The Winnipeg Tribune from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada • Page 6

PAGE 6 A 80UTHAM NEWSPAPER Th Winnipeg Tri june is published at 237 Smith Street, Winnipeg, Manitoba, daily xeapt Sunday by Th Southam Company Limited and Wesley McCurdy. respectively printing and publishing company and a newspaper publisher, each having their rpecciv places of abode at Winnipeg, in the Province of Manitoba, and is also printed it the said address In the City of Winnipeg, Province of Manitoba, by the aid The Southam Company Limited, Authorized as second class matter by th Post Office department, Ottawa, PHILIP S. USHER WESLEY McCURDY President Vice President and Publisher The Big Four and the Assembly ON MONDAY the "Big Four" Council of Foreign Ministers will meet in New York to resume their work where they left off on adjournment in Paris. Their first task will be to consider whether they will accept the recommendations of the 21 nation Paris conference with regard to the draft treaties with the former enemy satellites. In addition, it is recalled, Secretary Byrnes at Paris got a firm under standing that at the New York meeting there would be a beginnning on the very Important matter of the peace treaty with By a coincidence which can hardly be regarded as accidental, delegates from the fifty one members of the United Nations will be, in session a few miles away on Long Island.

The foreign ministers themselves are either delegates to the United Nations Assembly or the directors of those who are delegates. While the work of the Assembly is not so directly linked to that the Foreign Ministers Council as was that of the Paris conference, it is obvious that the proceedings of the Assembly will affect the deliberations of the Big Four in a number of ways. In a nutshell, the job of the. Big Four Council is in due course to turn over to the United Nations a world at peace, while it Is the job of the U.N. to find ways and means and create the instruments to maintain that peace.

There are a number of important questions oh which the Big Four are by means unanimous. This is true of the five "satellite" treaties and possibly to an even Teachers and DR. R. 0. MACFARLANE, energetic superintendent of education for the province, told the Caledonian Society the other evening that the present school curriculum is out of date.

The men who framed it 75 years' ago regarded education as a road, which led to one of the learned professions. Indeed, some of them seem to have felt that if a youth did not intend to become a doctor or clergyman he was rather wasting his time in the classroom and would be far more profit ably employed on the neareststoneboat. Obviously the needs have changed. Without an elementary and at least the beginnings of a high school education the boy or girl looking for a job today is at a decided disadvantage. Mr.

MacFarlane is concerned with keeping these youngsters in school and making sure that they have at least the rudiments of the knowledge and manual skills that will enable them to make their way in life without undue handicaps. He feels that to achieve this there should be a curriculum that would interest each individual student Certainly the curriculum should meet the needs of the times. Such change need rot Involve over emphasis of the purely mechanical arts. Thoughtful educationist today are well aware that the children that come to our schools are not automatons. They know that the schools are not factories turning out machines that are designed merely to drill holes, shape metal or lay bricks.

They know that the schools must provide the concepts and at The Bore Will Be the Same PRIME MINISTER Mackenzie King is credited with making a suggestion when he was in London last April that has now resulted in British Commonwealth and American authorities agreeing in principle to standardize land, sea and air weapons. From a practical standpoint this scorns logical thing to do. British and American military men are sharing secrets today apparently as completely as they did in the midst of the war. America, which includes Canada as well as the United States, was the arsenal of domocracy dur. "ng the recent conflict and in all probability would become one again against any new threat to the democratic way of life.

It would be just as well, therefore, if the funs of those on the bulwarks wer the same calibre as the shells being turned out In the arsenal. However, from the international stand point Pravda and Izvestia will probably point to this move as another indication that the British Commonwealth and the United States have to all Intents and purposes concluded a military alliance, and an offensive one at that. Still, the Soviets long ago adopied the idea of standardiz Ing their small arms with those of the Germans. From the standpoint of the common soldier, however, standardization may not come so easy. It may Involve a surrender ef a considerable chunk of the military man's vocabulary.

Is nor example, going to be a "spanner" or Is it going to be A.W.L or A.W.O.L.? Or will there be nomenclature orientation courses to make the soldiers on both sides militarily bilingual? The standardization program is expect i to take ten years. It will take that, all right greater degree regarding Germany. Bearing this in mind, the proceedings of the Assembly between Oct. 23 and Nov. 1 afford considerable ground for optimism.

