TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Waikato Times, Volume 116, Issue 19353, 5 September 1934, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

The Changing East. “ We often hear of the ‘ unchanging East,’ but I can assure my countrymen, with some experience, that India at all events in changing very fast, and the responsibility for that change is mainly due to the fact that we British have for over 100 years been working to develop in the minds and character of Indians a spirit of responsibility which will in due course fit them to.undertake the full powers of administration of their own affairs,” said Lord Willingdon, Viceroy of India, in a speech at Edinburgh.

“I fully realise the doubts and difficulties in the minds of many who, while anxious as we all are to act generously and fairly by India, arc uneasy as to the scope of advance through, their want of practical knowledge of the conditions in that country. May I urge that owing to these rapid changes to which I have referred, special consideration should be given to the views and opinions of those who have had most recent experience of life there, and of those who are doing their Empire service there at the present time.”

“ World Airways Limited

“ The advocates of the proposals now under consideration propose tlmt an International Company should bo set up to exercise exclusive ownership of all present and future aircraft and aerodromes together with spare parts and ground equipment, the company to be managed by qualified directors employing pilots and mechanics of various nationalities, and the whole having a monopoly of air transport,” writes Mr Howard Diamond in the journal of the Society of Friends.

“If that were all, that would be a simple and innocuous plan which Friends might feel disposed to encourage. But how is it suggested that such a scheme would help disarmament? The theory is that if an agreement were readied between the nations on these lines, then military aeroplanes could he abolished. If we suppose that by internationalising civil aviation we have deprived the nations of their military air forces, we deceive ourselves. If (lie nations of Europe contributed agreed numbers of machines and pilots to the stock of World Airways, Limited, where would they stand in the event of war? There is no question about that.’

Second-Raters for Public Service. “ For thirty years our great American universities have been inuring out stockbrokers, bond salesmen, corporation lawyers, bank runners, and manufacturers in superabundance, but not public servants,’’ writes Dir J. Franklin, in ttic New York magazine Vanity Fair. “In 39‘20 the records showed that out of the graduating class of 15)10 in a targe eastern university only one man was engaged in anv form of government service. The rest were all doctors, lawyers, merchants, and so forth.

“'flic same was true of virtually every other large American university. Business claimed our best and brightest. The Government limped along on political hacks and second-raters. It worked a)) right for a while until the bills runic due, and we arc still paying them, for the public business is the most important, business in the country, and its neglect is the most expensive form of national economy.’ 3