IMPRESSIONS GAINED

Waikato Independent, Volume XLIII, Issue 6035, 21 October 1946, Page 6

IMPRESSIONS GAINED

MESSAGE OF INSPIRATION

“A JOURNALIST LOOKS AT BRITAIN”

'I have recently returned from the Empire Press Union Conference in London where newspaper men from Britain and the Dominion met to discuss their trade—the collection and distribution of news and everything affecting it, said Mir D. F. C. Saxton, managing editor of ithe “Taranaki Daily News” in a broadcast talk over the national network recently. They talked about the protection .of freedom of speech, world communications, Empire security and international problems. We were addressed by the Prime Minister of Great Britain, the three Chiefs and Staff of the British Armed Services and other leading- authorities in political and economic spheres. In a tour of England and Scotland we obtained many impressive glimpses of various phases of Britain’s post-war industrial activity. He also made memorable acquaintance with the social, religious, cultural and historical heritage with

which Great Britain is so riclny endowed. Finally, we were conducted by aeroplane and mlctor coach, as the guests of the British Armed Services, on an astounding journey from the beaches of Normandy to the Baltic Sea, seeing in perspective the campaign of the American and British forces from D-Day to the capitula-

tion icd: Germany. Pride in the magnificent achievement of our countrymen could not but be tempered by the terrible spectacle of the dread harvest of war. Germany is surely, paying -in full measure for the misery she brought upon the wiorld. From the moment of crossing the border we entered upon a fearful cavalcade of chaos and destruction. Every city, every village, every hamlet in the path of war was a ghost community, with people living 'in cellars under the rubble or in attics in crazy and derelict piles of masonry. Krefeld,. Essen, Cologne, Berlin, Hamburg—they were all the same, with hunger and death stalking down the empty streets. Half starved children gathered round us, their clothes in tatters, either barefoot or clad in clogs or boots tied up with string. They pounced greedily on cigarette butts and stuffed them away under tlie rags. We gave them a few biscuits from a previous meal, and they wolfed them. German or no German, my heart went out to those poor, miserable children. And now the strange anomaly arises that on all this wreckage of human life and civilisation Britain,

victor in the War, is spending- £BO,000,000 froln her own moderate resources in an endeavour to re-establish her own zone of Germany. She feels she must do so, if for no cither reason than to prevent Western Germany from becoming a prey to anarchy. In Germany we were able to study at close quarters the profound political and economic problems associated with the occupation and administration of the country under the zone system by the victorious Powers. After leaving Berlin and Hamburg we inspected Ithe French zone as guests of . the French Army of Occupation, and were subsequently entertained for several days at Paris by the French Government. We heard the French views regarding the future of Germany, and the general economic policy of France. Out cf this bewildering sequence of nationalities, personalities, information and events, a New Zealander emerges with cedtain clear-cut - impression. Consider for a- moment j the collosal and epic endeavour being mjac'o by the Mother Country to

recover from the impoverishment of ' five years' cf war. It is both an inspiration and a probing cf the conscience. The British people are net starving, as indeed is the unhappy lot of tens of thousands of people in some of the countries of the Continent, but they are living a live'of austerity bordering on actual hardship. For a married couple without children the week’s meat ration absorbed at cue meal, with possibly p, made-up dish from the scraps for a second meat meal- So it is in varying degrees with butter, cheese, sugar, milk, eggs and bread—in fact almost all the articles 'that form the staple, ingredients of the New. Zealand housewife-’s menu. In all the homes that I visited, high or low, rich r.r poor, the sl'.iory was the same. In Britain rationing really works. There, is rationing on the Continent, but typical of the manner of its working is the fact that in one well known, capital coupons are openly purchasable from stalls cn 'he sidewalks, cr merely by putting fifteen per cent. or. to the price of the'goods.

To this background of austerity living in Britain must be added the fear that events mav be marching towards another world catastrophe. Vivid in my memory is a visit to Hover Castle, one cf the most glori-

ous and historic castles of England and the country hrime of Colonel Aster, president of the Empire Press

Union. There is was that Anne Eohyn lived and ' was courted by Henry the Eighth. Into that inimitable Kentish settling strode a disk mgiiklwd friend and neighbour of Colonel. Ast-or, Mr Winston Churchill. Visibly stooping- under the strain, of the passing years and somewhat embittered by recent events, Mr Churchill nevertheless retains much of tiV fire and oratory that led. the British Empire through its crisis. T’-o strong lines of i'hat rugged countenance -and the fierce jutting jnw dominated and fascinated us allT™ tones ]w gave expression to the general fear of further

strife and regret over what appeared to be a partial disruption of the Empire. Certainly there were grounds for misgiving, but I don’t altogether share the common pessimism. After many conversations with the newspaper delegates from the other Dominions I feel id; is very unlikely that in a measurable distance of time either Canada or South Africa will leave the British Empire, and if India does leave, as seems possible, she may with equal likelihood soon be back again. 'I do agree that there must be a new conception of Empire, a conception in which the younger partners who have now reached manhood can no longer continue to accept 'the privileges of membership without undertaking a fair share of the responsibilities. Particularly does this apply to the question of defence, which is one that will call for a high degree of courage and vision by the Governments concerned.