The Assembly could easily by this time have become locked in bitter debate on some contentious issue whose repercussious might have had the effect of hardening attitudes in the four man Council Instead, the Assembly decided on Thusday afternoon to refer the whole list of 55 subjects to its various committees. This decision may be taken as evidence of a conciliatory spirit or at least of a com monsense desire to avoid head on collisions at the stage of "first reading." This is sound parliamentary practice. But there was something more. The Russian decision not to block Assembly discussion of the veto was a pleasant surprise to those who may have expected "monolithic" Russian opposition right through the picture. And among several other examples, Field Marshal Smuts' last minute decision against delivering his prepared speech on South African racial discrimination may be cited.

All these questions, we may be sure, will be thoroughly threshed out in due course. Also, the Big Four will doubtless continue to be "tough" on the issues over which they are in disagreement. But the atmosphere at New York seems to be somewhat more favorable to peacemaking than was the case at Paris or London. It is to be hoped that easing of tension which has occurred since Oct. 2.1 will continue.

Curriculum titudes that fit the pupil to take his or her place in a democratic community. It is true that a well balanced curriculum may play a part in holding the interest of the pupil and thus provide an opportunity of supplying these concepts and attitudes. Essentially, however, the pupil's interest is aroused and held by the teacher. Most of us can recall a teacher somewhere in our schooldays who could take a dry as dust subject and make it fascinating, with, the result that we romped through the course and the examinations that followed. The teacher is the mainspring of the school.

We can fiddle with curricula all we want but unless we have good teachers our success in educating the boys and 'girls of the community will be, at best, moderate. Of course the search for good teachers, for teachers capable of making and sustaining contact with their pupils, is as old as education. Indeed, through the centuries it was the search of pupils for such preceptors that made schools. Most of the tinkerings with education in the past century have been directed toward making up the shortcomings of teachers. Here in Manitoba we have hundreds of persons teaching school who are admittedly unqualified to do so.

It seems that as well as bringing the school curriculum up to date we should bend considerable, efforts to finding and training persons who will be able to arouse the latent mental acquisitiveness in students that it at the bottom of successful teaching and enduring education. Herbert Cottingham Retires RETIREMENT of Herbert Cottingham from the chairmanship of the Manitoba Power Commission should not go unmarked by a word of appreciation of the large part he has played in extending the benefits of electric power to many parts of this province. Mr. Cottingham was named to the Commission when it was formed in 1931 and appointed its chairman in 1933. During the past fifteen years he has helped it grow from a struggling enterprise to a thriving public utility.

Under his direction It met the challenge of war in superb fashion, making large quantities of por readily available to military camps and industry throughout the rural area of the province. Today the Commission serves in the neighborhood of 180 towns and villages throughout Manitoba. The rural electrification program to bring electricity to 50,000 farms has been well begun. Mr. Cottingham has played a leading role in the Commission's splendid record of achievement.

Manitoba, particularly rural Manitoba, owes him debt of thanks. Passing Shots The reason some people have a tough time saving for rainy days is that they blow in too much on wet nights. After four or five years of listening to your high school daughters, the most bewildering experience is to meet the schoolteacher in question. The prosecution in Germany moves on to those sad cases, the industrialists who made Hitler's weapons under the winsome impression that they would never be loaded, THE WINNIPEG Cramping i Dying LONDON', When at least a dozen members of Britain's august House of Lords rose in their places in Westminster recently and roundly condemned the government's new White Paper on defense, their collective voices represented what may be the dying gasp of the old concept known as "imperial defense." Chief objection of some of the leading peers of the realm was to that paragraph of the White Paper dealing with defense problems which might, in the event of a future war, face one or another of the nations of the British Commonwealth. This portion of the defense blueprint simply called for the formation of a "defense committee" along the lines of the old Committee on Imperial Defense, but dropping from membership representatives of the dominions.

