HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1929-12-19, Page 2R.eduction of Land Forces
league of Nations Writer Contends that "A 2 Percent o£
Population" is All Army Necessary
4 writer in an F,nglieh review would be the armed allotnneut for a
bandl,ea the que.,tion 01 the reduction eountry'e 'foreign pgpsesalons and
at land forges in an original manner Weld !trance b0 altogether pleimed
rwbioh even if it 1e not immediately with en arrangement 'which would
practical expresses an, idea] winch ie give her late enemy even 40,000 More
worth eteariug for, Meows than she possessed?
This student takes the stand that 'Whilst these and other obstacles
the eXisteuce of huge standing armiea would have to be faced the writer
fe one of the chief causes of war. and deals in a forceful way with what.
that until those armies are materially Must' eventually be the basis of the
redaoedthere is little hope of penman- raving/en of land forces. The, idea pf
ant peace, He argues that all nations eggreaeion and the idea of defeuoe
need a small etandiug army and an against invasion must both be banish-
eiflcient but limited militia, "Mote, ed in intornatioua] polity if perman-
general strikes, organized crime and ent peaoe is to be secured, Aggres-
rebellion are still realities which mast cion is becoming less and less a pos-
be faced and it would be pure insanity sibihty as the interdependence of
to depend on moral persuasion to stated increasesbutthe bogey of de -
deal with such eventualities. But it fence against invasion still looms
certainly doesn't need an army of 2,- large,
000,000 men out of a population of 40,. It might be contended that there
000,000 to maintain internal peace." 'co»ld'be no defence necessary if there
He then goes on to contend that an was no aggression but the present
army based on two per cent. of a coon- point of view of some nations appears
try's population would be ample for to be that while they would not dream
all internal protection. Everything of making war on other states they
above such a figure be claims is ab- must maintain big armies to protect
olutely unnecessary and is an Moen- themselves from some malignant but
tive to military competition. If this unstated enemy:
figuring was literally applied it would In the meantime it is gratifying to
give France an army of 80,000, Great note •that leading journals 'are tack
Britain one of the same figure, Ger- ling, the great problems of peace and
many 120,000, the United States 240,- war with more directness and more
000, and so on according to popula- sincerity than at any time is history.
tion. Such publicity is of immense value to
The proposition sounds at first fair- the League of Nations and all other
ly feasible but on examination many agencies winch are helping to wage
difficulties arise. What for instance, • the groat war against war.
e—
• :abolish child marriage is bound to
have:
"The Sarda bill will obliterate the
India's Curse worst of the Miss Mayo evils in India,
e India's
I i immensely enhanc
Will��1' �y �j� It will y
Be 8 o More prestige in the eyes of all 'civilized na-
tions. It will, beyond doubt, add a
An Indian View of the New good deal to the national efficiency of
Inns. In ain will r
and We Trust, Enforceable visiondiaof otherte trr aspects 0?
come marriageae-
Legislation Makes Cheer- legislation and all remnants of sex
ful Reading dominance wil have to be replaced by
comradeship of the two sexes. The
Child Wives
NO MORE "SLAVES" girls rescued from too early marriage
will not be merely wasting time. They
The horrible era of India's "Slaves will equip themselves for a fuller life,
of the Gods; as Katherine Mayo has and their influence is bound to be felt
called child wives, is brought to an in social political and cultural fields."
end with the passage of a bill penakiz- How indignantly the orthodox lain-
ing marriage for girls under fourteen due regard the new legislation may
and boys under sixteen, If the law is be gathered from the report that
vigorously enforced, say its support- meetings of protest against it are be-
ers, it will "make for a healthier hap- ing belt] all over the country. These
pier India." An audacious step has orthodox Hindus maintain that child
been taken, according to some Indian marriage is enjoined by their, religion.
writers, but it means the beginning So they regard the new law as "in -
of anew age in social reform. The pringing the elementary rights and
law will soon take effect, we are told, privileges of a large section his Inl-
and meanwhile it is being anatbe- portal Majesty's Indian subjects."
