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Vol. 72, No. 7 JULY/AUGUST 1967

CONTENTS EDITORIAL 3 HUMANISM AND SOCIAL WORK . 4 by Richard Cements, 0.B.E. RECIPROCAL ATTITUDES OF NORTH AND SOUTH IN ENGLAND . 7 by Prof. T. H. Pear NEW ETHICAL PROBLEMS IN MEDICINE 10 by Dr. D. Stark Murray WAR AS AN INDUSTRY . 13 by Prof. Hyman Levy ADEN AND THE YEMEN . 15 by Lord Sorensen BOOK REVIEWS: PARLIAMENTARY GOD GUARANTEE . 18 by Rona Gerber POLITICAL SANCTUARY 19 by Barbara Smoker FROM THE SECRETARY 20 To THE EDITOR 21 WHAT'S HAPPENED? 21 SOUTH PLACE NEWS 22

Published by SO_ MICE ETHICAL OC)gIETT Conway Hall Humanist Centre Red Lion Square, London, WCI SOUTH PLACE ETHICAL SOCIETY

OFFICERS: Secretary: Mr. H. G. Knight Hall Manager and Lettings Secretary: Miss E. Palmer Hon. Registrar: Miss E. Palmer Hon. Treasurer: Mr. W. Bynner Editor, "The Ethical Record": Miss Barbara Smoker Address: Conway Hall Humanist Centre, Red Lion Square, London, W.C.1 (Tel.: CHAncery 8032)

SUNDAY MORNING MEETINGS, 11a.m. July 2—Prof. T. H. PEAR A Psychologist's Views on Debates Baritone solos: Norman liodgkinson July 9—RICHARD CLEMENTS, O.B.E. Joseph McCabe (Centenary Lecture) Soprano solos: Olive Shaw July 16—H. J. BLACKHAM Is Virtue Out of Date? Bass solos: G. C. Dowman July 23—SAUL CROWN Euthanasia Piano solos: Joyce Langly

SUNDAY MORNING MEETINGS are then suspended until October 1, 1967 at 11 a.m.

S.P.E.S. ANNUAL REUNION Sunday, September 24th, 1967, 3 p.m. in the LARGE HALL at CONWAY HUMANIST CENTRE Informal meeting of members and friends (3 p.m.) Programme of Music (3.30 p.m.) and Speeches by leaders of Humanist organisations Buffet Tea (5 p.m.) Tickets free from the General Secretary

CONWAY MEMORIAL LECTURE: Tuesday, October 3, 1967, at 7.30 p.m. MARGHANITA LASKI: The Secular Responsibility (see page 23) CONWAY DISCUSSIONS will resume on Tuesdays at 6.30 p.m. from October 10, 1967 The 77th season of SOUTH PLACE SUNDAY CONCERTS will open on October 1, 1967, at 6.30 p.m. HUMANIST WEEK: October 21-29, 1967

The Objects of the Society are the study and dissemination of ethical principles and the cultivation of rational religious sentiment. Any person in sympathy with these objects is cordially invited to become a Member (minimum annual subscription 12s. 6d.). A membership application form will be found on the back cover.

The Ethical Record is posted free to members. The annual charge to subscribers is 8s. Matter for publication in the Septernber issue should reach the Editor, Miss Barbara Smoker, 6 Stanstcad Grove, S.E.6. by August 5. THE ETHICAL RECORD (Formerly 'The Monthly Record') vol. 72. No. 7 JULY/AUGUST 1967

The views expressed in this journal are not necessarily those of the Society

EDITORIAL THANKS chiefly to the "hot line" between Washington and Moscow and the determination of those on either end of it not to be drawn into the "holy war" between Judaism and Islam, the fighting was all over within a week—but to the thousands killed, injured, or bereaved, it was no minor incident. And it was thanks to the same two great powers plus two other (somewhat less great) powers, France and Britain, that there were any arms for either side to fight with at all. It is said that almost every single person killed or injured, on either side, had got a bit of British hardware inside him (or her); and one of the holy causes for which these lives were sacrificed was the solution of the British balance- of-payments problem. The article in this issue by Professor Levy—though written before that war broke out and though dealing more directly with the other, far from brief, conflict further east—is very pertinent to the Middle East hostilities, since it exposes this obscene export trade. One of the official appointments created by the present British Government on attaining office was, alongside a Minister of Disarmament, an Arms Salesman—the two of them playing the complementary roles of angel and devil, to keep, the powers of good and evil finely balanced. So much for the Party of Peace! The embargo piously announced during the actual fighting was lifted again as soon as thc shooting stopped, so that the ammunition used and equipment destroyed could be replaced without delay. Weapons for all! Buy British! But the supply of armaments is only half the battle. The other half is political tension, and this has never been absent from Israel's fron- tiers since they were first drawn on the map. The ireally important part of the war is still to come: the peace settlement. This requires generosity on the part of the victorious Israelis, realism on the part of the defeated Arabs, wisdom on the part of the great powers and the U.N., and general recognition that there is right on both sides. If, in return for Arab acceptance of Israel as a nation, the Palestinian refugees were given political rights, material compensation, and a decent home—the potentially fertile west bank of the Jordan?—with the benefit of Israeli technical know-how to realise its potential, and if, with international !financial aid, Israel were also to help her various neighbours to bring about the scientific miracle of making the desert bloom, the Hundred Hours' War might prove to be one of the very few wars in bistory to achieve anything positive, and (Jehovah/Allah willing) there could be stability and a lasting peace in the Middle East in our time. 3 Humanism and Social Work

BY RICHARD CLEMENTS Vicroa HuGo wrote that "there is nothing more powerful than an idea when its time has come". Certainly one of the ideas that has come into its own in the twentieth century is social work. By this term is now meant the conscious efforts •of individuals, groups, voluntary organisations and statutory agencies, to secure for all citizens freedom, security •and other rights which will enable them to live a creative and happy life. This concept underlies today the policy and work of the group of nations in the western world, as well as those to be found elsewhere, which now describe themselves as welfare states. And it seems likely, in spite of the irrational opposition of a reactionary minority, that such states will become the predominant type of government in the modern world. The Pioneers This is a development of great interest to everyone who strives for the peaceful progress of all nations. For our own country it has been one element in the conscious and tireless efforts to civilise our way of life. Amongst the men and women who played pioneering roles in this chapter of our history, may be mentioned Robert Owen, Francis Place, George Jacob Holyoake, 'Elizabeth Fry, Florence Nightingale, Sidney and Beatrice Webb, Charles Booth and Seebohm Rowntree. The names of many notable freesthinkers and humanists are found associated with this group of social pathfinders. Liberal-minded men in the Churches and religious organisations also played their part in social movements, e.g. Charles Kingsley, Frederick 'Maurice and many enlightened Unitarians, Quakers and Free Churchmen. The nineteenth century thus witnessed the birth of new ideas and the awakening of the public conscience on intellectual, social and ethical questions. 1ts great thinkers and writers, such men as Carlyle, Ruskin, Bentham, Mill, Marx, Green, Hobhouse, Dicey and others, contributed to a new conception of human society and man's place in it. They injected a richer content and meaning into both social theory and action. Sir George Trevelyan has admirably described this aspect of life in the Victorian age: It was the age of Trade Unions, Co -operative and Benefit Societies, Leagues, Boards, Commissions. Committees for every conceivable purpose o,f philan- thropy and culture. Not even the dumb animals were left without organised protection. The nineteenth century rivalled the Middle Ages in its power to create fresh forms of corporate and institutional life, while yielding little to the eighteenth century in the spirit of self-help and personal initiative. The list of great men whom the nineteenth century produced is often repeated; the list of new organisations that it created would be yet longer and no less significant.' The cumulative effect of the work of the social pioneers, the new thinkers and writers on philosophy, economics, politics, religious and ethical subjects, was to inaugurate an age of radical criticism and reforms. New qualities of social influence and leadership were brought to bear upon the life of •modern society. The dramatic change which occurred in social thought and action can best be grasped by contrasting the opinions which existed in the opening decade of the nineteenth century with those which dominated thinkers, writers and statesmen at the close of the century.

