Yomtihi Sits in Judgment

Waikato Times, Volume 114, Issue 19052, 16 September 1933, Page 11 (Supplement)

Yomtihi Sits in Judgment

(By Sisley Huddlestone in the “Daily Mail")

WE WERE a cosmopolitan party in an expatriate drawing-room. Some of us were playing cards; others were manipulating the latest and most elaborate wireless set; a few had gone out on the terrace which overlooks Paris to flirt under the stars. ' and a group of men and women were smokfng and drinking and talking cynically around the private bar. ~ It was not elevating conversation, there were the usual stories, the usual gossip, the usual frank comments on the intrigues and relations or their set of acquaintances But at last somebody touched on the problem of sons and daughters in this world of collapsing values. , Then a middle-aged woman who had been particularly talkative suddenly grew ffrave. “They are altogether different, the very youngest people. My older children are rather wild and disillusioned; it is not fault —they began their adult life withou / restraint in the hectic post-war years. But ■4 my youngest two —Jim, who is 18, Alary, who is 17, —are Sober and Serious and Studious. They seem even a little sad and reproachful Th°y don’t want to go out to dance, they don't even smoke, and they look at me reproachfully when I mix a cocktail. I don t understand them." . . Everybody confirmed this experience, we were British, American, French, and German, and if we had not all children of our own, we had observed that our friend’s children were not like their eiders. They were not keen on amusement; they took an interest ■in national and International affairs; were learning and thinking and developing almost austere philosophy of life, they seemed, toy their attitude, to rebuke silently their older brothers and sisters and their on religion, on work, on duty, on justice, and on peace, they have ideas of their own. They are not the Ideas which we entertained before the war, but neither are they ideas which were entertained after the war. They are not the ideas of ignorance, these boys and girls know far more than we knew at their age—’they have grown up in. a plain-speaking period, and little has been hidden from their eyes. But they have weighed t/he new morality for themselves and have found it wanting. They have seen the tangle that has been made by Scepticism and Unbridled behaviour. They have judged their elders, a little harshly perhaps, a little bitterly. .... The other day a well-known author who has professed the most “advanced” views brought to me for my opinion the manuscript i of the book he has just written. To my asV tonlshment I found it was a plea for the old virtues. It had come, to him as a great discovery that the old-fashioned code of conduct, the old-fashioned belief in principles, were necessary and desirable. Now this reaction, which has touched many of the older men, is especially to he found in the newest generation. Consider what happened. Those classes which were the most industrious and conscientious were peculiarly affected by the great shake-up. ISSSSSXS2SSSSSSSSSSS2SS

New Morality in a Turbulent World.

All over Europe, even in countries where it had been severely practised, thrift became ridiculous with the collapse of currencies, and spending took its plae.e. Money appeared to come easily and was squandered lightly. There was suffering, but there was also a resolve to have a gay time. Eat, drink, and be merry, for to-morrow we may be ruined Generalisations may often be misleading, but in this case there is no doubt that notions of permanence and of steadiness were badlv shattered in the craze for moneymaking and for pleasure-making which followed the war. In some countries the crash came quickly, but in others an ambience was ‘Created which was unfortunate not G , merely for the older men and women, but for those who, without real knowledge of war, arrived at maturity in the years of unregulated folly. They could not have failed to be influenced by the political, financial, and social turmoil; they were caught up in the

Whirl of Intellectual and Moral Disorder.

Not all, of course, but the prevailing tone ■was one of facility and heedlessness. Landmarks disappeared. . . . .But for those who came after the conditions were more difficult. lam convinced, from my own widespread inquiries, and I am sure that parents, educationists, and all who endeavour to guide youth will agree, that those whose most impressionable years were spent amid the muddle of morals, of finance, and of politics, which they could scarcely understand, and who are now reaching full manhood and womanhood, are in serious revolt against the excesses of our time.

They missed the fun—if fun it was; but they did not miss the consequences of the post-war follies. When I was in Germany I was profoundly struck by the youth movement. There was a genuine thoughtfulness, a consciousness of the need for action, a sense of an intolerable injustice towards the newer generation which was not so much political as moral, and these thoughts and feelings were accompanied by a healthy love of athletics in natural surroundings. In Italy, too, Mussolini was perspicacious enough to realise that the building of a great nation, as distinct from immediate political triumphs, calls for the

Proper Direction of the Energies of Youth

He has attached the greatest importance to the serious training of the coming generation. Yet, if he is to be commended for discernment, it should likewise be added that he availed himself of the natural im-' pulses "and desires of Italian youth.

In France and in Great Britain it may be doubted whether this reaction of youth, which manifests itself 'in a multitude of ways, has been officially canalised. But it exists, as anyone .would be persuaded who talked with the .youth of these countries.

It is a poor business that we, their elders, have made of the old world and its possibilities. The young people do not appreciate the causes of our failures;-tout it is up to them to make a better job of the new world and its infinite resources. They have the desire and determination to do so, and we should be grateful for these signs ■of returning sanity. N