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THE HONGKONG TE LEGRAPH, Friday, May 12, 1930.'
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In the
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IS
-N the current number of that excellent American magazine, “Harpers,"--I haye just found a startling
Champion quotation from my friend,
formance and economy of this new
Hendrik van Loon: "Cul-
EUROPE
FINISHED?
turally Europe is finished. the finer things of the human creative both politically, and been passed into
not culturally. And it didn't.
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mind will
are written or great plays, blossom to order. A cultural great music, great histories desert is the price you pay for -they will be written in all those big heavy boots march-
ing and countermarching," America. The torch has been passed into our hands
Nobody has more admiration and affection for that genial giant, Van Loon, than I have, but I will confess that my first impulac, after reading this The Studebaker astonishing statement, was to
Champion
Sole Distributors:
send him a cable inquiring what had happened to his wits. I suppose I know contemporary America about as well as he knows contemporary Europe (for he left our shores many years ago), and it had certainly never occurred to me, that cul- Stubbs Road Phones, 27778-0.turally Europe is finished and
THE HONGKONG HOTEL GARAGE
Hongkong Telegraph.
Wyndham St., Hongkong
'Phone 26615 May 12, 1989
No "New Order"
IT IS a curious fact that the
that the torch of cultural pro gress had been passed into American hands.
On reflection, however, I can see that though Van Loon's is a very wild generalisation, he is by no means without a case.
cultural drift The
towards America, which began
just after the war, when America was bursting with money and Central Europe was starving, has been flowing. a full tide during these last few years, when Central Europe has been one vast madhouse."
:
Tokyo newspapers so freely quoted by "Domei" and other news agencies quite often burst into objective agitations which Germans of the highest reputa- Thus, there are probably more presage by only a few days tion, men of the calibre of Government action on the lines Einstein and Thomas Mann, in indicated in their columns.America now than there are in There is more than a suspicion Germany. The greatest living
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Italian
music- respect, is, in its comments, no ian,, Toscanini, less inspired than is the con- makes America: trolled Preas of Germany, Italy and Russia.
his headquar
ters, not Italy:
The Russian,
More than ordinary interest should, therefore, attach to an Rachmaninoff, i article in the "Kokumin Shim- hus lived
America
int
for
much older
an
bun" yesterday, in which it was stated that the Totalitarian years. systems in Germany and Italy Excluding have not appealed to the Japan- Bernard Shaw, ese imagination; that Japanese who represents people
necessarily are not adorers of Hitler. or. Mussolini: generation, I that friendly sentiments towards suppose the the Totalitarians will quickly most distinguished living drama- disappear if the latter abandons tist is Eugene O'Neill,
American. And the most in- her self-imposed guardianship fluential English writer of my of the old order in East Asia."own generation, Aldous Huxley, What the "Kökumin Shim-has been living in America for bun" is trying to say, in effect, the last two or three years, and, is that Japan will soon desert gather, does not intend to re-
turn England, her new friends for her old friends if the latter will piny So, you see, Van Loon is not ball in China. What Japan de- quite so outrageous as he first sires is the establishment of the doubt that the cultural tide is appears, There ean be no "New Order in East Asia", strongly flowing westward "☎ | which would extend over the across the Atlantic.
whole vast arca remaining to
This is only to be expected. China the same military occupa- Artists and scientists and tion which Japan employed only scholars need secure conditions in the Northern provinces when hostilities began,
THE HONG KONG & SHANGHAI HOTELS, LTD.
4
and & wealthy community.
time.
The European democracies are better off, but nobody will pre tond that they are making very great contributions to world culture at the present time.
France, which 'never recover ed from the war, seems to be queerly sterile, though still pro-
American
hands. It is one thing to give shelter to distinguished exiles, the roots of whose art or know- During these last few years I ledge lle elsewhere, and it is another thing to write the have travelled a good deal, and world's great novels, plays, returning home, after months music, histories. There is, it of absence, I have seen my coun- seems to me, one snag that Van try with a fresh eye. It may Loon has overlooked. be that the oye is really any-
thing but fresh, and it may bo-America la; still a "now- and that I am growing old and rather raw continent. It is soured. But the sad fact re- still a mixture that has not mains that during these last been thoroughly mixed. That
By J. B. Priestley
during good minor work in all branches. Our own. country, which is also still suffering from its old war casualty llats, is not so much sterile as trivial. It is not without widespread cultural activity, but that activity lacks size, weight, drive, and com- pares unfavourably with ita pre- war production.
What is wrong with us, the British? At the moment, of course, we are living in almost the worst of all atmospheres, the crisis with war-just- round-the-corner, enough to put a Michelangelo or Beethoven off his work. But I am thinking not of the last few months but
few years, when there ought to have been a New Britain and there wasn't, it has seemed to me that our national weak- nossos have been more pro- minent than our national vir- tues.