I History of England, pp. 616-7. 4 Private Charity From the middle •of the eighteenth century to the time of the Reform Act 1832 —Britain's age of laissez-faire—industrialism changed the old life and habits of the country. The new forms of wealth production gave glittering wealth to landlords, bankers and the nascent capitalist class; and, at the same time, in contrast with the grim realities which divided our people into the "Two Nations" depicted in Disraeli's novels, one of the rich and the other of the poor, there was abroad in the land a belief in human progress and a will to work for reform in the minds of the people. Unhappily there was little in the orthodox religion, philosophy, politics or social teachings of the time to correct and guide the masses in dealing with the admitted evils inherent in the new economic order. Experience was soon to show that a belief in the existence of some innate law of progress, written as it were by providence into the fabric of the universe, was an illusion. The minds of the religionists, with some few exceptions, were obsessed by crude ideas of salvation in some life beyond the grave. The popular political leaders subscribed almost to a man to the view that the functions of the state were •to fend off •foreign aggression from other nations and to keep the ring for the warring interests seeking wealth and power at home. •In his brilliant book, Law and Public Opinion in England, A. V. Dicey, the scholarly Oxford jurist, aptly characterised the role of Parliament in those years as one of "legislative quiescence". Middle- class opinion in Victorian times centred around three major interests: (I) the Christian scheme of eschatology; (2) the triumph of the country's industry and commerce in the world market; and (3) charity, and especially charitable organisation. The preoccupation with charity later on spread from this country throughout the English-speaking world. In the nineteenth century private charity, inspired by a religious or humanitarian motive, undertook many pioneering efforts to alleviate human disability, distress and suffering. Amongst the services it helped to create were hospitals, schools, missionary efforts at home and abroad, ameliora- tive work in prisons and lunatic asylums, care of orphans, and provision for poor, sick and aged persons. In general terms it may be said that •the scope and content of philanthropic action varied from decade to decade, some forms •of social distress remaining fairly constant, and there were, of course, emergencies and special needs arising from time to time. Throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries orthodox opinion in this country, as expressed by leaders in church and state, saw charitable work as a social sedative or regenerative force in times of crisis. The Age Of Bentham From about 1832 to 1870, the better elements in English public life gradually came under the influence of the Utilitarian philosophy, as taught by Jeremy Bentham, the two Mills, and Francis Place. Their adherents were prominent in those years in literature, journalism, the teaching of ethics and philosophy, in Parliament and in the Law Courts. The nation's experience had disillusioned it about laissez-faire, popular forms of super- naturalism, and the idea of automatic progress. In other words, it had become clear to the people that too fine an individualism could be fatal to the individual. Jeremy Bentham was, judged by whatever test be applied, a man of genius, though some of his ideas and plans strike the •present day reader as being grotesque. It is necessary to dig a little deeper before the role he played in Britain's Age of Reform becomes clear. A. V. Dicey, in the work already mentioned, writes: Bentham was primarily neither a utilitarian moralist nor a philanthropist: he was a legal philosopher and a reformer of the law. The object of his 5 lifelong labours was to remodel the law of England in accordance with utilitarian principles. These labours were crowned by extraordinary success, though the success was most manifest after the end of Bentham's life. This is Bentham's title to fame .... For well nigh sixty years, that is to say for two generations, he preached the necessity, and explained the principles of law reform. He began his career as an unknown youth whose ideas were scouted by men of thc world as dangerous paradoxes: he ended it as a revered teacher who numbered among his disciples lawyers and statesmen of eminence, and had won over to his ideas the most sensible and influential of English reformers.2

The practical outcome of the work of the Benthamite School may be said to have been: (I) the enactment of the new poor law in 1834; (2) the introduction of free !trade: (3) the beginning of the removal of political and religious inequalities suffered •by Dissenters and Roman Catholics; (4) the reform and extension of local government; the spread of the idea and practice of the codification of law; and (5) the advance of a new conception of the role of the state in securing the safety, security and happiness of the individual citizen.

Collective Responsibility From about 1870 to our own day —in rather less than one hundred

years—the doctrines of lai.vsez - faire and utilitarianism have yielded place to that of collective responsibility, i.e. the concept that the community in co-operation with the individual must seek the welfare of all its members. Modern man's search for a deeper collectivity has thus been carried forward in many new directions. The shape of things to come points to the possibility of a global order securing peace and well-being for all mankind. Behind the ,present-day outlook on these matters lies the story not alone of the clarification of the ideas about state action, of social legislation to achieve collective goals, but also the widening of outlook of the multi- plicity of voluntary groups and organisations which are so characteristic of many western countries. Modern social work has supplanted the older conceptions of private charity. It is sometimes asked why this change has come about. It is in part due to the revolt against the whole idea of patronage and privilege involved in the relationship of donor and recipient. Charity is •no longer acceptable as a substitute for personal rights and social justice. Furthermore, this change of outlook and feeling has been intensified by the growth of the concept of collective responsibility for the social ills which may befall the citizens of .a democratic society. Another signi- ficant factor has been the success of the public social services in combating such giant evils as poverty, preventible illness, ignorance, sub-standard housing and bad working conditions. The United Nations, working through its specialised agencies, has spread far and wide a knowledge of the new boncepts and techniques on which the success of modern social work •has been achieved. It remains to mention the rapid extension of social work in all lands. The social work movement has built up in the years since 1928 a strong and influential international conference which has made itself responsible for a series of world assemblies which have been held every two or three years. There are also two other bodies, working in close co-operation, namely, the International Association of Schools of Social Work and the International Federation of Social Workers. Each of these bodies has done much to advance social work theory and practice on an international basis.

