THE CHINA MAIL, DECEMBER 3, 1940.
Page
CHINA MAIL Unofficial Ambassador
WINDSOR HOUSE
EMPIRE EFFORT·
The visit to England of Colonel Ralston, the Can-
DR. Nicholas Murray. Butler, the President of Columbia Uni- versity has been affectionately described as America's unofficial Ambassador.
the history of civilisation, and that the peace of the world cannot rest with permanene, upon any theory of dordination by force-whether that force be military or economic or racial or religious. Any such do- mination is always a temptation to
throw. Pence can only rest secure upon a liberal, enlightened and convinced public opinion,
ancient Rome occupied when at ences to British statesmen and the height of its power.
"He reflected upon the fact that Italy had so little control, in com parison with Great Britain, of the Mediterranean, of Egypt and of the Suez Canal.
The Past And The Future
men of letters,
A Balfour Story
One, good story refers to the Earldom and the Order of the Garter conferred on Mr. Balfour after the Washington Conference. The King wished to. award the honour personally, but Mr. Lloyd George flatly told the King that Minister were being usurped the prerogatives of the
Prime
personal letter to Balfour upon the plan of having the King's "Then some ingenious person hit
nouncing these distinguished hon- ours. handed to him by Lloyd George himself on Balfour's ar-
When the Great War was over, he helped the move- adian Defence Minister, ment to restore devastated its own disturbance and over- Europo. In his book "Across with the proclamation the Busy Years, he tells that Canada is resolved to the story of America's effort to
rebuild and restore the library, "I pressed the question whether contribute not only all both at Louvain and Rheims, the time had not come when her strength, but her which he organised. Dr. Butler Europe might take the next long tugal should be satisfied with its
"He felt that England, like For most effective strength, with Germany, and actually ad- satisfaction
tried to make friendly contacts step forward in promoting national position on the Atlantic and its
'and with the best teamwork dressed the Reichstag. Dr. Butler, comfort through the building of that Italy should retake Savoie, international influence towards the west, and that can be devised in col-solini, and while naturally he dis-Europe, which should do for the the
too, and many chats with Mus- an economic United States of Corsica, Malta and the control of laboration with the agreed with his views, acknow- teeming
eastern Mediterranean. All and highly civilised this of Mother Country, is parti- always ready to frankly discuss what the Constitution of the Unit- twentieth century does not require course was, thinking in ledges frankly that Mussolini was populations of those countries terms of centuries long past. The rival. cularly timely in the light international affairs.
ed States had done for America. or expect political domination over of the increasing strain
"It was possible to quote in sup- territory and people with which which
port of that ideal many of the trade and commerce are carried intensified Nazi
great names in German history on. We have gotten night bombing is placing
those of Lessing and Herder, of that..
beyond upon Britain.
Goethe and Schiller, of Hegel and Schleiermacher, of Fichte and Im-vation, manuel Kant. ..
"I took as my text," he writes, "a sentence used by Bismarck in speaking to the Reichstag on Feu
uary 6, 1888, as well as a sen- tence from the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson and one from the writings of Oliver Wendell Holmes."
Colonel Ralston is ex- pressing a feeling which
"During those years of close is common to every part
contact with Mussolini and with The Imponderables
the 'aims of Italian policy," he as- of the Empire and pre- Matter Most
serts, "it became more and more impressed upon me that Mussolini supposes the fullest mea-
kept before him the conception of sure of cooperation in the this address was that it is the im-tieth century to a position of in- "The thought which ran through restoring his country in the twen- mobilising of Common- ponderables which matter most influence comparable to that which
wealth resources to strengthen defences in every part of the world and to create a striking force that the aggressors will soon begin to dread.
Human
OX"
"The Economist" recently.
prassed the following views on the opportunities offered by the war for creating a now. national life in Britain:
cracy.
of a concrete fact.
Right: Bill Of
"Italian tradition, Italian culti
Italian achievement in letters, in architecture, in music and in the fine arts, are so com- manding that the place of Italy in the modern world is wholly secure if only it will turn to forward fac- ing and constructive policies of progress in the spirit of to-day and centuries long gone by." to-morrow rather than in that of
an-
"This course was followed, When the train came in, Balfour. stepped out on the platform and was greeted by all sorts of high personalities and friends, at whose hetd was Lloyd. George, who handed him an imposing-looking envelope which, as a matter of fact, contained the King's letter announcing the two great honours. Balfour thrust the letter in his coat pocket and proceeded to con- verse freely with the welcoming group.
home that someone
"It was only after he reached asked him what was the purport of the let- The book contains many refer-ter which the Prime Minister handed him on the railway plat- form. For a few minutes the letter could not be found anywhere, but Hnally it appeared from the pocket of Balfour's overcoat, which had been left in the hall on reaching home. On reading the letter, he found notice of the two very dis- tinguished honours which were his.
