1940-12-03 — Page 7

THE CHINA MAIL, DECEMBER 3, 1940.

CHINA MAIL Unofficial Ambassador

WINDSOR HOUSE

EMPIRE EFFORT

Europe.

to British statesmen and men of letters.

ancient Rome occupied when at ences the height of its power.

Italy had so little control, in com- "He reflected upon the fact that parison with Great Britain, of the Mediterranean, of Egypt and of the Suez Canal,

The Past And

The Future

solini, and while naturally he dis-Europe, which should do for the the too, and many chats with Musan economic United States of Corsica, Malta and the control of

A Balfour Story One good story refers to the Earldom and the Order of the Gurter 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, an- upon the plan of having the King's "Then some ingenious person hit

nouncing these distinguished hon- ours handed. to him by Lloyd rival George himself on Balfour's ar-

DR. Nicholas Murray Butler, the the history of civilisation, and that President of Columbia Uni- the peace of the world cannot rest versity has been affectionately with permanence upon any theory described as America's unofficial of domination by force-whether The visit to England of Ambassador.

that force be military or economic When the Colonel Ralston, the Can- over, he helped

Great War was or racial or religious. Any such do

the movemination is always a temptation to adian Defence Minister, ment to restore devastated its own disturbance and avor with

In his book "Across throw. Peace can only rest secure the proclamation the Busy Years," he tells upon a liberal, enlightened and that Canada is resolved to the story of America's effort to convinced public opinion.

rebuild and restore contribute not only all both at Louvain and Rheims, the time had not come when "I pressed the question whether the library, 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 Por- 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! with the best teamwork dressed the Reichstag. Dr. Butler, comfort through the building of that Italy should retake Savoie, and international inßuence towards the west, and that can be devised in col- laboration with the agreed with his views, acknow- teeming and highly civilised this of Mother Country, is parti- always ready to frankly discuss what the Constitution of the Unit- ledges frankly that Mussolint was populations of those countries cularly timely in the light international affairs.

ed States had done for America,

"This course was followed. of the increasing strain "I took as my text," he writes,

or expect political domination over When the train came in, Balfour "It was possible to quote in sup- territory and people with which stepped out on the platform and. which intensified Nazi

"a sentence used by Bismarck in port of that ideal many of the trade and commerce are carried was greeted by all sorts of high speaking to the Reichstag on Fep-great names in German history on. We have night bombing is placing ruary 6, 1888, as well as a sen-

those of Lessing and Herder, of that....

gotten beyond personalities and friends, at whose

head upon Britain.

was Lloyd George, who tence from the writings of Ralph Goethe and Schiller, of Hegel and Waldo Emerson and one from the Schleiermacher, of Fichte and; Im-vation, Italian achievement in envelope which,

"Italian tradition, Italian culti-handed him an imposing-looking Colonel Ralston is ex-writings

as a matter of of Oliver Wendell manuel Kant. Holmes."

letters, in architecture, in music fact, contained the King's letter

•pressing a feeling which

and in the fine arts, are so com- announcing the two great honours. is common to every part]

manding that the place of Italy in Balfour thrust the letter in his the modern world is wholly secure coat pocket and proceeded to con- of the Empire and pre-

if only it will turn to forward fac- verse freely with the welcoming ing and constructive supposes the fullest mea-

policies of group, progress in the spirit of to-day and centuries long gone by." to-morrow. rather than in that of

•

"During those years of close contact with Mussolini and with the aims of Italian policy," he as- serts, "it became more and more impressed upon me that Mussolini kept before him the conception of tieth century to a position of in- restoring his country in the twen-

The Imponderables Matter Most sure of cooperation in the this address was that it is the im- The thought which ran through 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 Right:

"Tho Economia!!

recently ex-

pressed the following viewa on the opportunities offered by the war for creating a new national life in Britain:

cracy.

make it necessary

of a concrete fact.

Bill

**

Of

eastern Mediterranean. All

twentieth century does not require terms of centuries long past. The course was thinking in

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 finally 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

17

Dr. Butler happened to be in Dominions England when the

Premiers were in conference to paid a visit to Mr. Lloyd George discuss the new form the British Commonwealth should take. He at Chequers, and it transpired Premier, was apparently hard to that Mr. Hughes, the Australian persuade at times to fall into line with the other

delegates. Dr.