2 Law and Public Opinion in England, pp. 127-128 (Macmillan & Co paperback edition I8s.) 6 • Social work is, on its own merits, a subject of deep interest to ethical Humanists, for there is still much that they can learn from its methods of work and organisation. Then, too, its achievements in giving practical expression to the ethical aspirations of all that is best in the modern world cannot but be an encouragement to the Humanist Movement. For both these movements of the human spirit find inspiration and counsel in Emerson's wise words: "As long as our civilisation is essentially one of property, of fences, of exclusiveness, it will be mocked by delusions. Our riches will leave us sick; there will be bitterness in our laughter; and our wine will burn our mouths. Only that good profits, which we can taste with all doors open, and which serves all men". • (Summary of a lecture given on April 2)

Reciprocal Attitudes of North and South in England BY PROFESSOR T. H. PEAR IN A RECENT newspaper article= it is asserted that the North-South controversy is heading for a major revival; the poorer partner of the Two Nations is tired of playing Cinderella. Dirt and dereliction in the North have bred attitudes at the root of Britain's economic malaise; but the real split is emotional. is between !the half that profited from the rich years and the half that paid and is paying still. I venture to discuss a few of these attitudes, impressed by a British sociologist's recent statement that few of his colleagues are as yet especially interested in normal, ordinary people. Lacking, therefore, "hard news", I record some observations, based on personal experience, on many conver- sations, on radio talks, articles and books. I should first declare my personal interests and possible sources of bias. For forty years 1 worked in the North, often shuttling •between it and London; for the last fifteen, I have lived in the South (London and south-east Kent). I suggest that their differences are viewed by •me with sympathy and empathy, tempered at times with an East Anglian detachment. Attitudes and Sentiments In a lengthy study of the subject, the utility of objective observations is limited. Attitudes may be long-standing or temporary, sentiments may support or conflict with these. Considerations of period and region must be serious: Mrs. Gaskell's views in North and South 1 are 112 years old. Today's suggestions that some of Liverpool's sub-cultures represent the "North" might be impressive if measured by the number of people who accept them uncritically, but in this era of planned obsolescence the life of this cult may •be brief. The North is often presented to the public by professional entertainers, and popular "images", perhaps accurate 30 years ago, are largely due to their activities. For many years some of these celebrities have had no permanent address north of London. A few publicists who swam, or were propelled, against the "Southern drift" became more Northern than the Northerner: for them "water flowing north of the Trent was not 1-120, but mystic, wonderful". Half a century ago, the number of non-Northerners writing for The Manchester Guardian was impressive; even before that, the basic musical culture of Manchester and Bradford was German in origin. Many grandchildren of Northerners who always stuck to Blackpool for their holiday now go to Spain and farther afield; 7

their ex-service fathers may have travelled round the world. Have these events changed the reciprocal attitudes of North and South? General statements about "Northerners" ought to be applicable to inhabi- tants of Lancashire (Liverpool, Manchester, the countryside), Yorkshire (the industrial towns, the ports, the Ridings), the north-east, and the Lake District. "Southerners"— east of Reading, shall we say? — live in places as unlike as Tunbridge Wells, Brighton, Canterbury, Chislehurst, Clapham, Whitechapel, Hampstead, Golders Green and Soho. Alleged differences between Northern and Southern behaviour and mentality are favourite themes for playwrights, novelists, script-writers for radio and television and serio-comic essayists. Their contributions can be useful to the sociologist as evincing considerable popular interest in these matters, but to what extent are they "angled" to increase readability? There are obvious regional differences, of which today speech and its paralinguistic accompaniments, gestures, facial expressions, postures, etc., are the chief constituents. Many a Northerner, acquainted with the emollient phrases commonly used in the South, regards them with contempt —sometimes ambivalent —unless he intends to live in the South. Class In comparing these regions, vague as they are, "class" ("the most sensitive nerve in any illriton") cannot be ignored or soft-pedalled. The North is by no means classless, though in it class, financial and educational strata are more difficult to distinguish than in the South. In England, Standard English and "Received" Pronunciation are not regarded as synonymous. A politician's speech, read in print, seldom offers unmistakable •hints of his region or class, but his spoken English, with characteristic changes in intensity, pace, rhythm, speech-melody, even timbre, offers many clues to a sophisticated hearer. On the stage and on the air, Northern speech, genuine or synthetised, is often intended to suggest a plain, honest, straightforward person, perhaps a rough diamond and conscious of it; while Southern voices may sound gentler (occasionally hard in a special way), affected, imperative, cocksure, slippery. !In discussing these stereotypes, the class factor is inescapable; in reality, many upper and upper-middle-class Northerners speak with few characteristically Northern sounds, and not a few Northern public schools employ a majority of Southern-accented teachers. Not surprisingly, there are counter-currents: unmistakable Northern accents are often heard in the University of Oxford, but they seldom dominate its Union debates. Many Northern accents are heard in B.B.C. non-regional programmes, but, up to now, few bishops, admirals or generals speak in ways which differ very much from Received Pronunciation, and none •in pronounced regional accents. Differences between these professions are often signalised, however, by special affectations and mannerisms. Word-Patterns "Straight talk", a term which, like "plain words", is both attractive and misleading, though often admirable, can be used to beg many a tricky question: "Put quite simply . ."; "To be perfectly frank . . ."; "Anyone with common sense would have . .. A Northern journalist, domiciled in the Farthest South, has asserted that the speech of his native region is invaluable to a con-man. "Saying just what you mean" is a phrase attractive to the non-scientist, non-philosopher, or anyone who forgets that speech — like clothes— may be useful to conceal defects which could distress per- ceivers. Gentle phrases may be chosen to avoid wounding a hearer's feelings. If such word-patterns are suddenly and surprisingly discarded, perception of their absence may be unusually effective in guiding the hearer's behaviour. The "image" of his opposite number that a Northerner or Southerner may form can be very important — e.g. when candidates for high-ranking 8 jobs are being considered. Members of selection committees often hold strong opinions on North and South, though these are not overtly declared in meetings. Meet the British, written by Americans and popular with overseas visitors, could be more correctly entitled Meet the Southern Upper -Middle -Class English. It is interesting to note that books containing numbers of Northern poems, songs, stories and jokesa are much easier to find than corresponding anthologies of Southern writers. Personal Concepts With some hope of encouraging others to comment, I venture to describe my own ideas on these matters; middle-class ideas, perhaps, though for many years I was a W.E.A. tutor and travelled extensively in the North. Northerners are uninhibited in their expressions of friendship, while apt to criticise other people "negatively" in ways and to a degree which many Southerners consider excessive. They are generous, though they often call attention to pockets of selfishness in certain regions, and some of their humour reflects this. They are ready to show not only friendliness but affection, yet may appear to be shy when aware of a limited vocabulary or lack of polite phrases and skill in speaking—a defect which is disappearing in schools where teachers pay special attention to it.' Though independent and enterprising, many Northerners are reluctant to leave their region. Often ambitious, they are apt to preserve many details of their persona, even if some are regarded unfavourably outside their region. This parochial attitude is often exploited in radio-serials. Speech, then, seems the most important differentia. "Even after 30 years of radio?" some may ask. In different programmes the B.B.C. encourages both standardisation and differentiation of speech. Of the South, my ideas are more diverse, because class and cultural differences are more noticeable here than in the North. Few Southern migrants 'to the North deliberately modify their speech. At a first meeting a Southerner is less likely to be openly matey, but today it is risky to generalise: the sub-culture pattern of some large Southern villages is increas- ingly egalitarian. The disappearance of the old-type squire may be one cause; another, the absence of real poverty. A Southerner is unlikely to tell a stranger much about himself or his family; if a town-dweller, he is less inclined to snoop and gossip. In conversation, though he may say less, he may have a slight social advantage if he has been brought up in one of the birthplaces of 'Received Pronunciation. His superficial manners (the adjective is not intended to be derogatory) are better. "Excuse •me, but ..." or "Might I . ..?" can make social relations easier for addresser and addressee. "Sir!" to a complete stranger is seldom a sign of servility. Detailed consideration of North and South manifests the impor:tant psychological distinction between attitude and sentiment. Attitudes towards North or South can be varied and numerous, susceptible to change under the influence of personal experience and persuasion by the mass media; sentiments are simpler, deeper, often permanent and resistant to reason; while nostalgia for a region is compatible with a determination not to live there.