matized by old-fashioned people who Resolutions condemning the action of
regard it as an unwarranted interfer- the Indian Legielative Assembly were
ante with religion and custom. While passed at a meeting at Tinnevelly in
some British and Indians in the coup- southern India, which are recorded in
try congratulate the Government of the Madras Hindu:
Delia for throwing its weight on tbe "This public meeting holds that
right side of the argument, other In- marriage is a religious samskara (ob-
diens deplore the Government's ea- ligation or institution) for the Dwijas
tions in giving their whole -hearted (the twice -born or the three higher
support to "80 wanton an outrage 011 oasts, the Brahmans, Kshatriyas, and
Hindu as well as Moslem feeling." Vaishyas); that it should, therefore,
These discordant views echo and re- continue to be performed according to
echo in both Indianedited and British the spiritual` texts; that no temporal
edited journals. The enthusiasm of legislative body of the State is com-
the reformers is reflected in The Peo- patent to make innovations in the said
Me (Lahore), whose observations are Samskara; that the Sarda marriage
here presented in a slightly condensed bill is a direct violation of the religi-
form: ons and the spiritual conception of
"The social reformer has reason to the marriage dharma (religion) of the
rejoice over the work of the Indian Dwijas; and that it should, therefore,
Legislative Assembly just concluded .be opposed by all legitimate and
at Simla. The Sarda 12111 to abolish peaceful means."
child marriage is perhaps of greater The orthodox among the Moslems
importance than all previous social- also regard the measure as an unwae-
reform Iegto tier. The passage of ranted "intrusion upon the customary is 'captiv,' 'will'
the bill by sixty-seven votes against law" applicable io them. Authorities
Surely We Can Take Exception to the Term "Sport"
A PICTURESQUE ?RAGE DY OF THE NORTHLAND
Photograph here slows bag of deer taken in the UP pet Ottawa River Valley,, near
fellows, no doubt, but many disagree tiviththeir viewpo int.
•
Poet Laureate
finishes Strang
Writes 190 Page Poem on
85th 'Birthday
England may .be enjoying the last
of her Poets Laureate. Rumor has it
that Mr. MacDonald will appoint. no
successor to Robert Bridges, should
his Government outlive the Net, Mr.
Bridges has found no inspiration in
the births, marriages arra deaths of
royalty, the recognition of which was
the designed function of the office,
and was scrnpulouely observed at
least by Alfred Tennyson, Dr.
Bridge's omissions may, however, be
counted a minor offense .in view of his
Iatest activity. "There Will be both
savagery and war in the world of
poetry," says the London Daily Ex-
press, "and the strike will be encour-
aged by none other than Dr. Robert
Bridges, the Poet Laureate, the singer
with the Trappist Muse," For with-
out benefit of committee to support
him, he bas reopened the question of
reformed English spellinge and given
ther," 'steadfast' is 'stedfast! This
new spelling irritates and jars like too
rittlOh pepper in a plate .of'eoup,
Dr, Bridges, however, has achieved
le great work. There are lines which;
will go into any dictionary of quota-
tions. "Sang his throbbing passion to
immortal sleep' is perlect. • '
"'That where they is any savagery
ther wit be e'er' is merely pen•piding
at a platitude.
"Has Dr. Bridges written a master-
piece or started a crusade? It is For
him to explain,"
Stanley Bruce
Melbourne Argus: Mr. Bruce stands submitted by Balmer Norlly, vice -
before Australia a' beaten man,leader chairman of the Executive Commit-
of a beaten party beaten by cam- tae, at the anima meeting at the
pound of self,opinionated folly and Council here recently. graduates
self-interest. "Who breaks, pays," Included among these gr
has never been truer than it will be were 40 who after leaving Canadian
of those who have sacrificed the plain universities went to live in other
vision of obvious facts to the chimera countries. They were brought back
of hopeless expectations. Fallen from to Canada and placed in positions
his great position, cast out of Perlia- here. Forty young engineers from
the British Isles were ale() placed in
Canadian positions,
Encouraged by the success attain-
ed to date members of the Technical
Service Council unanimously decided
The Daily Express its cue in writing the victory. He leaves behind him a,to continue and enlarge the scope of
... i • efforts, The council was organ:
0 or the
South Africa Has From Labrador
Few,Advantages
'Missionary Doctor !+'nits
Little to Compare
With Canada
,goath Africa le not a country, a Can-
adian would like, according to Dr,
:!Llan B. Taylor, attaehod to a mission-
ary hospital at Durban, South Africa,
Who le home on a year's furlough,
The people seemed to be affected by
the climate, he pointed,out, and some
went native. They tried to bring' out
Brititii soldiers after the war and Set-
tle them, but the climate got them and
the practice was discontinued. Now a
man is told he mtfst have $16,000 if he
comes to Sauth Africa. If be has that,
DI, Taylor pointed out, he could tlo just
as well with it in the other dominions,
The drought is a terrible thing, and,
four Or five years of it in a row, will
clean a man out. L' he has the cash
and stamina to hold out, he will recoup
the losses, Dr. Taylor said, but many
,get discouraged and move away.
