SANDY’S CORNER

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 89, Issue 212, 7 September 1945, Page 4

SANDY’S CORNER

PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY Mr. Langstone, in the House of Representatives: But it had to be remembered that closed groups, such u lawyers, doctors and waterside workers had responsibilities to live up to. Too right lhey have, responsibilities extending from stop-work meeting to patching up a man’s appendix. We would hate to think, however, that the doctors were holding a stop-work meeting if a man on the wharf got injured, or the lawyers were on strike when the Waterside Union wanted to light a case in the Supreme Court. Professional responsibilities rest upon us all and should be accepted with a right conception of one’s duty to one’s fellowman. For instance, we hope that the watersiders will go out on strike in support of any legal go-slow policy to obtain higher pay for lawyers, or any sit-down, stay-in, lock-out effort the medical profession might take to get sharper tools of trade and hetler operating tables in hospitals. We feel that closed groups should stick together, through thick and thin, and should support one another at all times! This is the age of the migh'.y union. One could almost add, “make thee mightier yet, mightier even than Governments!" BACK IN SINGAPORE Come you back, you British sailor, come you back to Singapore. A British sailor, an intrepid one, (Mountbatten), has in fact gone back, and, in some respects the loss of the battleship Prince of Wales and the Repulse, have been avenged. Singapore and its fall will find a prominent place in history, the great fortres, which had its guns pointing the wrong way, a monument to man's inability to look quickly enough into the future and try and keep pace with the times. That is why it always wearies us when some of our politicians repeatedly trot out statements of what happened 10. 20, 30 40 years ago. One might just as well have told i' l’eyberg, when they were attacking Cassino, that when they fought at Waterloo they did this or did that. While fundamentals of life may remain, man is no longer the man who lived in Wellingtons day. no nor Haig’s either, and the fail of Singapore was a bitter reminder of the fact. We hope, too, in the future just ahead, that people will not easily forget that all Chamberlain had when lie went to Munich was an umbrella, just ts futile as a Singapore looking frontways while the Japs came in the back door.

IS IT ORATORY, RACE, OR WHAT?

There was a newsreel at the Opera House Wanganui this week showing the celebrations of VJ-Day in Wellington and the thanksgiving service which followed afterwards in the Town Hall. It was not the celebrsition, nor yel the reverent thought with which the service was obviously conducted that impressed us when we saw that newsreel; it was the reaction of the public in the theatre. When Mr. Fraser spoke, his hands moving as though he was conducting a band, the people simply laughed. When Mr. Holland spoke they did the samelaughed. But when Mr. E. T. Tirikatene, the representative of the Maori race of the South, spoke, there was dead silence as his words floated out from the screen. What puzzles us is, whv should that he? Was it oratory that begot the Maori member his pride of place hi the hearts of his hearers, or was it a tribute to his race from those of another race? We saw the same sort of thing happen in Wanganui when the Maori War Memorial in Mouton Gardens was unveiled. We forget who spoke for the Government, on taat occasion, it was probably the late Mr. W. F. Massey (the then Prime Minister), and there

were others. We could look up and find out quite easily, but we prefer not to, because we can remember the Maori speaker. Sir Maui Pomare telling oi Troy, and in the highest flights of oratory, holding his audience spellbound. His speech was the speech of the day, Remembering that speech we suppose that, after ail. it is oratory which counts in these things, and we wonder does oratory make a statesman? In one case, Winston Churchill, we can safely say it helps. And as It helps, what a pity it is that our public mon do not better fit themselves as orators.