REFERENCES GASKELL ELIZABETH c.: North and South (Oxford Univ. Press. 1885; World's Classics, 1923). 2 mcGLASHAN, c.: "North Gets Tired of Playing Cinderella" (Observer, 20 November 1966). 3 PICKLES. W. (ed.): My North Countrie (Allen & Unwin. 1955). A TURNER, GRAHAM: The North Country (Eyre and Spottiswoode. 1967). 5 WILKINSON. A., et al: Spoken English (Univ. of Birmingham Press, 1966). • (Summary of a lecture given on March 19) New Ethical Problems in Medicine

BY

DR. D. STARK MURRAY

WHEN George Bernard Shaw wrote a Preface to The Doctor's Dilemma in 1906 he began in thunderous tones:

It is not the fault of our doctors that the medical service of the community as at present provided for is a murderous absurdity. That any sane nation, having observed that you could provide for the supply of bread by giving bakers a pecuniary interest in baking for you, should go on to give a surgeon a pecuniary interest in cutting off your leg, is enough to make one despair of political humanity. Probably no other preface shows so clearly that G. B. S. was three in one. He was the politician defining a social injustice and suggesting a remedy: he was the ethical humanist endeavouring to make man see the errors in his ethical thinking: and he was the Irish Quixote not content with tilting at windmills, but setting up so many targets for destruction that it is difficult to discover which were real to him and which were imaginary. Much that the politician suggested has been achieved either in principle or in part. We have not " municipalised Harley Street" as he suggested, or made every doctor a whole-time civil servant, but every doctor in Britain today has what Shaw called "a dignified living wage paid out of public funds", and our nationalised hospitals give a type of service he could not then envisage. Some of his windmills remain notorious, but none stands in the way of progress. What we want to discuss today, however, is whether the third factor, the ethical thinking of the medical profession, has advanced in those sixty years. Certainly Shaw could not write today that the whole "medical profession has not a high character: it has an infamous character". No one today would claim that there is "no thoughtful and well-informed person who does not feel that it is the tragedy of illness at present that it delivers you helplessly into the hands of a profession you deeply mistrust". Medicine has, for at least 97% of the people of Britain, been "taken out of the market place" which was, of course, the basis of Shaw's mistrust. He firmly de- clared that a surgeon's main consideration was that he could do more "with a pocketful of guineas than this man is doing with his leg". Shaw semi-humorously pictured the surgeon asking if this man (Shaw) could not write a better play without a leg than he was doing with two. For the bulk of people in Britain that type of bargaining no longer exists, and if we adhere to our present principles it will disappear except for those who indulge in the services of people or healing methods outside orthodox medicine.

Pseudo - Ethical Principles But within the new framework there are still some ethical and many pseudo-ethical questions to be settled. I use the term "pseudo-ethical" to describe the principles that really constitute the business rules of the medical profession. The most publicised of these is the rule against advertising, which denies to doctors the right that others claim to publicise their own ability and techniques. The profession is not unmoved by financial con- siderations. It still believes intensely in a class society, the two classes being those who can afford, and are prepared to pay, extra fees, and those who cannot or will not tip a doctor already paid by the State. Since a surgeon can receive around 0,500 from the State and still have the right to accept private fees, the use of the word "tipping" puts this kind of thing in its right perspective. Religion also produces pseudo-ethical problems for some doctors, 10 especially in the field of sex and procreation. To the non-religious person it is quite clear that since the right use of sex, the conception, birth and upbringing of children are all matters affecting •the health of the individual and of the community, doctors should be prepared and educated for the purpose of giving advice on these matters. Faced with a world filling too rapidly with people, faced with individuals who want few children and wish to rear healthy and worthwhile children, such a doctor should be happy to give all the psychological and technical help he can; and should certainly not stand in the way of others giving it. But we still hesitate to give family-planning help in our clinics and hospitals; and we are making heavy weather of a Bill now before Parliament designed to enable women to have a fully legal abortion rather than resort to dubious methods, dubious practitioners, and possible danger. There is, of course, no ethical principle involved. Medical ethics are in any case not made by doctors but by the society in which they live and work. Our society has accepted family planning—even the Catholic Church has yielded in part—and in such a matter trained doctors should be the servants of the community which has paid for their training. No one who has visited countries with high birth- rates—like India, with is million new citizens a month—can think of a profession obstructing the necessary spread of knowledge to lower the birth rate. New Ethical Problems Medicine today has, however, problems on which a new ethic may have to be worked out between doctors and the public. The desire for some system of voluntary euthanasia is spreading in every country, and doctors have long assisted certain types of patients withoult any clear ethical guidance. Conversely the profession has now to face the opposite, the prolongation of lives that would otherwise be ended, not by traditional types of treatment, but by quite new techniques. Modern techniques of trans- planting organs, of replacing them by artificial and mechanical devices, and of freezing organs or even whole bodies raise questions of life and death that cannot be referred to that usual arbiter of medical ethics, the Hippo- cratic Oath. Hippocrates could hardly have visualised the situation that arises today where a patient is kept painfully alive while surgeons get another human being ready for the operation of inserting in his body an organ yet to be removed from the dying man—as soon as he is officially dead. Nor did he contemplate machines that can keep people alive years aUter the date on which a vital organ died that should have led to total death. Such surgical practice began with the relatively simple use of skin grafts, which was followed by the grafting of the clear cornea of the eye of a dead person to a blind but living subject. Such transplants raised no ethical problems since they were usually done with consent and did not deal with organs essential to life, But when we contemplate the possibility of someone walking about with organs derived from other long dead people plus, let us say, a heart full of plastic valves or legs kept healthy by nylon arteries, all sorts of complicated questions may follow. Lawyers may one day find themselves making wills for clients who are living only because of organs removed from other men whose wills have long since been ad- ministered. Continued legal and religious insistence on the sacredness of the individual will then be very difficult, and someone is sure to ask how much transplantation can be done before an individual ceases to be that

Other questions also give doctors problems. Bernard Shaw thought that no death certificate should be signed without an inquest, so that murders done by doators, whether wittingly, by neglect, or by accident, could be detected. But if this were the law, should a doctor be expected to give his opinion in evidence, on every case of a cigarette smoker dying of lung cancer, that he or she had been murdered by the makers of their favourite It brand? The profession has collectively accepted the relationship between smoking and cancer of the lung; should, therefore, the ethical doctor reftise to give a certificate of cancer of the lung, thus forcing every such case into open discussion in the coroner's court? When he finds other diseases due to recognised social or industrial conditions must he demand a public trial of those responsible? Can he take the view that his job is to look after the sick, and let others take the responsibility for the wider contributory causes? Advice in this field has been made only because in the past there have always been some doctors who in such circumstances refused to shut their eyes or their mouths or to lay down their pens until something had been done.