LACK OF TRANSPORTATION.
Transportation as far as roads are
concerned is far behind. Canada.
Fanners seem unwilling to give their
land for . a right of way; and the Gov-
ernment cannot afford to buy the road -
Pembroke, Ont. All good- way, and so no, through motor high-
ways exist in the inose sparsely settled
districts. There are no :concession
roads there, for the people pay no land
Graduates tax add got the land: originally for.
Many Graduates nothing,' hence their ability to hang on
to huge, aeeas. And the farmer as yet
Work in Canada can. see no reason why a road through
his property would do hine any good.
Technical Service Council' Dr. Taylor refutes the statements
Reports • Success at t alto! be African railways were • su-'
Annual Meeting p'"We have about five good trains out
Toronto—Three hundred and forty there for American :tourists and the
South Africans never see the inside of
Canadians, most of them graduates them" he said. "The rest of them
of ing the year
were placed cannot compare with yours.. I have
during the year with Canadian mann- heard people say that they do not like
lecturing concerns and other bug—your open sleepers; they are used to
nese establishments ('Y the Technical compartments, but that is a natter of
Service Couneil, according to. reports taste. In South' Africa, husbands and
wives have to separate at night, all
the ladies going in a compartment for
ladies, where four or five sleep to-
gether, and all the nren do likewise.
There is no privacy in that, and in my
opinion the Canadian system is much
bette
WONDERFUL HOTELS.-
ment -itself, Mr. Bruce shines more
brightly in his determined and self-
less following of the path of duty and
the nation's true development than
• any of those who are now celebrating
"That where the! is and savagery" magnificent record of service and of tl,ei
they evil be war,": ciytevement but nothing to his cat -zed less than two gears ag f
"Dr, Bridges .published recently,
on bis eighty-fifth birthday, 'The Tes-
tament of Beauty' (Oxford 17niversitY
Press) a poem of 190 pages dedi-
cated to the King, a monumental work
in which are passages of great power
and sheer beauty. The book is a
poetic revolution, the foundation of a
new spelling which experts believe
may revolutionize literature.
"The Laureate, silent so long, has
exploded a bomb under English litera-
ture.
The poem is startling. At times it
rivals Wordsworth in sugary situ-
privity sometimes It le as abstruse and
tortured as Browning at his' worst,
again there are passages of such
sweet truth that the reader draws his
breath,
"But all through the poem, as if his
pen were a lancet, Dr, Bridges has
placed the language on the operating
table and cut and carved at the spell-
ing,
"The idiom is
ent letters go
pseudo-phonetie. Sit -
by the bond, 'Captive'
'there' Is
fourteen inaugurates a new epoch in on the Sberiat (Islamic law) erred
soctal reform in this country. themselves hoarse, but without ef-
"It is said by critics the bill was fect. Finding opposition of no avail,
passed with the aid of official and Sir Abdul Qayum, a Moslem member
European votes. The fact Is it would ' of the Indian Legislative Assembly,
lave been passed much earlier it declared tbat "various discordant
European and official votes had not parties' in the Legislature had col -
obstructed its passage. On the pre- laborated to secure its passage. That
tent occasion the bill would certainly remark is taken as a text by the am -
have been accepted by the Assembly tish-owned and British -edited Madras
even if officials bad kept aside. Mail for an editorial pointing out the
"The threat had been held out that danger of such tactics. To quote:
18 the assembly passed tbe bill the
Moslem members would walk out in
protest. The threat was made good,
but resulted merely in a feeble de-
monstration by no more than half a
dozen Assembly Mussuimans. The
number of Moslems who voted for the
bill liras much greater than that of the
walkers -out, though not greater than
those voting against it. r.onmunal bias, Members of each
"Now there can be little doubt that community were to be found in each
the passage of the bill does hurt the divieicn tabby various communities
religions susceptibilities of some 1280- were represented among the "ayes'
ple. Rightly or wrongly they under- and the _tee
stand some ancient texts to enjoin "'Democracy is notorionely fickle,
child marriage or to :oterdlet legisla-i and democracy needs often to be
lion. against it. But a text can be
"It must be conceded that in differ-
ent conditions the collaboration which
has made the passage of the Sarda
bill possible may be employed to
wreck like measures, or to impose
rules and methods of life and conduct
repugnant to the religion of important
communities, Fortunately the voting
cn the Sarda bill revealed no class or
Found against every good thing,
against teaching the Darwinian
theory. There meet be a limit be-
yond which the most ancient texts
can not be respected.
