Jubilee.

A correspondent disclaiming all tinges of red and green has presumed to air his self-admittedly colourless vapourisings in your Cockpit. The pot simmers gently as he talks of the private life of George V. Though we can see and hear of the private lives of Henry VIII, we are to know nothing of the private life of George V! But this is admittedly trivial.

The temperature rapidly rises as the indicator registers "patriotism." "The extravagance of the celebrations is not solely and exclusively an index of loyal feeling," he says with the cunning flourish of a wrestler about to turn showman. Very few, I venture to suggest, would claim to measure national sentiment by methods smacking so largely of the £ s. d. taint.

But his crucial objection to the Jubilee is that is diverts attention from economic ills and "liquidates class antipathies."

Imagine a man with a festering sore concentrating continually on his pain, doting on it till he is hypnotised and almost enjoying it. Such must be the morbid earnestness of one who refuses to lift his mind for one brief week from the economic ills that surround him. Far more effective, might I suggest, in curing this condition, far more effective than a continual plaint, would be action not all-time-absorbing but concentrated and organised in brief periods. Admitting perfection as an unattainable goal, must we concentrate for ever on economic problems to the exclusion of any national celebrations?

And as for liquidating class antipathies, it must be obvious that a country like New Zealand has little class antipathy to liquidate. The Marxian idea of class (i.e., rigid castes) has little application in our country, where continually-moving class limits and shifting sectional interests prevent any definite and final division. Of course, while the Capitalist v. Proletariat struggle exists, the structure of conflicting interests is much more complex than this simple device.

Such is the view, Sir, of one who, though also neither red nor green, subscribes himself.

Marina Blue.