It was this omission that gave some of the peers ammunition for an assault on the government on the grounds that the paper represented "a retrograde step" in commonwealth defensive arrangements which reached a climax of efficiency during the Second Great War when mutual problems were considered mutually on a common service level It is commonly acknowledged in military circles here that the postwar concept of "imperial defense" agrees in no way with the prewar 'ideas. There isn't, for example, the "thin red line" philosophy so far as it relates to the integration of all forces of commonwealth nations. What is now commonly accepted is the fact of co operation of forces on a zonal basis, for example, the forces of Australia and New Zealand in the Pacific, or those of Canada and the United States in the North American sphere, or, say, those of the Scandinavian nations in their area. This method of thinking has been fostered largely by the last war which was fought in most areas of the world and which outdated virtually all concepts of a single defensive system for such a sprawling entity as the British Commonwealth of Nations. Not that there is any intenetion of giving up the admirable features of interchange of information, officers and technical details that were developed to such a high degree of efficiency during the war.

The recent appointment of Lieut. Gen. Guy Granville Simonds, formerly commander of Second Canadian Corps, as one of the chief instructors here at the, Imperial Defense college, in exchange for the appointment of a high ranking British officer as commandant of the Canadian Staff College in Kingston, illustrates the sort of co operation that will continue and increase. What is envisaged by the White Paper Is the exchange of liaison missions and officers at regular intervals, on a service level, but the discontinuance of the old An Attic HERE Is an alligator story told by Guthrie Burton, wife of the late Richard Burton, author, poet, well known lecturer, and for eight years Professor of English at Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida (in her Informal and charming, autobiography, Three Parts Scotch referring to her ancestry). Mrs.

Burton, a poet in her own right, when living at Winter Park, used often to drive to Wekiwa Springs, and go for a boat ride down the stream where, in the swamps, alligators may be seen, napping on the decayed trunks of trees leaning out over the dark water. "They are shy. creatures," she says, "and they usually splash to cover immediately." Now the story Mrs. Burton telling it: Once a hunter shot a young alligator and blinded the poor thing in one eye. That man mauled alligator is the only one that swims up as far as the boat landing (at Wekiwa Springs) and trusts all the people who gather there.

He is an old fellow now. I was told about him, and hoped to see him. Mrs. Starbuck. at the landing, whose menfolk have the boats, said A CROWD, bUft.

TRIBUNE His Style! S25S! Gasp of Imperial By FRANK SWAN SON method of "imperial whereby the high commissioners of all the dominions in London sat as representatives on the old Committee on Imperial Defence to consider tactical matters. Incidentally, the Canadian High Commissioner at no time during the war sat as a member of this committee, preferring to leave to the chiefs of staff the matter of liaison. Other high commissioners attended. When the framing of this paragraph of the White Paper was being considered by the British government, the matter was referred by courtesy to the dominions. The ofiical Canadian attitide was that there should be no reference to, the matter, leaving the whole thing in the "informal" stage that worked so well during the war.

But because of delay, the Canadian reply not being received in time here, the paragraph was printed in the British government's language over the Canadian government's objection. What the Canadian government was afraid of was that such "liaison" officers might be construed as political rather than military appointments, the crux LONDON This capital, already well supplied with symphony orchestras, now has another brand new one. It Is under the leadership and control of fiery, brilliant unpredictable Sir Thomas Beech am, a passionate enthusiast who has disbursed a sizeable piece of his personal fortune in the interests of music. Beecham's new venture, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (not. to be confused with his former aggregation, the London Philharmonic, or with the more recently formed Philharmonia) has touched off an acrid controversy among London classical music lovers.

By all accounts, it has infuriated the directors of the London Philharmonic, who had hoped to tempt Beecham back as leader of that ensemble. The maestro's critics, who are legion, allege that formation of another new orchestra at this time is totally unwarranted. There are too few first class players, they say, for the symphony orchestras already in existence which include not only those already listed but also the permanent B.B.C. Symphony, the London Symphony, the National Symphony and several other "scratch" groups assembled for specific concerts. As things stand now, many performers appear in two or more of these orchestras; they have contracts with one and play for the other on off nights.