"Lives of women and children are
more sacred than absurd injunctions
contained in texts. Nobody objects to
tome people clinging to the most pre-
posterous' of texts and tenets it the
effects ..are confined to these people
ihemselvee, But the nation can not
be exposed to dysgenic influences and
to all sorte of physical maladies out
of regard for the redone of these pea
pie. The greatest triumph of the Sal''
• da bill 10 to establish once ter all that
Marriage laws are not above secular
interfel'enee."
The People's editorial writer thus
gage:; the effect that the legislation to
saved from itself by the application
of the brake of caution. Sir Abdul
Qayum appreciated the danger of
joint majorities, If he lie able to
communicate his fear to those en-
trusted with the framing of India's
future constitution, we may be spared
the worst dangers of nth majorities,
and assured that every attack on ons -
tom and social habit shall be as fully
considered, nil as elaborately discuss-
ed as the raieing of the age of mar;
riage bas been, Wel may, too, see a
little more kindly eonslderat-on show
to 'those defenders of orthodoxy who
are as sincere in their beliefs as the
Most ardent of reformerr."
Mr. Borley—"l passed by Your place
yesterday" Mr. Busimam—"I'm glad
You did,"
is
a ur lose of keeping Canadian univer-
eer has more .become him than his. p 1
cheerful and unfaltering courage in sities graduates 'in Canada ,and to
facing facts and presenting them to bring t]'01 universities into closer
ears however unwilling. "Hail and touch with Canadian industrial, finan-
farewell," is all that can now be said • tial and transportation conditions.
to him. He Is down, but he is right; I Amoug organizations ca•operating
and, being right, he and his cause with the council are those represent-
ing manufacturing ,banking, trans -
shall rise again_ ! portation, mining, departmental
Square Deals at Round Tables stores, engineering concerns,' trust
Hong Kong Weekly Press: (Stn .
companies and other institutions.
Robert Ho Tung has appealed to' The council reported that mann
Chiang Hai Shek, Yen Hsi Shan, Feng ` withCaehs an industries employed men
Yu Hsiang, and Chang Iisueh Liang' with specialized training for the first
to discuss their differences at a round.' time during the year, and that a very
small percentage et this year's gra-
table conference). We fear there l
little foundation for Sir Robert Ho
Tung's optimism concerning a round-
table settlement of the differences be-
tween the Big Four men, who appear
to have nothing in common but mutual
duating classes in science from Can,
adian universities have.. been obliged
to leave Canada to find positions..
Sobriety and Prohibition
dislike and jealousy. The alternative Calcutta Englishman: Scarcely less
is not necessarily war—at--least not on significant than the recentgrowth of
a really serious scale. There are illicit drinking in the 'United States
other ways of patching -up differences, is the change that has come over the
and China may—we earnestly hope social habits of England In the last
will—be spared another disruptive fifteen years, during which period
outbreak of civil war. True, such a there has been a decline of 50 per
settlement will leave the real cause of ' cent. in the national consumption of
the trouble precisely where it was be- beer and spirits. . , . The change
fore. Until the armies are brought 1 is particularly noticeable to the Eng-
completely wirercivil control, the un- Lishman who, after years abroad, re -
happy people of China appear doomed Iturns home on leave; he is at once
to be helpless pawns inthe hands of struck with the almost complete ab -
rival War Lords. But how those with- Isence of drunkenness in the streets,
out power are to wrest authority from , which used to be a familiar Saturday
those who have force at their coin- night feature of industrial towns in
mend is a problem as yet unsolved.
