NEED FOR BETTER UNDERSTANDING

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIV, Issue 20983, 11 March 1938, Page 9

NEED FOR BETTER UNDERSTANDING

VALUE OF EXCHANGE OF CULTURE SPEECH BY DUKE OF KENT British Official Wireless (Received March 10, 6.30 p.m.) RUGBY, March 9. At the dinner of the Anglo-Polish Society in London the Duke of Kent referred to the long friendship between Britain and Poland and emphasised the value of such Societies generally in encouraging International friendship. They were perhaps one of the great contributions of the lasi century to the western world. In spite of the Napoleonic wars the Franco-Prussian War and the Great War, the Duke of Kent said he felt that taken as a whole there had been in this period a remarkable movement among the people of one country to get to know those of another. Travel had become so easy that one could go anywhere with speed and comfort and make friends, but there was something lacking—something which such Societies could provide. It was an exchange of “cultures" —the sum total of the artistic and literary achievement of one’s country. Such exchanges contributed an untold amount to modern civilisation. Lord Plymouth (Parliamentary Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs) said it was beyond doubt that many of the troubles which beset Europe at the present time were due very largely to lack of understanding by one country of the point of view and difficulties of another. Any movement to try and bring the peoples of two countries into close association was likely to be of great benefit, not only to those particular countries, but to the world as a whole.