And A Duties
The result is that, in spite of the great extension of the public schools, in spite of the great growth in university scholarships, the field of selection for the im- portant posts, of State and society has been narrowed. Two genera- tions ago, as now, it was an ad- vantage to any young man to be able to put Eton and Christ Church after his name; but it was not then a handicap to be without these magic claims.
Premiers were in
Dr. Butler happened to be in the Dominions England when
conference to discuss the new form the British Commonwealth should take. He at Chequers, and it transpired paid a visit to Mr. Lloyd George that Mr. Hughes, the Australian Premier, was apparently hard to persuade at times to fall into line Butler writes: with the other
delegates. Dr.
asidė
"Lloyd George took me and said: "Hughes needs stirring up. You have got a car-take him out and show him what there is around here. Get under his skin!' It was a very hot day, so I went up to Hughes and said, 'Prime Minister, come on with me: let us go and take a drive.'"
An Informative Drive
•
"I took him about three miles to the little village, in which was the house where John Milton looked at that and talked about wrote 'Paradise · Regained.” We Milton. We drove on about three
It has sometimes been complained that Britain's WE shall be compelled by the too often accompanies the spiritual, gotten to seize it. And that, in its strength abroad was by do a number of radical things, It
exigencies of the war itself to wealth of the large family. turn, can be traced to our edu- no means as great as her is surely better to do them with find that a remarkably high pro-privileged and
If we were to do this, we should cational system. The existence of strength at home. The our eyes open to the future, to do portion of the whole list was al- and universities is no new thing; exclusive schools "beleaguered
them logically and consistently, ready secured in this country by but the convention that these prl fortress" than to do them haphazard and the unrelated provisions of a score vileged institutions are the only mentality had to be resist-provisionally. Under the tremon of enactments, that many of the channels of entry or at least the ed. This is a world war cial and economic life of the coun-ample) will probably have to be entry-in all the dominant forms. dous pressure of the war, the so- gaps (family, allowances, for ex- only channels of unhandicapped in which the enemy is out try is, in any case, going to be filled before the war is over and of professional activity is a very for world domination. It forced into new shapes. Let us take that the cost of establishing the re- new thing indeed.
a hand in the moulding, is Britain's task to prove
There is no need to go in search mainder is not impossibly high to
contemplate. that her world empire is of subjects for reforming. All that
is necessary is to see what is un- If, in fact, we approach so close- strong and united enough der our noses, to take some tem-ly to such a real Bill of Human to win a world war-fight-porary expedient that is forced Rights, a double purpose would be ing, if need be alone, in upon us by the war and, with served by embodying it in a formal such adjustments as are neces- Declaration. We should be nailing three continents at the sary, build it into the permanent our democratic colours to the mast same time, if necessary.
structure of our growing demo- und reinforcing our own faith in the principles to which we adhere. The self-governing Do-
We have, for instance, been And we should be issuing a chal- compelled to realise since the out-lenge which speaks straight to the minions, with the excep- break of the war that the comchallenge wh th speaks straight to We are unconsciously excluding
heart of the ordinary man-a tion of Eire, have all gone munity has got the citizen, greater the heart which Hitler could net- a whole race of able young men
greater to war and thrown men obligations to the community, than ther ignore nor accept. "This", we and women from positions of res- miles farther to the village from and resources into the either has hitherto been prepared could say, "is what Democracy ponsibility; we are preventing which William Penn came and performs. What them from taking full advantage where he is buried in the grave- struggle. As industrial to admit. When the needs of war promises and
make it necessary to enforce a have you to offer one-half as of the scholarship ladder by giv-yard, a simple and impressive countries, Canada and general lowering of the standard good?""
ing them a subtle sense of inferi- place. The counterpart should be a Billority. (this is the only country Australia have to play a of living, the idea of a national
"We looked at that and talked minimum standard of living, of Duties that the citizen owes to where variations in accent are about William Penn. We went on large part in the produc- hitherto, no more than a notion, the community.
economically important), and we a few miles more to the graveyard tion of finished war ma- begins to take on the semblance In a modern community there are depriving the State of the ser- where Edmund Burke is buried.
are a thousand ways in which the vices of men of ability by a form "We stood by his tomb and talk- terial. South Africa, too, Public money is devoted to the citizen can give his personal ser- of nepotism that is the more dead-ed about Burke. We next turned has been building up steel cheapening of food and the in-vice to the State, and the mini-ly for not being confined to ties of around and went into the church and secondary industries, payments. Faced with
crease in various social insurance mum of Rights will be the more blood.
