Sept. 20, Lord Marley probably managed at the Y.M.CA, on Thursday evening, under cover of expound. ing English polities, to deliver himself of a few of the pro-fund ities which would have appeared in his presidential address to the Anti-War Congress if that organisation had been able to convince the authorities that its flow of reason would be good for Shanghai's sensitive soul. In the course of the speech Lord Marley indicated hi belief in a Conservative majority at the next election which he placed at the end of 1934 and his even more comforting evident regret that the Ca munist Party of Great Britain would not come into power in the immediate future. To those who take any interest in British politics the views of one who has lately been in the thick of the struggle are bound to be instructive, If Lord Marley had devoted his speech to an analysis of the' different parliamentary values he could have been sure of rapt attention. It would Seem, however, that he felt im-Pelled to use his advertised topic 4s a peg on which to hang. discursive presentation of his opinions on the merits of systems of Government from © China to Peru. In this vein Shanghai's distinguished visitor does not yet seem to have assimilated one of the chief virtues of this inter-jor rather consideration for the feelings of other nations, Cut.
a duly which eznnot be fes ceted by any journal proing to deal with world affairs. Yet, here in Shanghai, efforts are usually made (not always as successfully as they might be perhaps) to. pass opinions on Governments with a decent regard for International courtesy. For this reason, although' the "North-China Daily News" has made its strong disapproval of aspects. of the Hitler tration's policy, it great tx the lack of restraint ord Marley in finding for expressing his. opinion of the German Government now in power, He was right, of course, disputing the notion that, sticking its head into the sand of the "mind your own. business" desert of boeotianism comprised in Lord Rothermere's we million circulation, British, opinion should affect an ch-like blindness to the meaning of the tragic exodus how proceeding from Germany. Yet reward for the susceptibilities of German—fellow-exiles from the Homeland would surely counsel careful choice of language in dealing with a delicate subject, Lut Lord Barley obviously must not be taken too seriously. In & great measure his address to the Christian Young Men was very much like that of a political sleep-walker. Garnished with the modern jargon of intellectual radicalism and sprinkled with jibes to which the flavour of ok-modesty was occasionally given, it suggested that Lord Marley was engaged in edueating himself. It seems unfortunate that he should feet impelled to conduct the affair in pul To some mind Spectacle of a former mem! the British Administration floundering in the artificialities of a pseudo-revolutionary creed is ludicrously undignified. To others it may become what has been called a cause of stumbling. In sooth Lord Marley's criticism modern democracy ce: tained nothing new. The author of "Oceana" who, incidentally, "lies buried Westminster Abbey next te Sir Walter Raleigh, discovered three hundred years ago that the People "cannot see but can feel."
laps it were better to see in Lord Marley a devout Victorian for it was the Prince Consort ho, unconsciously though, indiscreetly as some think, adopted Harrington's views by saying that "the masses on which popular nent rests only feel and do Others who have tilted thus against Yemocracy have been idney "Smith, Montesquieu, Burke and John Stuart Mill Periaps Thomas Carlyle touched the vital spot. most necurately of all "when. ho. wrote of the famenary system (which Lord Marley" would apparently scrap) that it resulted from that tool-using habit of Man who "collects apparently by lot, six hundred "Rud. fifty-eight, "mies cellaneovs Snividuals, and sure to them, Make this nation tol for ws, bleed for us, hunger and fotvow and sin for us; and they In spite of this a modern prophet, to whose views Lord Marley may perhaps be ready to give heed, is found to declare:
"Democracy "is neither white magic nor black, neither formula of easy salvation nor a sanctimonious fraud. Tt is a tool, which Tike any other tool, is to be Judged by its results, which like any other tool, can be blunted or mishandled till it is flung aside in disgust, but which can be used te correct' inequalities, if the will to correct them, since in fact, on a humble scale, it has
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.