The traditional British practice of substitution, by which a regular player can employ some Salt Shaker she would try to attract him. To my utter amazement she began calling out over the deserted water, 'Bill! Come "Presently there was a tremendous stir in the little river, and the ugly black head, with an eye missing, moved toward the landing. Bill pulled up alongside, put his forefeet oh the lowest landing step, looked expectantly at us and opened his great jaws, never doubling that chunks of bread or fish would be given him. He scared me half to death at our first meeting, but I got so that I could hand him his snack after I had made a few more trips to Wekiwa. Never has he, persuaded a fellow alligator to accompany him in the many years.

wonders how after that cruel shooting he ever got up iiie punk to believe in any man. The good news that Walt Disney is to film Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows cherished tale of and Rat and Badger and that great and intelligent hero, Mr. Toad recalls that it might never have been published but for the arrival, one day, at the English home of Tribune Trumps v.vji. TALKING DOG ALTHOUGH I know it's a sign of old age, the fact remains that it's hard for me to get excited any more. So when the man told me he had a talking dog, I merely asked: "What does it talk about?" This remark annoyed my acquaintance, who replied: "So you don't believe me, eh?" "I merely asked what subjects your dog is interested In," I pointed out.

"Sure. And in just that tone of voice, too. You're one of these wise guys. You think you're pretty clever. Well, let me tell you something "Hold it.

Let's not be hasty about this. After all I had no intention of hurting your feelings, and I'm sure you don't want to hurt mine." Calming down a bit, he said he didn't want to hurt my feelings, but I had hurt his by being "sarcastic" about his dog. I apologized for any unintentional tone of sarcasm which he might have detected in my voice and then asked the waiter to bring two more. "What did you think of that murder trial?" I asked, hoping to change the subject. But he refused to have his attention distracted.

"Do you want to hear this dog of or don't you?" he demanded. "I'd love to hear him "Her." "I'd love to hear her, but it's a bit late for that sort of thing, isn't it? I'm due home for supper at six o'clock." "I've got my car outside. I can take you out to my place and get you home by six o'clock easy." As there seemed to be no way out of it. unless I told him straight that I wasn't a bit interested in talking dogs. I agreed to go along.

When we arrived at his home we or Defense of the whole issue so far as the Canadians were concerned. So far as Britain is concerned and this Is the official attitude of the present government the dominions are free to make their own defensive arrangements, and are not only free to do so, but in fact are encouraged to do so. There is no overriding obligation to the home country. On the other hand, as happened after the invasion of Poland, if Britain declared war on an issue considered by the dominions to be of equal importance to themselves, the dominions would follow suit. And by the same token, if one of the dominions were menaced, there isn't much doubt that Britain would be at warwith the aggressor nation the next day.

But gone forever is the day of a common British defense plan for the whole. What has come to replace It is a communion of thought between the nations of the Commonwealth with the emphasis being switched to the more immediate problems of area defense like that facing Canada and the United States. Beecham's Latest Storm By BASIL DEAN (From The Tribune's London Bureau) one else to appear for him at concerts has already become something of a joke. Conductors are reported by the cynics to be no little astonished when they find they can recognize even a few faces in the orchestra which confronts them. Such criticisms leave Beecham unruffled.

Currently, his royal Philharmonic is playing to packed houses on Sunday afternoons in a movie theatre at suburban Croydon. He points out, with some Justice, that Britons' appetite for Bach, Brahms and Beethoven has never been so keen and, to all appearances, is far from being sated. Although many critics share Beecham's view that in this sellers' market most concertgoers are getting rather, indifferent versions of the great symphonies and concertos, virtually every symphony concert is sold out well in advance. Given adequate talent in the orchestra, Beecham can provide performances that rank with the world's best. His interpretations of Mozart and of any kind of grand opera are commonly accepted as without equal, and while his conducting of Beethoven does not match Toscanini's, it is the best Britons are likely to hear for some time.

Criticism notwithstanding, Beecham's Croydon venture has brought first class music to a community which has never heard it before without travelling to London's West End or' getting it secondhand via radio or phonograph. As for Sir Thomas, controversy is some thing he thrives on. His frequently outrageous comments on London, By W. Orton Tswson the Grahames, of a "lady agent for an American Firm of Publishers," to quote Elspeth Grahame (in First Whisper of The Wind in the Willows first hand account of how tha book of her husband's magic came into being.) The lady agent wanted Grahame to "write something for them on any subject at any price he desired." "Kenneth said he had nothing ready," relates Mrs. Grahame, "and as he 'regarded himself not as a pump, but as a he could not hold out any particular hopes as to when he would have anything to offer.