To live and prosper Britain must not only recapture but increase substantially her former export trade. Every man in the street tells you thalt. The porters in the English hotels and the workmen in the streets discuss international politics and the simple facts of economics with remarkable intelligence and understanding. Probably it is because they live so close to fhe cauldron cf Europe. So we went to see the production lines in action.

At the Bristol 'aeroplane works they were manufacturing houses by the hundred, made entirely cut of aluminium, complete with furniture and curtains all made of plastics- At John Brown’s and neighbouring shipyards at Glasgow there were literally hundreds of ships on ithe stocks. At the thousand acre plant of Imperial Chemical Industries at Billingham £2,000,000 a year is being spent on research! alone,, and 2000 qualified chemists are employed entirely on research. At a motor works they were turning out motor cars at the rate of a hundred a day. They set down the liwo iron main bars of the chassis (at the beginning of the production line, and an hour and a half later they drove that completed motor car from the end of the line. In spite of the impoverishment of the war, British private industry is spending £20,000,000 on research and invention alone, and the Government is subsidising University research to the extent of £9,000,000 a year. Therein lies part of the story of Britain’s greatness. What otherpeople in the world, victors in a mighty struggle, would continue their life of austerity, and submit to the interminable shortages of everything and queueing at the stoops?" Yet at the same time they are willing to spend tens of millions of pounds, on keeping ahead of the world in commercial invention, and sending most of their products out of the country? You do not see these good on the shelves of the British shops, but I saw some of them later, on my return journey. In Cairo, Karachi, Penang, and Singapore there they ■ all were, new English cars, cutlery, fabrics and kitchen utensils for which the English women have waited six long years in vain.

The sentiment of the British people is aptly expressed in their theatres. In “Under the Counter,” with Cicely Courtneidge playing the lead, they make fun, as only the British can, of the lack of consumer goods. Or take “Perchance to Dream” at the Hippodrome, a musical romance that! is the most popular show in London to-day. There is a

sentimental theme song in this that

is played in all lihe cabarets and restaurants. It r records the happy re-union of mlan and maid when they are discharged from the Services. Victory Day is another vivid memory. Until the day arrived everybody grumbled about holding such a ceremony in the present troubled circumstances, and said they wouldn’t go. On the day everybody went to the parade, and three million additional people streamed in from outsidb the xapital. The golden coach containing the King and the Royal Family received a mighty ovation. After that the heartiest applause was accorded to the London Fire Brigade, and one could scarce prevent a lump in the throat during 'this poignant expression of the Londoners’ debt to the men who did so much to save the city at the height of the German blitz.

In the life of the British people the Crown assumes a significance that is uninue and: inimitable. To be caught up hi a throng of hundreds of thousands rrf people streaming to Buckingham Palace and chanting “We we.pi the King” was an unforgettable experience. So indeed was tbe reception given by Their Majesties to the Press delegates at the Palace. In the diguitv of the cream and gold splendour of these historic ari'.erooms and chambers of the King. Queen and Princess Margaret discharged their duties as -hosts and bnstesses with a simplicity end sincerity that completely captivated the guests- / There was no s'iififness and very little formality. “Don’t vou grow a little tired of being a Princess?” naively, enquired cue of the New Zealand delegates. “I don’t know what if’s like to be anything else,” replied Princess Margaret viith a gleaming smile. “Anyway, we have our fun.” she added. Nearly three hours later we came away appreciating in no small degree the reason fc-r the deep affection and regard, which the people of Britain feel for {-.be Roved Family. We were convinced afresh that therein lies a unifying- fadtor in the life of the nation and the Empire that 1 nothing else' can match or replace, and which wrbr.blv no other notion can quite understand. Theorists have a habit of determining the status of a nation in terms of economic assets and imports and exports and armies and navies, but there is -always the imnondcrji.ble factor of the calibre of the prv-d.e themselves. Anyone who visits Britain to-dav cannot escape the conclusion that in the character of the people lies an asset 1 , that will yet confound critics and astonish the world, as it has d'one sd often in the past,

Link With W'crld Organisation

Approval of New Zealand’s partici-j nation in the proposed International 1 Federation cf Agricultural Producers ! was given by the annual conference of Federated Farmers of New Zea- J land. Th° decision was reached aft^r! a full afternoon in discussion of the

reports icf delegates who attended the recent international conference in London. The president of Federated Farmers. Mr B. V. Cooksley, in his address to the conference earlier, said he was convinced that if there was to be a World Fbcd Board there must be an international farmers’ organisation-