To St. Andrews'
Some Greefellism5 Given et
His inauguration at St.'
Andrews
Sir Wilfred Grenfell, who followd •
Barrie, Kipling, and Nausea. es Rector
Of St. Andrews •University, delivrtved
his inaugural oration recently, and by •
took 81, Andrew bims]f as bis theme,
Here, are some of the striking things
Sir Wilfred said, taken, from tbo •
"Glasgow Helga" report-af hie Wi-
dnes:
"This natural world is unnatural
enough not to run on logic, but on.
emotions. What would the world Ire
like if life were run on the absurd
timely of the mathematician that two,
phos two always makes four? All the
world's noblest deeds have been based
on emotions, else why our Cenotaph
to the willing dead?
"It annoys us to think that sorra:'
minds must differ from ours, as ,did
the Pope from, Martin' Luther or
Charles the First; from Oliver Crom-
well. The world' is slowly learning.
that because two men think different-
ly neither need be wicked."
"Three previous Rectors have ex-
tolled Courage, Independence, and
Venture. All these are certainly 1e-
quired'if we are to honor our Patron .
in more than wards. For we, even in
1929, are forced to walk seeing 'as in
a glass darkly,' by 'faith, hot by vision,;
until by experience each one eball
make that faith into knowledge, and
so let it 'vanish away'
"What experience has taught me .is •
that this faith, is nothing but reason
grown courageous.
"And 2 am convinced that when a
man has the courae to say 'I will' or
'I will not' among his comrades be
has gained a greater essential of the•
education which it needed to make
him of greater value to the world and
himself, than .ifhe knew more current
science than most men could ever
hope fol."
"At the close of a clinic in North
Labrador on board the hospital steam-
er some twenty-five years ago, a teller
lad of nineteen cail1e aboard. No, he
did not want any medicine. What he
wanted was 'learning,' of which he
had none whatever. He would give
ten hours a day cerpenter'e work for=
one hour a day of teaobiug.
"Two years ago we opened a large
modern, fireproof hospital, built of
reinforced concrete and steel, central-
ly heated electric lit, with modern
plumbing, and every possible equip-
ment from a fine laboratory with
radium, x-rays and solarium downward.
That boy and his Labrador assistants
built every bit of it without aid from
outside."
"Tho dictionary says civilization:
means an organized' community re-
duced to order, War is the negation
of real civilization."
"Is there not a suspicion of im-
modest infallibility in our dubbing as
either fool or liar so eminent an ob-
server of physical facts as Sir Oliver
Lodge in so exact a science as mathe-
matics, because our eye cannot see
what hie eye has seen, though we
must admit that his thinking machine
has 'seen' many other truths which
ours will never be able to discern?
"Surely revelation ie not a substi-
tute for slackness, either of thought
or of work. . . .
"What would the game of life be in
a world where all the sport was com-
mercialized, and all the indiyiduality
which saves life frombeing a sordid
tragedy instead of a glorious field of
boner clean gone out of it?"
"Saint Andrew was an average man,
a lovable, impulsive man, a man who
never knew when he was slighted, and
was always loyal—to thee last ditch;
a man strong in body, capable in:
'business'; of controlled will a man,.
who with all our capacities for fear,.
for suffering, and for failure; made
himself a' world benefactor through
all the ages by his sublime faith, Ile
was a man who realized the import-
ance of each cog in the wheel, and so-•
threw all he was and had into life. '
"Yet he was a man who was per-
fectly content to be designated as
'Simon .Peter's brother,' just because,
his ideal was to be everybody's broth-
er. Shall we laugh at him? Shall we•
merely acclaim him? Or shall eve fol-
low him?"
"Your hotels are wonderful compar-
ed to ours. Very few have -baths at-
tached to the rooms.
