13 DECEMBER 1963, Page 15

No News I do not think any of us have

really grasped how large are the movements of opinion and attitude which have taken place in the past generation. We notice them only when someone gives them some sort of artinlate expression. A little-noticed example in the past week was the lecture which Dr. John Rock, the Harvard gynecologist and a Roman Catholic, gave to the Family Planning Association. It was not only that he put the case for scientific birth control, which was only to be expected from one of the pioneers of oral contraceptives; nor even, although this was much more significant, that he attempted a restatement of the Roman Catholic view of the biddings of natural law. It was that his views, which a short time ago would have caused a furore, passed without surprise or sen- sation. This lack of reaction, in a field as en- tangled as any with theology, dogma, morals and mere prejudice, confirms me in my belief that a lot of public comment on such questions never really catches up with the vast and inarticulate changes of opinion which have already taken place. We never really realise how much we have changed—in a lifetime.