The Timaru Herald SATURDAY, AUGUST 17, 1940 Potent Public Opinion

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21735, 17 August 1940, Page 6

The Timaru Herald SATURDAY, AUGUST 17, 1940 Potent Public Opinion

ALL leaders of political thought, both in our own ** and in enemy countries, have repeated often that the old Europe of 1939 is gone forever. There have been many variants of the plan for the "Brave New World” that is to arise from the war wreckage. They differ in countless ways, but in this fact they are all agreed: the vertical strata dividing nations info separate groups such as tariff walls, economic discriminations, and national boycotts, will be cast into the limbo of discarded things. The problems of war are pressing upon people in a most personal way but this should not blind us to the fact that, even during a war, there are problems of peace which may confront us sooner than we anticipate. It has been the fashion, during recent years to denounce the narrowed vision of the framers of the Treaty of Versailles, and nearly all the international evils that have befallen Hie world since 1918 are traced to this Treaty. It is all too easy to condemn those statesmen for their narrowed vision and lack of foresight, but when we bemoan their shortcomings, this fact must be kept in mind: the framers of the Treaty of Versailles were but a reflection of the current mental attitudes of the nations they represented, and in many respects they were in advance of the prevailing popular thought of the time. Just as in the past, so the Treaty of the future will largely be moulded on the mind of the victorious people, for the political leaders of to-day realise the truth of the Napoleonic adage that “a wise statesman moves just a little ahead of the mob.” It is clear to them that, no matter how strong a statesman may be, be cannot move too far ahead of prevailing public opinion. Even a Hitler knows only too well that the most powerful dictator must carry the backing of his people. So it is that, before a statesman can give expression to any new ideal, the seeds of this ideal must have first found roots amongst the people lie represents. This concept is succinctly expressed in a letter from President Roosevelt to Pope Pius Nil. In this letter the President says: “I believe that while statesmen are considering a new order of things, the new order may well be at hand. I believe that it is even now being built, silently but inevitably, in the hearts of musses whose voices are not heard, but whose common faith will write the final history of our time. I have the rare privilege of reading the letters and confidences of thousands of humble people, living in scores of different nations. Their names are not known to history, but their daily work and courage carry on the life of the world. I know that these, and uncounted numbers like them in every country, are looking for a guiding light. We remember that the Christmas star was first seen by shepherds in the hills long before the leaders knew of the great light which had entered the world.”