"Mrs. Taylor, who came Pram Cob-
den, Ont., originally, said that she ad-
mired the Canadian lighting fixtures.
You have such pretty lamps here. If
we haw one in the house we think
1t 1s a luxury, and that is all we can.
Afford. We pay more than $10 a
month for the electric lights in our
house.
"Screens, too, which everybody has
kn
here, are not'own out where we are.
We just have to put up with insects,
because we have no screens to keep
them out."
Die Taylor -admits he does not like
the .country much but so wrapped up
'n his work is he, that he proposes to
return for another eight years and con-
cedes that he may possibly end his
days cut there.
Speaking of the political situation,
he believes that Herzog has cut into
the Dutch -supporters of Smuts for he
seems to have many behind him who
in theold days were back of the Botha -
Smuts party. .
Of Herzog he said: "They used to
say there were two premiers in South
Africa—Herzog and the last man he
talked to."
Len' "So Your engagement to Eva
is off, And I thought she doted on
you." "Yes, she did. But her father
proved to bean antidote."
the days gone by. Recently publish-
ed statistics are illuminating in this
respect; whereas in 1918 the number
of convictions for drunkenness in
England and Wales was 172,180, the
figure had fallen to 55,841 in 1928.
ONg LADY 'EXHIBITOR ARRIVES FOR .00G SHOW
Miss Taylor arrivee. at Crystal Palacio, London, With her 'cheek dog for Metropolitan and !laser Canine
Society's OhampionebIP 5'12018.
Australian Work in the
Antarctic
Cape Argus: The task of the Dis-
covery in gathering knowledge which
may prevent the extermination of the.
whale is of world-wide importance.
Norwegian whalermen, who have of-
ten steamed into new seas during
their .hunts, declare that the vast
waters of the Antarctic contain . so
many whales that there le no fear of
the industry dying. They liken their
floating factories to little shooting -
boxes in an enormous forest teeming
with game. Sir Douglas Mawson and
other scientists do not share this
view. The ways of the whale are so
little known, in any case, that definite
information may be worth millions of
Pounds,
(Since this was written the Die-
oovery was destroyed by a gasoline
explosion and her captain 'burned to
death, Sir Douglas Manson escaped
injury but lost the complete equip-
ment of the expedition,—Ed,)
Signing. the Optional Clause
Bombay Times of India: Scenes of
great jubilation followed the signing
of the Optional Clause by, Britain and
associated members of the Empire,
There were "talkie" cameras—one of
tbe disadvantages of postponing the
event so long. Moreover, guns were
fired. This, of course, is the Geneva
idea of converting swords into plow-
eharee. The practice is well known in
India, and so long as everyone has
ample warningfew object. The firing.
of guns in peace time is no worse
Than submitting to a flash-Iight photo-
graph before the hors-d'oevr'e.
Mrs. Flatbush---"'Where Have you
been tilt this late hour?" Mr. Flat -
bush --,"To the lecture Ice 2 told you
before I went." Mrs. Flatbush—"Hut
you couldn't be at a lecture as late as
this:" Mr, Piatbueh-"0b, yes, I
e0u3d. You see, tbe lecturer stutter'
ed."
The Gift -Horse
Trinidad Guardian: Vast State
schemes, inolving raids on national
savings, havealways taken a fore-
front in Socialist programs. Now, be-
cause Mr. MaeDouald''s Government
has arrived in office with Treasury
Tivances heavily mortgaged—and the
public will have nothing to do with a
capital' levy—they appear to have hit
on\the ingenious expedient of raising'
loans from indulgent capitalists for .'
showy works such as the Port-of-Spain
harbor program. Instead of acapitai
levy, our money is to be coaxed from.
ria by State "Share -pushers," The
amazing thing is that many of the us -
wally conservative Trinidad capitalists
appear to have fallen for it. Instead
of looking the Socialist "gift -horse"
In the mouth, they have been deceived
by the trappings. -
Little Vera had been behaving bad-
ly, and her nurse got •more and more
annoyed, ,Sudden', the child had nII
inspiration. "0111" she cried, '.'now
1 know what a Ited Cross nurse it°.° •