Human Guinea - pigs More difficult questions arise when a doctor wishes to try new drugs, and the profession itself is divided as to how much patients should be told when they are being used as guinea-pigs. An experiment could be ruined by patients who did not realise how serious their disease was until the doctor asked permission to try something new: on the other hand most patients don't want to know, and would not understand, the full significance of the experiment in which they were participating. We are here seeking a general principle which it is hard to find. If we take the case of an incurable cancer it is possible to justify the use without consent of a new potentially useful, and therefore potentially dangerous, drug. Much more difficult are those cases, e.g., rheumatic diseases, where what is called a double blind trial is needed and should be carried out without the patient (and sometimes even without the patient's own doctor) being aware which drug is being used at any particular moment. Of course Shaw knew at least part of the answer here—the profit motive must be entirely removed from such tests. Most of us will be ready to be guinea-pigs when we know that the doctor will himself make no profit out of it and when the resulting treatment is made freely available to all. Shaw added a footnOte to The Doctor's Dilemma twenty-five years after writing the play, but fifteen years before the National Health Service. He felt afraid that the public would still "be decimated by the vested interest of the private side of the profession in disease". The position is changed, but we still have ethical problems which cannot be solved so long as the profit motive continues in either the medical profession or the production of drugs and the application of new techniques. Only when medicine is completely removed from the market-place shall we be able to establish the only possible ethical basis for modern medicine—i.e. service without any motive other than the welfare of the individual. Yet there is one other change which is still holding up advance, at least so far as general practice is concerned, and which greatly affects the basic Hippocratic ethic: service without reference to the financial and social position of the sick. Doctors have for centuries worked as individuals, and it is only with the growth of specialisation and the realisation that one man cannot do everything that the concept of the team of doctors, and the greater extension of that idea, the team of health workers, has begun to be accepted. This is a typical example of how the final ethic will be worked out as much by the people as by the profession. So long as the people try to cling to the idea of "my doctor" instead of "my team of doctors", practitioners will find it difficult to drop the outmoded ethic of personal responsibility in favour of a system of shared responsibility. When that happens, and if the profit motive has gone, then even the gibe in the quota- tion I have just made from Shaw, "the vested interest in disease", will cease to be applicable. Doctors can then become health educators and health preservers. The dilemma will have departed once and for all. (Summary of a lecture given on April 16) 12 War as an Industry

BY

PROFESSOR HYMAN LEVY AN INDUSTRY in our society I would define as an activity based on the employment of hand- and brain-workers and designed to bring gain to the employer by directing the labour towards the satisfaction of social and personal desires. Wages, linked as they have been historically with employment, and dividends, linked as they are with ownership of capital, are the social mechanisms whereby the consumable goods that are the outcome of this physical and mental labour are distributed. Any redun- dancy, with its consequent wage stoppage, that might result from, say, automation, however efficiently it increases production, has an immediate effect in blocking the distribution of consumable goods. Under a wage system, automation and redundancy produce two conflicting effects when viewed in terms of goods produced and of goods consumed. The profits of an industry which usually appear as marks or numbers on a balance sheet do not stand for anything abstract, but concretely they are an accumulation of consumable goods, or of capital goods, such as machinery, for the production of further consumable goods. A human being is a piece of capital. He is the outcome of the labour of many people in his community, and so is a piece of concentrated capital. The so-called brain-drain represents a free gift of this concentrated capital to others who have hardly contributed towards its production. There is no social balance sheet in which it figures, any more than the wastage of human capital by deaths on the roads appears in the costings of the motor car industry. The well-being of the motor industry is seen•in terms of the number of vehicles poured on to the roads, and the wages, salaries and dividends paid. The rest is regarded simply as social wear and tear, the grinding of its society's bearings, a wastage that you and I meet in our Income tax. Of themselves, wages, salaries and dividends cannot suffice to purchase all the goods that are produced. If they did, this would be a servicing, not a profit-making society. Continual turnover is essential to breed profits, and additional markets must continually be brought into being to absorb the goods that correspond to this profit; and so further sources of raw materials must continually be sought. One of the most effective methods of absorbing manufactured goods is to destroy them in war, especially an escalating war as in Vietnam, for this means an ever-expanding market for goods immediately consumed, and the piling up of indebtedness to the armament manufacturers. Met out of general taxation, this is equivalent to a lowering of effective wages and salaries, and therefore a corresponding restriction on the consumption of goods. The final effect, therefore, is to produce waste in place of things of human value. However efficient the process may be mechanically and technologically, it is basically inefficient socially; but war at any rate provides the necessary expanding market, and an escalating war can allow for the accumulation of profits in terms of consumable and capital goods. Otherwise we are condemned to unemployment and to "stop". A useful method of passing from "stop" to "go" is provided by the kind of "public education" we call advertisement, directed towards the arousal of new needs, even if payment by the consumer—the book-keeping part of it—is postponed to the future. Hire purchase does this. When these needs can be made to appear socially urgent, then of course the scale of the market can be immediately inflated, especially if the future payment can be underwritten by the State. .13 The Cold War and Vietnam - The Cold War was one such magnificent success, in which the education was directed towards instilling into the communities of the West a fear of destruction from the East. Only the West possessed the atom bomb at the time, and only the West had used it, but this merely underlines the power of press propaganda. Thus the demand for the most expensive weapons of modern warfare was worked up to a hitherto unsurpassed level, dragging in its train the equally costly space research and space strategy, so developing the power of flying over possible enemy territory at great heights, and achieving rocketry in conjunction with atomic bombery to such an extent that no part of the earth could be immune from destruction by a bomb projected from any. other part. Thus when the Cold War reaches its climax locally, as it has done in Vietnam, its prosecution involves the wastage of raw materials and human labour on an unprece- dented scale, a modern business piling up enormous profits to the owners of the machinery of destruction and of the raw materials that are in the process scattered to the four winds. Why should it come to a head in Vietnam? Why have Britain, France, Japan and now the U.S.A. been deeply involved in warfare in this region? There are two main reasons. First, a society that advertises a Cold War market must have a bogeyman, and, naturally, this can be no other than those who threaten the continua- tion of the wasteful profit-making system, in this .particular case China. Vietnam, like Formosa and Korea, is an important Jumping-off ground, in case of necessary military action against an anti-profiteering society; and this is clearly seen by Mao, who is convinced that the Americans are preparing to invade. It is the only theory that makes sense of internal Chinese activity. Secondly, as the U.S. Bureau of Mines itself tells us, South-East Asia— particularly N. and S. Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Borneo, etc.—contains the world's riches resources of unexploited raw materials (nickel, chromium, copper, tungsten, gold, lead, zinc, tin, manganese, uranium, etc.) and 97% of the world's rice. It is not surprising, therefore, that these areas have witnessed a succession of struggles for control over the very materials that require to be wasted if a profit-seeking society is to flourish, or even persist. When a stubborn people like the Vietnamese threaten to deny the most developed economic and military power in history access to the raw materials essential to its continuance, there is no other course open but genocide. And genocide is what is taking place in Vietnam as an inevitable outcome of the pursuit of war as an industry. Human corpses become its waste products. (Summary of a lecture given on May 7)

S.P.ES. Development Fund How much do you value Ethical Humanism? Do you believe that its benefits and values should be made known to the many who, while strongly doubting the claims of orthodox religion, have not yet found a satisfying alternative? If so, help us to reach them and convince them of the value of a rational enquiring mind and of an ethical approach to life. This costs money. We therefore urge you to donate generously to our Development Fund for this purpose, sending your donation to the Hon. Treasurer at Conway Hall Humanist Centre.