Lloyd George took me aside

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

exigencies of the war itself to wealth of the large family do a number of radical things. It no means as great as her is surely better to do them with find that a remarkably high pro- privileged and exclusive schools

turn, can be traced to our edu If we were to do this, we should cational system. The existence of strength at home.. The our eyes open to the future, to doportion of the whole list was al- and universities is no new things "beleaguered fortress" than to do them haphazard and the wareinter provisions of a score vileged institutions are the only them logically and consistently ready secured in this country by but the convention that these pri mentality had to be resist-provisionally. Under the tremen-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 Butler writes:

dous pressure of the war, the 80 gaps. (Lamily 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. is Britain's task to prove]

a hand in the moulding..

and said: "Hughes needs stirring There is no need to go in search mainder is not impossibly high to

The result is that, in spite of up. You have got a car-take him that her world empire is of subjects for reforming. All that contemplate.

the great extension of the public out and show him what there is is, necessary is to see what is un- If, in fact, we approach so close-schools, in spite of the great around here. Get under his skin!" strong and united enough dep our noses, to take some tem-ly to such a real Bill of Human growth in university scholarships, It was a very hat day, so I went to win a world war-fight-porary expedient that is forced Rights, a double purpose would be the field of selection for the im- up to Hughes and said, 'Prime ing, if need be alone, in upon us, by the war and, with served by embodying it in a formal portant posts of State and society Minister, come on with rae: let us

such adjustments as are neces-Declaration. We should be nailing has been narrowed. Two genera- go and take a drive." three continents at the sary, build it into the permanent our democratic colours to the mast tions ago, as now, it was an ad-An Informative Drive same time, if necessary.

structure of our growing demo- and reinforcing our own faith in vantage to any young man to be

the principles to which we adhere able to put Eton and Christ "I took him about three miles The self-governing Do-, We have, for instance, been And we should be issuing a chal Church after his name; but it was to the little village in which was minions, with the excep- break of the war that the com- heart of the ordinary man We are unconsciously excluding looked at that and talked about compelled to realise since the out-lenge which speaks straight to the not then a handicap to be without the house where John Milton

these magic claims.

wrote Paradise Regained.' We tion of Fire, have all gone munity has greater obligations to challenge which speaks straight to 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 a whole race of able young men Milton. We drove on about three. the citizen, and the citizen greater the heart which Hitler could nei- and resources into the either has hitherto been prepared could say, "is what Democracy ponsibility; we are preventing which William Penn came, and struggle.

As industrial to admit. When the needs of war promises and performs. What them from taking full advantage where he is burled in the grave- to enforce a bave 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. Australia have to play a of living, the idea of a national The counterpart should be a Bill ority (this is the only country "We looked at that and talked minimum standard of living, of Duties that the citizen owes to where variations in accent are about Willlam 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. ore a thousand ways in which the vices of men of ability by a formWe 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

blood.

where John Hampden's manifesto and secondary industries, crease in various social insurance mum of Rights will be the more.

payments. Faced with 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 supply her own require-cracy, we are compelled to think we have thought and talked of the should be reduced to one dead and has been there ever since

out afresh, and defend with fresh State, as an impersonal dispenser level would be the wrong con- 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 ob- Milton and Penn 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 the raw material the mobilisation of the

is carefully quite a place after all and that it There are here the makings of to one of the great problems of selected.

would be well to be more en- Commonwealth he 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 see that only those who show Commonwealth of Nations."

proof of ability enter upon them. while the war is still in progress,

This is, of course, a tall order. denoy to adopt a policy of damn 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 ample, a disappearance of the book concerns the head of the Ro~ the war effort of the Donal Uberties but the mini- we live and die.

mum of economic welfare and. 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 employer-caste-a "A woman, whose curiosity was

enjoy those liberties.

action is in the search for personal distinction having nothing to do greater than her tact, once asked of action in Europe for 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 the ing. It will include the familiar system, with all its peculiarities, be seen at its clearest and most Pope extended, Cardinal Gibbons, Polish campaign made basic guarantees of the dignity of was a matchless breeder of ability. damaging in the City of London. with the very slightest, amile on the need for strenuous of 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 willing and religion, the right to certainly had less incompetorice in golden opportunity if only we can damn, that is not an eary 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 law. 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 a much further; that in every walk of life there is see the world of the 1030's again; me "Jibbons eng

It will establish minimum stan- nothing but mediocrity at the top but rather that we must bond 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 ar and medical care.

little ability that it is overburden- of the new. The bricks and mor- terins his "unforgettable words" limit. The only pity is the various undeserved mistor neck. This is true of politics, of grandiose new building designed African:..

It will provide security against cd and forms itself into a bottle- tar are there not, indeed, for a uttered by the eminent South 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 Reichskanzlei sturdy, independent-minded, free- mense reserves of raw ma that can reduce an individual's and disastrously true of the Civil-but for a now wing to be built dem-loving individual, and his re- terials, man power, and molency to destitution. It will Servico. 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 people can doubt for structure so as to combine the feed mass-mentality is the great- a minute that the raw material of | beauty and the solidity of the tra- est human menace of our times;””. holding a pivotal place in not in a position to pull leadership is still an abundant as ditional with all the efficienclos ("Across the Busy Years" is

and conveniences of the modern published in two volumes át 18.-. the strategic plan, is still her full weight.

The trouble is that we have for age

oach by Scribners,)

serve.

Europe, there was a ten not realise it) drawing up a mo-

actual practice (though we may posed. Here is a means by which,

EVOT.

"We looked at that and talked-

"Jibbons"