In other words, what I have`· noticed more and more are the things I dislike about us.
Our most outstanding faults, it is generally admitted, are our complacency, hypocrisy.. anob- bery and stupidity. I submit that during these last few years our national life has been riddled with complacency, hypocrisy, snobbery, and stu- pidity.
Nover before have we made so much fuss about trivialities, Never have we congratulated
cause for congratulation.
Some⚫ sections of our Press have been absolutely nauseat ing. If we all awoke one morn- ing to find ourselves paralysed, As I see it, the rot set in when these papers would congratulate Great work of art will not be the post-war period ended in us. Let foreigners go moving conceived and executed under nothing, or, if you like, in mak- about," they would say, "but skies dark and noisy with bombing-do and muddling as a sub- ing squadrons.
the ordinary decent British stitute for creation. A tradi- citizen has wisely decided to tion, based chiefly on a profound stay in bed." feeling of security, perished in
☆
"
It will develop--and is in the rupid process of developing→ a new civilisation of its own, I would not deny. But it will be more time before that civilisation, which is still in the earliest, engineering, big- building stage, produces a magnificent culture of its own. And the snag is this, that so far the best products of Ameri- culture, the genuine American contributions to the world's store of good things, have been regional, coming al- most out of the new soil.
can
But the artistic exiles, leav- ing Europe to sink, flock into the cities, especially New York, and the New York spirit, smart, slick, rootless, disillusioned, is not one that will produce great works. Its characteristic clever- ness is the enemy rather than the friend of greatness.
Thus, the drift towards New York is að bad for Ameri- can culture as the drift to- wards America is bad for Euro- pean culture,
Nor do I think we aro 80 hopelessly lost hero as Van Loon imagines. We stand be
among menncing wildered shadows; we pass empty days and nights. uneasy with dark dreams; but we are still at home and our nourishing roots are not yet sovered; so that even yet, with a little clear sun- light to help us, we may do good work.
The Situation In China
They cannot work properly if of the last ten years. Some ourselves so often with so little It is not the first time Japan the secret police are pestering where, in our recent national has indirectly appealed to Bri- them and their families all the history, there ought to be a clue. tain, to reverse its policy in China, But Britain, as the The concentration camp is a largest investor and one of the poor environment for culture. largest traders in China, and the United States, as the largest trader and oneof the largest investors, have both the best of reasons to regard with appre-
The cultural history of the the summer of 1914. For the. hension attempts to create
Our ruling and official classes "New Order in East Asia" which totalitarian States is almost a next five years it was a matter never at any time had much
complete blank. Mussolini brags
respect for any form of cul- would reduce China to the about his bayonets, not about of struggle and endurance.
ture, but recently they have) status of a Japanese colony bis philosophers. A screaming
had less. Every triviality of rigorously guarded against Goebbels cannot accomplish
mind is encouraged, and any Western penetration.
That what a serene Goethe could do.
came the post-war thing likely to make men think penetration, anliko Japanese No matter how powerful and period, when weary returned and feel deeply is discouraged. penotration, had been wholly how supreme your Will, you happen, but had to start their selves that the most wonderful efficient your dictatorship la, soldiers hoped something would We still go on telling our peaceful in method, as well as cannot command into existence own lives over again, and the thing that can happen to an in aim, during the years that
youngsters were all cynical and Englishman la to own the horse the new China has shown her and American credits to China, disillusioned, the Arlon-and that wing the Derby. And wo power of maintaining order. In, are facts confirming the con- Coward era, and the elderly no longer oven play our games crased Chinese resistance in the tinued independence of
our men, some of whom are still vory well. All we do is to chat- face of Japanese air-raids on the neighbour
with us, thought they could putter, chatter, chatter about them. cities gives no warrant for Bri- No "New Order in East Asia" the date back to early 1014. What contribution to the tain to seek leave from Japan imposed by Japan is within' Out of this post-war period of world's culture can come out of Chosen Corporation for friendly, relations with the sight, though Japan may con- chaos should have sprung a this half-baked meses? Chinese Government, des ceivably boast that the new dis- New Britain, no doubt with Indeed, the now road and order as exemplified by the much of its old lolsurely charm railway linking" China with massacres in Chpygking is her gone for ever, but alert, mir- Burma, and the recent British unaided work."
Then
The following reply was given in the House of Commons recently in answer to Mr. Paling who enquired whether the Frime Minister had any statement to make regarding the
situation in Chians
2. Mr. Butler: Reports have been re- solved of fighting at Kaffeng, the capital of Honan province, but it in not yet possible to vouch for their accuracy. Otherwise there have been no important changes since the House rose for Easter,
So it is understood that the Inspector. appointed by the Board of Trade ta “Inquire into the affaim of the Chosch But I am not very sure about Seard an interim report on the affairs. Corperation has now sent to the poseful, courageous and richly this torch of culture that has of the company.
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