14 Aden and the Yemen

BY LORD SORENSEN

RECENTLY I sat at dinner with a lawyer who complained that his annual £10,000 income was eroded by excessive taxation. My sympathy for him was "in short supply" and when I asked if he thought that, to ease his burden, expenditure on our national defence services should be cut, I did not receive an enthusiastic response. Certainly drastic economies on military defence might substantially assist the Government in its efforts to establish a sound economy in the eyes of the "gnomes of Zurich" and those other mysterious gentlemen who apparently control our destiny. Many British Labour politicians emphatically endorse a demand for reduced defence expenditure and claim that this can be achieved by with- drawal of commitments and forces "East of Suez". One area within this sphere is Aden, and the violent turmoil now prevailing in that British imperial remnant accentuates a political and human problem involved in the policy of withdrawal which the Government will implement by 1968. The situation there is very complex, and my present purpose is to provide a sketchy background of this to aid reflection on what is practicable. Aden Colony was acquired by Britain in 1839, nominally because local Arabs had attacked shipwrecked British sailors. The then Sultan of Lahej was induced to sign an agreement by which Aden was ceded to the British Crown in return for an annual subsidy, and subsequently an extensive hinterland between Aden and the Yemen was made into Protectorates in which a number of Arab Sheikhs or rulers preserved their internal autonomy. It is alleged by the Yemen that the whole area was forcibly annexed by Britain and as "Southern Yemen" should be returned to the Yemen. This ignores the fact that the Sultan of Lahej had successfully rebelled against the Imam and had asserted independence. The Imam therefore had no valid claim against the British, whatever may be said of the agree- ment with the Sultan in 1839. Moreover the Protectorate rulers themselves repudiated the authority of the Yemen Imam over their own territory.

The Arabian Peninsula This prompts the basic question of what belongs to whom and why. Originally the Arabian Peninsula contained a number of nomadic tribes, until one tribe proved itself more powerful than the rest and then exer- cised its power to demarcate the area under a central government. "Possession is nine points of the law", or in other words the initial title to any territory rested on settlement or forceful acquisition and the ability of its rulers to defend their domain against attack. By that same elementary natural principle the Sultan of Lahej or any other rebel severed off a portion of the territory as his own or denied it to rivals. It can be argued that by a similar elementary natural process the British and others acquired lands overseas, in particular in the tip of the Arabian Peninsula, and were entitled to occupy them as long as they could. At one time Rome attempted to conquer the country, and in the 6th century it passed under Ethiopian domination and later Turkish and Egyptian. Likewise our own country was occupied by Rome and then by Anglo-Saxons, Danes and Normans. Force atone was the primal law both in Britain and Arabia, and indeed possession was not simply nine but ten points of the law, until there emerged other principles based on ex- pediency, equity and ethics. Today we are seeking to implement these internationally in contrast with primal natural law. In 1872 Turkish forces occupied the Yemen capital of Sana and the 15 Yemen became a province of the Ottoman Empire. After the Ottoman collapse the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne divested Turkey of all its Arabian possessions. Meanwhile civil conflict had raged between rebellious Shaifi Idrisi tribesmen and the Imam until ultimately the Imam's forces prevailed, and in 1934 an Anglo-Yemen "Treaty of Friendship and Mutual Co- operation" was signed at Sana, by which both parties agreed not to inter- fere in "the affairs of the people inhabiting the other side of the frontier". Although this somewhat eased the situation, disputation arose over the precise meaning of "frontier", for the Arab ward "hudad" can mean not merely a specific line, but the whole contiguous area. Later this led to acrimonious dissension and recurrent border fighting. Within Islamic Yemen two Muslim sects were in frequent conflict, the minority Zeidis, of which the Imam was an adherent, being predominant administratively over the majority Shaifis. Into Aden Colony many Zeidis and Shaifis immigrated, and from an original population of 500 Aden has grown to the present population of approximately 230,000, consisting of indigenous Aden Arabs, Protectorate Arabs, Yemini Arabs, Somalis, Indians and British, with a few Jews left after an exodus of some 6,000 since 1931. For the British Aden became an invaluable maritime, naval and military port, and thus provided employment for its inhabitants,

Recent Developments Trade unionism expanded in the Aden Colony, and, in 1960, 33 unions were affiliated to its T.U.C., but this came to be associated even more with militant politics than with wages and labour conditions. Internal self- government was established on a limited franchise, partly because of difficulty in determining the qualifications for male enfranchisement. Later the legislature became democratically extended, but with the British Governor still possessing ultimate authority. From intensified political stress two rival organisations have arisen, "Flosy". Front for the Libera- tion of Southern Yemen, and the N.L.F., National Liberation Front, the former having close ties with Egypt, both demanding immediate full independence and both hostile to the traditionally autocratic Protectorate rulers and the Federation. The South Arabian Federation was initiated as a British plan to associate the population of the Protectorates with the former Aden Colony, but not all Sheikdoms joined the Federation. Confused fear charges the present political atmosphere. Protectorate tribes fear the Yemen and the 60,000 Egyptian forces stationed there, Adenese fear the numerical strength of the Protectorate, Flosy and the N.L.F. fear one another and the British fear immediate and future violence. In the Yemen, although at first revolutionary Republican Yemenis over- threw the Imamate regime and welcomed Egyptian military aid, they came to resent the Egyptian presence, and after the death of his despotic father the new reformist !roman fled to the mountains, where his Royalist followers retain their hold, the Republicans having their strength in the towns of Sana, Taiz and Hodeida. It is from this frightful situation the British Government is now striving to withdraw without leaving behind hell let loose. General strikes, assassina- tion, shootings and bloody anarchy menace all attempts to find pathways toward peaceful settlement, and though for the most part Adenese violence is directed towards the British, it is probable that this will operate increas- ingly between rival Adenese forces and between the Adenese and the Pro- tectorate Sheikdoms, with also the possibility of Yemini and Egyptian military intervention. Lord Shackleton has been deputed by the British Government to explore every means of securing an acceptable solution, but my own subordinate Government post precludes me from saying at this juncture any more than to express the earnest hope that either directly or through the United Nations he will succeed. 16 Personal Memories I have a particular interest in Aden and the Yemen because six years ago I was privileged to visit the Yemen at the invitation of the late Imam, Ahmad al Nasir Li Din Allah Bin Yahya Hamid al Din, after which title I am tempted to add Amen! A pamphlet recording my experiences and commentary, Aden: The Protectorates and the Yemen, was then published by the Fabian Society. Much of this is now "dated", but I will contribute one or two memories here to garnish the foregoing factual dish. The Yemen is a mountainous land peopled by about 5,000,000 Muslims, who, until the recent revolution, lived under autocratic Imams who were both secular and religious rulers. The considerable Jewish colony opted to depart for Israel on "Operation Flying Carpet", and, though I saw the bare foundations of a Christian Church, Christianity disappeared centuries ago. It is a fascinating mediaeval museum with scanty modern amenities, and shortly before my visit a piped water supply, electricity and telephones had been made available only in a very small part of Taiz and Sana. Meagre education existed for boys, but none for girls, and the Yemen had only six doctors. Women were completely in purdah. On my arrival by air there was no one to meet me until the British Chargé d'allaires suddenly appeared, the Ambassador having been expelled on the outrageous pretext that he had been implicated in a plot against the Imam. Belatedly the Foreign Minister arrived and drove me through the mud walls and the souk of Taiz amid a swarm of locusts, some being eaten by boys, to deposit me at the Royal Guest House. My barren room, save for an iron bed, chair and card-table, was unlocked and adjoined a bath used for ablutions and also washing up dirty dishes, so that one had to dodge floating scum. Notwithstanding assurance that I would soon have audience with the Imam, ten days elapsed before I did so, and meanwhile I learnt much of the life of the people with the aid of an interpreter and a few Yeminis, Italians and Swedes who spoke English. I also discovered subterranean hatred against the Imam, who every week arranged public executions, as a kind of breakfast appetiser, before thousands of assembled subjects. The executioner was expert in his craft, whirling a long sword above his head until with a downward swish the victim's head was neatly severed. Six months after my return the executioner himself was decapitated by a promoted substitute. Crime was generally punished by cutting off a hand or foot, and for trivial offences by manacling. Even state ministers were so dealt with. The Imam controlled everything, from issuing edicts to deciding on the supply of school ink-pots. Forced Landing I was able to go by a Russian helicopter to Harib near the British Protec- torate frontier, and on the way came down among camels, scrub and desert. I thought at first that the forced landing was due to engine trouble, but actually it was because the pilot had no reliable charts. From nowhere came scores of shaggy men with pointed rifles. Fortunately my Yemeni companion dispersed their hostility and we took off again for Harib. It had been bombarded from the Protectorate hills two days before and a repeti- tion was feared. I left, however, without this occurring, and on the return journey saw in the desert the partially excavated temple of Sin, the Babylonian moon-god, and later the vast intact, though now waterless, dam alleged to have been instigated by the Queen of Sheba. The dam and the hundreds of disinterred alabaster carvings I inspected in a nearby hut spoke of distant centuries when the area must have been fertile country with a high level of culture. In former times caravans carrying precious spices and other commodities constantly passed, but when the Romans opened up commercial sea travel the valuable land trade collapsed and the Yemen sank into poverty.

