ Signor Mussolini, in an attempt to divert the attention of the stricken Italian people, from the dire consequences of his mad dream of reviving “the glories that was Rome,” has endeavoured to persuade the Italian people that their country may be described as the victim of ruthless vivisectionists, who are carving lip Italy for the fun of the game! Signor Mussolini knows perfectly well lie is not telling the truth. It will yet be revealed that the deadliest enemy of the Italian people is the enthroned authority in Italy that withholds the truth from a nation that is being grievously misled. The English press, on its part, is endeavouring to make Britain's position clear, but since Signor Mussolini retains his suffocating grip on the press of his country, the Italian people, in the main, are being denied the truth. The Daily Telegraph, in a leading article, says the prime object of oil sanctions is not to produce an Italian disaster —that is the last thing desired—but to press Signor Mussolini to call off the campaign on reasonable terms. The Italian people, on their part, have been persuade/1 to believe that sanctions are supported by the people of a country that was once the firm friend of Italy, particularly in the course of her struggles for liberation. The explanation of II Duee’s misrepresentation and untruthfulness is that Italy is becoming thoroughly frightened of oil sanctions, and is ready to negotiate. Moreover, Signor Mussolini has experienced a great awakening in relation to the attitude of France. The deliberate plan of Italian diplomacy is to divide and conquer; indeed, it has been suggested that France was likely to weaken in her attitude to Italy, because of traditional friendships. Italian diplomacy plotted to frighten Britain by moving troops in the direction of the Egyptian frontier, at the same time staging a demonstration in force on the FrancoItalian frontier. Moreover, inspired messages have come out of Rome suggesting the likelihood of the formation of a new Triple Alliance to embrance France, Germany and Italy. All was in vain! The nations at Geneva have not been weakened in their support of sanctions, although the mlitary monsters have shown their menacing teeth. The reply made by France has brought complete disillusionment in the chancellery of Rome; Indeed, support for the belief that the French Prime Minister has not minced his words in his warning to Signor Cerutti that an attack on Britain would bring France to her side, is shown by the firmer tone of the French newspapers in the last forty-eight hours. Italian leaders on their part, however, have discovered that their country faces the grave dangers of Fascism bleeding to death in the parching deserts and foreboding moutnain ranges which have become Ethiopia’s first line of defence. Moreover, the verdict of t-lie whole world is, of course, known to Signor Mussolini, who will probably seize upon the proposed extension of sanctions in oil and other war requirements to seek a peaceful settlement of what has developed into the most disastrous campaign in Italy’s modern history.

LESSONS THROUGH LAUGHTER.

Because he had convinced himself that a healthful laugh is a weapon more potent than a whole battery of frowns, Samuel Langborne Clemens, or as we know him, “Mark Twain,” occupied a unique place in the literature of his day. Doubtless the celebration of the century of birth of this merrymaker, will be regarded as an opportunity to measure the influence of Mark Twain’s literary contributions in relation to the problems of his day. To regard him as a mere fun-maker is to under-estimate his real worth. At heart Mark Twain was a man of deeply serious purpose. His biographers tell us that on more than one occasion when he was moved to speak publicly for some cause of justice or pity, he was greeted with a riot of merriment, and painfully hurt and baffled by good-intentioned outbursts. Doubtless it will be said he was paying grievously for his reputation as a humorist. Nevertheless in supporting many a cause Mark Twain played an influential part since he demonstrated that shafts of humour sometimes prove more effective than broadsides of blunt invective. Men and women were so apt to be amused by the bright banners of the cavalcade of fun he marshalled throughout his life, that they forgot sometimes his crusading heart. It is nevertheless impossible to summarise the career of a man who blended fluency, keen intelligence, a native humour salty and fresh,

with a lively interest in current affairs and a hatred of injustice. It can be said of Mark Twain, however, that he wrote, fought and lived hard all through his seventy-five years. He was a humorist and a man of action: There is originality and drama and humour in his book "A Tramp Abroad" and the history of the miners who “came in forty-nine” is in “Roughing It.” The tales of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer portray the life of the people along the Mother of the Rivers in a manner which is invaluable to the social historian. Consider Huck Finn’s qualms when he learns that Tom Sawyer is not above helping a negro slave to escape, or the family feud on the river, or the picture of strolling entertainers given in “Huckleberry Finn.” The “Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur’s Court” was an ingenious Idea which not only resulted in an entertaining book but gave the lead to scores of other writers, so many that it no longer appears as original as it was. “Life on the Mississippi” is, quite simply, a classical book and deserves to be far better known to-day. And in addition to these he wrote of countless other things, of General Grant’s life, of whether Bacon wrote Shakespeare plays, of Christian Science and Joan of Arc, and the nature of man.

But the sorrows and cruelties of the world often gripped the heart that bubbled over with fun. Then he plunged right into the fight. If anyone is tempted to regard Mark Twain as merely a fun maker, they should read again “King Leopold's Soliloquy,” so crushing an indictment of the atrocities in the Belgian Congo that Mark Twain’s name ought to have a memorial in Central Africa along with that erected in honour of Livingstone. The biographers insist that Mark Twain possessed that gift of the gods which invested him with the power to make people laugh at themselves, their institutions, their history and all that is theirs. But if he was more humorist than ruthless champion of national causes that needed assistance, he at least demonstrated the value of the belief that life’s hurdles can be taken with a smile, and that the world has yet a place in its he.art for the fun-maker.