The lady seeming very disappointed at failing in her mission, I bethought me of the bedtime stories" partly written, with no thought of publication, in the lorm ot letters to his Uttie son who hmi refused to go away to the seaside until his father had promied that further instalments be sent to him in writing. "After some discussion, it was decided that adventures 'of Trad. Mole and Company should go farther afield and be published in America. They arrived thei SATURDAY. NOVEMBER 2.

rather, he was greeted outaide the by a mongrel of medium size and dubious ancestry. Her joy on beholding her master wa displayed in the way she leapt around and wagged her tail "Speak!" commanded her master. "Woof! Woof! Woof!" woofed the dog. that?" saidhe, excitedly. "How.

are you?" "I'm fine, "No. That's what the dog said. 'How are 1 "Did she?" Her owner gave me a disappointed look. "I thought she was just barking." "You weren't listening. 'You've got to listen carefully to get what she says," he told me.

Then he added: "Listen carefully this time." Upon being commanded again to speak, the dog rushed toward the house, barking loudly, then rushed back again. "She says: 'Let's go on her master explained, as he led me up the front walk. On entering I was introduced to the lady of the house, who was just as entranced by the dog's ability to speak as iier husband was. Turning to the dog she said: "Would you like a soup bone?" The dog made no response. "Would you like a soup bone? Would you like a soup bone? Would you like a soup bone?" After listening to the same "question being asked about a dozen times, the dog yelped twice.

"She says: 'No, thanks." That's because she has just had one," explained the dog's mistress. "If she had wanted one she would have said: 'Yes, and run for the kitchen," her master added. This sort of thing went on for some time. One of the questions asked the dog by her mistress was: "Where's Betty Lou? Where's Betty Lou? Where's Betty Lou?" The dog let out a series of yelps. 1 "She says Betty Lou that's my mar tied daughter has gone away," I was told.

"And it's time I was going away my I said, getting to my feet. When I got my hat and coat on, the dog was told to: "Say goodbye to the gentleman. Say goodbye to the gentleman. Say goodbye to the gentleman." After the dog had stopped barking my hostess said: "She says: "Goodbye and come again By the time I got home it was later than usual. "I've been visiting a talking dog." I explained.

"Well, that's at least a new one," as the Little Helpmate's only comment. OVERHEARD ON THE AVENUE "He told her he wasn't good enough for her, 'which was a pretty poor excuse." "And I thought I was and the world in general have made headlines. But he takes music seriously. At the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, he once stopped the orchestra in the middle of the overture to turn around and tell whispering members of the audience to "shut when a Queen's Hall audience outraged his artistic sense by applauding between movements during symphony. Sir Thomas threw his baton down and stomped out.

Opinions I am convinced that future harmony among nations would be greatly increased if all the peoples of the world were given maximum freedom of access to all information, particularly that bearing on International problems and Including controversial matters. James F. Byrnes. If the democratic approach to problems which I believe to be the only hopeful approach for the world is to prevail we must develop a true sense of nejghborli ness. springing from understanding each other's ways of life and habits of thought.

Clement R. Attlee. Schools have got to get into the minds of children of every race and religion a respect for all other groups. Children must know what democracy means, and have the definition not on their lips but in their hearts. William O'Dwyer, but occasioned bitter disappointment.

Where were the children first met with in The Golden Age and their adventures, together with their successors in Dream Daysf Not a trace of them. But in their place: animals, not even but from wild wood, river banks and other obscure and unaccustomed haunts. The impasse between what was. supplied and what was demanded was great and seemed insurmountable. I "Therefore Kenneth asked for the MS.

to be sent back and it was forthwith published in England, and when the head of that American firm saw how the book made its way Into hearts of its English readers he was a sad man, and lived to call his beautiful American country home by Ta4 1111 i 1 a TOW as touching things offered A unto Idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth. 1 Corinthians 8:1..