17 ' When at last I met the Imam he exhorted me to remain with him for a week, but I demurred and departed after he had presented me with a noble's gold-embroidered belt. Hearing rumours that I might be dumped in Ethiopia and not Aden, for no Yemen plane had flown thence for many years, I successfully entreated the Swedish pilot immediately to fly to Aden, even though it involved the risk of being shot at by Yemenis or British. I arrived unharmed at Aden, there to be met by grim-looking British oflicers who had been misled by a flown-out copy of the Daily Express with the headline "M.P. in Frontier Fighting"! After being driven to the Governor's House, where I was to stay, I was able to placate His Excellency, who kindly arranged for me to fly to Beihan on the British side of the frontier where from a fort I gazed at distant Harib, where I had been shortly before. There is very much more that I could tell, but even the little I have told may illustrate the nature of the Yemen with which history has involved Britain at Aden. The complexity of present issues, the depth of communal emotions and the tragic potentialities of abysmal hatreds and carnage remind us how dimly burn the lights of reason and moral values by which mankind in South Arabia and elsewhere can find guidance toward sanity, justice, co-operation and peace. (Summary of a lecture given on April 23)

Book Reviews Parliamentary God Guarantee Religious Education in State Schools, by Brigid Brophy (Fabian Tract 374, Fabian Society, 11 Dartmouth Street, S.W.1; 1967; 20 pp.; 2s. 6d.)

THE THEME running through Brigid Brophy's Religious Education in State Schools is the state's abuse of authority in imposing religious education •on children. She writes: "Parliament has no authority to issue [to children] a guarantee . . . that a god exists to receive [their] worship". She points out the great difficulty of using the "contracting out" clause, particularly lor a child. From •my point of view, as an infant's school teacher, I should like to endorse this —but I should also like to add that •n any school where the class teacher takes all subjects there are considerable difficulties for the teacher too in opting out of religious instruction, since to do so means burdening another class teacher with one's own class for the period of the lesson and this is usually objectionable to all concerned. Miss Brophy's insistence on the child's right to as objective and unbiased an education as possible is a salutary corrective to the emphasis usually given to the parents' rights over the child in the matter of his education. Brigid Brophy is surely justified in holding that we should be honest when we teach our children. If certain statements are open to reasonable doubt —if, indeed, the contrary view is just as tenable as the one we are advancing— we should not conceal this •from children. Education is con- cerned with knowledge, not with inculcating a biased and particular world view. The question that seems to worry many people who support religious instruction in schools is the effect that its cessation would have on morality. Outside a religious framework, they argue, there would be no grounds for behaving morally. The defects in this argument have been pointed out by religious people, among others, since the view that morality is autono- mous and not dependent on religious belief is held by the sophisticated Christian as well as the agnostic and the atheist. Brigid Brophy clearly believes that the indoctrination of religious belief is itself an offence against 18 basic moral principle, namely ffiat of toleration for the opinions of others. To those who ask "How shall we teach our children morality?" she gives the answer "By education. Exercise them in reason and turn them loose on works of imaginative literature". She seems to believe that through imaginative intellect they will reach the idea of the reciprocity of morality and will presumably learn to act morally; but this is, I think, unproven. My own belief is ithat moral behaviour is primarily the outcome of satis- factory human relationships. Whether or not this is the case, a telling argument against those who claim that religious instruction promotes morality is to point out the high rate of crime among one of the most intensively indoctrinated religious groups in Britain, the Roman Catholics. But Miss Brophy could not be expected to counter the objections of all her critics in advance. Perhaps now that she has read her reviewers she will be stimulated to write a supplementary leaflet in reply? I hope so. RONA GERBER Political Sanctuary Indecency in Church (Committee of 100, 12 Goodwin Street, N.4; 1967; 8 pp.; 6d.) THIS LITTLE PAMPHLET deals not only with the anti-Vietnam-war protest that took place in a Brighton church last October and with the 7-day court hearing •that ensued but also with the wider implications of refusal of bail, police brutality, police perjury, magisterial prejudice, and the inequality of sentences; the rights of political demonstration; •he use by politicians of right-image-promoting churches as privileged, heckle-free, political platforms; and, above all, the degrees of indecency represented by interruptions made at a function of this kind on the one hand, and by the horrors of napalm (with shocking eye-witness descriptions and photo- graphs) on the other. Six of the eight accused were given the maximum fines, and •the other two (for no apparent reason except the magistrate's obvious antagonism towards them) the maximum prison sentences, which are still suspended, awaiting appeal to the High Court. As the authors themselves point out, none of the abuses of the Brighton court are in any way unusual, and anyone who doubts this should spend a morning or two in almost any 'British court. But it is unusual for magis- trates to be answered back, and the authors urge other victims of similar treatment to follow their example. On the question of the rights of political demonstration, there have been several attempts to curtail and suppress these, even in the few months that have elapsed since the Brighton protest. The reversal of one judicial decision so as to allow peaceful demonstrations in the Whitehall area while Parliament is sitting is a welcome liberalising of official practice, but with this one exception the trend is towards illiberalisation all the time. There have been several instances in recent months of magistrates reacting with blimpish emotion to the word "anarchist"; while the magis- terial demand for sureties of £200 each before remanded political demon- strators (at the Greek Embassy after the military coup) were even allowed out on bail is not only out of all proportion to the heinousness of their offence but 'probably illegal. 'BARBARA SMOKER

