A SPECTATOR 'S NOTEBOOK
THE new Speaker, Col. Clifton Brown, lacks one desirable, though by no means indispensable, qualification for his high office—com- manding stature. That matters more than might be supposed, for the Speaker's daily procession through the lobby is an impressive little ceremony, and it looks well for the Speaker to hold his head as high as any of his attendants. But there are other things of greater moment than that, and there is general agreement that Col. Clifton Brown will fill the chair with dignity and efficiency, though, as an experienced Member observed, the Speakership in the next Parliament may be a much more exacting office than it is in this, from which all party acrimony is absent. The oldest Members of the House, Mr. Lloyd George and Mr. Lambert, can remember five of the new Speaker's predecessors, and they would agree, I imagine, that the exemplars to follow are, first, Mr. Speaker Peel and, next to him, Mr. Speaker Lowther—still active today as Lord Ullswater. In one respect acceptance of the Speakership involves some sacrifice. The office is eminent, but it is a lonely eminence. The Speaker, by being elevated above his fellow- Members, is to a large extent cut off from them. As he passes through the lobby, Members, instead of accosting, bow to him. He is never seen in the smoking-room. His house is adjacent, and when he is not in the Chamber he is there. A genial and companionable man—such as the new Speaker himself—must find the sense of segregation a little depressing.
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While criticism of the Beveridge scheme on financial grounds is perfectly reasonable, the warmth with which the scheme has been received by leading business men, who are not likely to ignore the business side of the proposals, is significant. One of the first to welcome the plan was Sir Malcolm Stewart, who is chairman of two of the largest concerns in the building industry, Associated Portland Cement and London Brick, and in The Times of last Tuesday principal place was given to a letter which opens by asserting that the feature of the Beveridge Report which has gripped the whole nation is its expression of a moral principle, the principle that no citizen of this country shall be allowed to starve while other citizens have more than enough to avoid starvation, and goes on to the affirmation that "Beveridge has lighted a beacon of faith ; faith in our country, in ourselves and in the triumph of what is good over evil." If it be asked, as it reasonably may be, whence this quixotic idealism emanates, the answer is that the writer of the letter, Sir Walter Benton Jones, is chairman and managing director of United Steel, a director of the Westminster Bank, Stewarts and Lloyds, Stanton Ironworks and various other Important concerns, and a vice-president of the Mining Association of Great Britain. If cement and bricks are not among the principal export industries, steel and coal unquestionably are.
* * * * Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek has faith in the pen no less than in the sword—or the machine-gun. A Chungking correspondent sends the Manchester Guardian an interesting summary of a book by the Generalissimo which is being published this week in a first edition of soo,000. That the Chinese leader can find time in the course of a six-years' war to write a volume of national importance may seem surprising, but he obviously thinks the book an essential
constituent both of victory and of reconstruction, consisting as it does of a political and philosophical guide to the nation, and emphasising the necessity for China to shape her own destiny and not content herself with copying either Europe or America. The volume is described as China's political Bible, and it will be studied in all the schools. Comparison, in some superficial respects, with Mein Kamp/ is inevitable, but it is more likely, in fact, to be contrast
—between enlightenment and the blind brutality of crude force. * * * *
Discussions of the effect of the war on morals ought clearly not to be confined to questions of sex. That is a subject which stands by itself, and I am not concerned with it here. But the growth of dishonesty would seem, from all I hear, to be serious. Just after being told of the regularity with which consignments of a certain foodstuff sent by rail arrive at theii destination 20 per cent. or more short (which I found it difficult to believe), I opened a daily paper and read that "Police and Food Ministry detectives are trying to trace huge quantities of rationed food which have disappeared from emergency depots in all parts of the country. . . . Thousands of pounds' worth have vanished while in transit on the railways." The subject, I may add, arose in the course of a conversation devoted to reports of petty pilfering in all sorts of different quarters. One successful theft of luggage that came to my notice was effected very simply. The marauder made his way through the train between Liverpool and London, and when he found the luggage-van un- tenanted, cut the labels from some suitcases, substituted others of his own (not, I should have thought, a necessary precaution), and. presenting himself promptly at the van door at the terminus, claimed his booty and had it well away in a taxi before its real owner appeared. It is depressing that the Church and the law between
them can do so little to check this kind of depreciation in national morals.
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The Archbishop of Canterbury's "Six-point post-war programme " on "The Full Development of Individual Responsibility" has not, I think, so far been promulgated in this country. I find it in the American magazine, The New Yorker, and, what may seem a little strange, in the advertisement pages of that widely-circulated and not conspicuously ecclesiastical journal. They occur, moreover, in an advertisement inserted not by any religious nor even any pro- gressive (in the idealistic sense) organisation, but by that entirely realistic and hard-headed business concern, Pan-American Airways. Whence this outcrop of idealism? Has Dr. Buchman joined the board? Not at all, just sound commercial acumen. Dr. Temple has his say—a very good say, too. Then Pan-American Airways has its turn. Thus: Never before in the world's history has the "brotherhood of man" been so close to reality as it is today. For, the instant we win this war, all geographical barriers will disappear. London and Paris will be ten hours from New York— Chungking, China, twenty hours from San Francisco.
And this travel will not be just for the well-to-dm Pan American's knowledge of technological improvements (based on more than 120,000,000 miles of overseas flight) indicates that air-travel cos.: will be brought within reach of the average man and woman.
And so on. To put it briefly, Christianity is good for Clippers
Alternatively, Clippers are good for Christianity. paws.
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