where John Hampden's manifesto a chal cherished if it is paid for by a To draw from this state of af- about ship-money was nailed to a but is unable at present lenge to the whole idea of demo- minimum of Duties. For too long fairs the moral that all education post in the middle of the building,
to one dead and has been there ever since. to supply her own require out afresh, and defend, with fresh State, as an impersonal dispenser level would be the wrong con-
cracy, we are compelled, to think we have thought and talked of the should be reduced
"We looked at that and talked ments. The "Economist" vigilance, the basic liberties of the of free doles; we must now think clusion. To have special schools about John Hampden. Between recently stressed the need citizen, On the other hand, when of the community, the common- for leadership and to clear ab- Milton and Feon and Burke, and the community is under a direct wealth to which we give, from stacles from the career of their John Hampden, by the time we for facing this question: threat, the citizen discovers in which we receive, of which we graduates is a source of enormous got back to Chequers, Hughes be- how much further can himself an unsuspected anxiety to are members.
strength to any State provided gan to think that England was This is the democratic answer raw material is carefully quite a place, after all and that it the mobilisation of the
There are here the makings of to one of the great problems of selected.
would be well to be more en- Commonwealth be car-a new Social Contract between the the age, the proper relations be- Let us keep the Public Schools thusiastic than he had yet been citizen and the State. By the tween the citizen and the State. and the Universities as special about the background of Australia ried? Until the blitzkrieg gradual addition of one temporary We are fighting Hitler because we channels of advancement but let in England and about a British swept over Western expedient to another, we are, in detest the solution that he has im-us sea that only those who show Commonwealth of Nations." Europe, there was a ten-actual practico (though we may posed. Here is a means by which, proof of ability enter upon them. not realise it) drawing up a mo-while the war is still in progress. This is, of course, a fall order. dency to adopt a policy of dorn Bill of Rights, whereby the we can establish our own solution It embraces far more than educa- limited liability as far as citizen is guaranteed not only his and proclaim the faith by which tional, reform. It involves, for ex- One of the best stories in the
personal liberties but the miniwe live and die.
ample, a disappearance of the book concerns the head of the Ro- the war effort of the Do- mum of economic wolfare andij A second field in which the war rigid line between the director-man Catholic church in America: minions went. The lack security that will enable him to has revealed the need for drastic caste and the employee-caste--a "A woman, whose curiosity was action is in the search for personal distinction having nothing to do greater than her tact, once asked of action in Europe for enjoy those liberties.
Let us make a list of the mini- ability. It has been one of our with ability that hampers the Cardinal Gibbons how far he nine months after Hitler's mum requirements for decent liv- boasts in the past that our social whole of British Industry and can thought the infallibility of Polish campaign made in It will include the familiar system, with all its peculiarities, be seen at its clearest and most Pope extended: Cardinal Gibbons, basic guarantees of the dignity of was a matchless breeder of ability. damaging in the City of London. with the very slightest smile on the need for strenuous ef-the individual-freedom of speech, and in past generations we have We are, in fact, faced with a his face, quietly, answered: Ma- forts seem unreal. But writing and religion, the right to certainly had less incompetence in golden opportunity if only we can dam, that is not an easy question...
a fair trial, the subordination of high places than other nations.
have the vision to realise that we | All I can say is that a few months all this has now been all government to the rule of laws We realise now to our horror are neither likely nor anxious to ago in Rome His Holiness called)- changed. The Dominions But it will also go much further; that in every walk of life there is see the world of the 1930's again, me "Jibbons
It will establish minimum stan-nothing but mediocrity at the top but rather that we must bend our In a cordial reference to General are determined to do their dards of housing, food, education or else (what is often worse) so energies to the wise construction Smuts, Dr. Butler quotes what he part without stint or and medical care.
little ability that it is overburden, of the new. The bricks and mor- terms his "unforgettable words" It will provide security against ed and forms Itself into a bottle tar are there-not, indeed, for n uttered by the eminent South limit. The only pity is the various undeserved misforneck. This is true of politics, of grandioso now building designed African that India, with her im-tunes, such as unemployment, ac industry, of finance, of art, of with all the tyrannous symmetry | "The disappearance of the eldent, widowhood and old age, journalism. It is most peculiarly of a Versailles or a Reichskanzlet sturdy, independent-minded, free- mense reserves of raw ma-that can reduce an individuals and disastrously true of the Civil-but for a new wing to be built dom-loving individual, and his re- terials, man power, and sufficiency to destitution. It will Service. But no one who knows on to the less pretentious. English placement by a servile, standard- industrial resources, and relieve the material poverty that the British poople can doubt for structure go as to combing the sed mass-mentality is the great-
a minute that the raw misterial of beauty and the solidity of the tri- øst human menãos of our times,” » holding a pivotal place in not in a position to pull leadership is still as abundant as ditional with all the emelencies ("Across the Busy Years” is the strategic plan, is still her full weight.
* The trouble is that we have for- "ngo,
serve.
ever.
the
“Jibbons""
}
the
and conveniences of the modern | published in two volumes at 1s.'
Teach by Scribners.)