Man has made a beginning creditable, for an infant—for, in a biological sense, Man, the latest of species, is still an infant. No limit can be set to what he may achieve in the future. I see, in my mind's eye, a world of glory and joy, a world where minds expand, where hope remains undimmed, and what is noble is no longer condemmed as treachery to this or that paltry aim. All this can happen if we will let it happen. It rests with our generation to decide between this vision and an end decreed by folly.—Bmanaso RUSSELL. 19 From the Secretary (General Secretary's Verbal Report to the A.G.M.) Ttns WEEK I have been reading Conway's discourse on The Religion of Humanity, and I have been struck by the deep humanity and love of human beings evident in all his discourses. This deep human feeling, this love of humanity, this need to set man free, to serve his needs and ease his worldly suffering, ring so true that they obviously formed the driving force in his great life. The same was true of Fox, for the same message comes through in his sermons. Here we see the dynamic of the Society, for it was this burning desire to serve humanity that made South Place the magnet, for progressive, radical people. We should ask ourselves whether we have this dynamic today; whether we have this same intense desire to help and serve humanity, or whether we have not degenerated into a mere talking shop and social centre. As Ethical Humanists, we are, or should be, committed to a code of ethics to govern our lives and our conduct towards other people, that have for their purpose the attainment of the freedom and dignity of mankind. But since the days of Fox and Conway we have lost the urgency of this great ideal; we have become dull, passive, lethargic. The fire to fight the evils and restrictions imposed upon man by a society that worships power, privilege, and wealth, has died down. Do we fan the tiny embers into a Hame—or do we become a mere poor man's Athenaeum? I have been your General Secretary for one year, and I believe I have now served my apprenticeship. To judge from the increase in membership and larger attendance at lectures and discussions it has been a fairly good year, but this is only the start; the real work has yet to be done. To do it, however, I need much more than the small band of voluntary helpers I have had up to date. Our rate of growth, the extent to which our vital message gets over, will be commensurate with the amount of energy that goes into the effort; and that means much more effort from every member of the Society, not just from the present small band of willing helpers, most of whom are here tonight. We live in a crazy world, with crazy values, where there are more honours to be gained from taking life than from saving it; where the amassing of wealth is more important than service to mankind; where power means more than peace, and privilege has precedence over principle. You nod your heads in agreement, but if we recognise this and do nothing about it, are we any better than those who use mankind for their own ends? We have an obligation to raise our voices against these unethical prac- tices, and to do this we need an Ethical committee charged with the task of protesting against all unethical actions and comments that arise in adver- tising, broadcasting and the press; and every member should refer to the committee all such practices or comments that come to his or hcr notice. We need an active, vital youth group. We need volunteers to help us with propaganda, addressing and filling envelopes with the Society's literature. We need canvassers to follow up this postal campaign. We need activity— educational, cultural and social—every night of the week in Conway Hall. But first we need dedicated members to direct these activities. This, then, is my report—a report on what we must do to live up to the trust of the pioneers of this Society and •to demonstrate that Ethical Humanism is a positive way of life that has great benefits for the individual and society. I propose to call a meeting within a month or so to discuss these ideas with the members, to consult them on the best ways to put them into practice and to secure their help in attaining them. I expect to see you all at that meeting: H. G. K. [The meeting referred to in the last paragraph is to take place in the library on WednesdaY, July 12. at 6.30 p.m.—Editor.] 20 To the Editor Population Explosion With reference to your lune Editorial, should you not hesitate to accept "the population explosion" as a proven problem from the food angle? There are others who aver that the true issue is the wrong methods of food production. Lord Boyd Orr, if I remember rightly, has said not too long ago that the world could still support umpteen times its present total population. There is the vegetarian argument that using land for cereal pro- duction instead of using it for grazing cattle would provide more ample food. Another important school (Soil Association at the head of it) claims that organic husbandry provides more, and better, food. When I was in India during a so-called and much trumpeted (in the British press) rice famine, we knew that it was a manipulated financial famine by those who had cornered the rice. Elsewhere where rice is not normally eaten as the staple diet, and where I happened to be, we became sick of the sight of rice at the time! Kind do-gooders started sending the victims wheat, but either they would not eat it or it upset their tummies! Perhaps Conway Dis- cussions should include consideration of this problem. JOHN LESLIE London, W.11 What's Happened?

THE VIETNAM WAR paused for two days in honour of Gautama Buddha's birthday. In Greece, many more people were arrested, including political prisoners' wives, guilty of trying to get their husbands released. Our own democratic Government decided, against the advice of the experts and the wishes of the people, to site the new airport at Stansted. It then put a 24-hour ban on the sale of arms to the Middle East where there was a war on, in which the Israelis demonstrated the value of unity and efficiency. Meanwhile, the special novena intention addressed to Saint Dominic Savio (the schoolboy saint) was the rejection of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Bill. A sacked probationary police constable who sued his former superinten- dent was refused access to some important reports about himself made by the superintendent to the Chief Constable, as these, claimed the Home Secretary, "belonged to a class of documents whose disclosure would be injurious to the public interest": now the Court of Appeal has upheld this rule of "Crown privilege": as the Legal Correspondent of The Observer says "a black day" for citizens' rights. And another "citizen" bites the dust: The Sunday Citizen, being unable to secure sales of more than a quarter of a million copies . . . A Reuter caption to a photograph taken during the recent visit of the Shah of Persia to West Berlin ran "A photographer collapsed after a police- man hit him on the head with a truncheon" but was subsequently amended, "due to a later police statement", so that the policeman became a demon- strator and the truncheon a stone: but nothing could "correct" the fact that, in the same demonstration, a trigger-happy policeman killed a student. Mr. Michael Goldsworthy, whose desertion from the Navy had drawn public attention to the iniquitous teenage contracts, was quietly granted a discharge—on grounds of illness in his family. An American army doctor was sentenced to four years' imprisonment for refusing to give medical training to Vietnam "Green Berets", since, he claimed, the war was con- trary to international law. But he need not lose hope of eventual pardon: a major dishonourably discharged from the American army in 1880 has just been posthumously reinstated and honourably discharged. Sir Francis Chichester completed his round trip, and, immediately on returning to civilisation, fell sick. B. S. 21 South Place News New Members We are pleased to welcome the following new members in the Society: R. S. Batter (Nottingham), Dr. F. J. Bentley (S.W.I9), J. Berry (St. Helens), A. Bloom (E.9), T. M. F. Brushfield (W.8), D. C. Campbell (Wallasey), G. A. Carter (W.I), W. D. Chisholm (Manchester), P. R. Dare (Weymouth), A. A. Douglas (Hexham), G. H. Effron (Sheffield), H. Fiddian (N.W.2), K. L. Green (Altrincham), Miss M. E. K. Gunner (Bridport), C. R. House- man (Harrow), Miss H. Jihanianm (S.W.8), R. P. King (Bedford), L. Light (Middlesbrough), Dr. A. L. Lovecy (E.4), Miss A. R. Meyer (N.W.I I), D. Molyneux (Aberdeen), K. C. Orr (Birmingham), Capt. H. A. Parry (Chipping Campden), Miss J. Pockell (Macclesfield), R. Porter (N.W.3), C. A. Reynolds (Hove), D. E. B. Ratcliffe (Rochester), Dr. W. F. Roper (Brixham), Miss H. Schlesinger (N.6), M. Sheldon (N.14), D. H. Strathern (Feltham), W. L. Streeton (Chichester), Mrs. T. Sorell (N.W.2), A. Thomp- son (Scunthorpe), K. Unsworth (Stockport), Mrs. M. Zaniboni (S.W.I9). Death • We regret to record the death of member Mr. Emmerick Lovenstein. Annual General Meeting There was again a good attendance for the A.G.M., which took place on May 31, in the library, preceded by a social gathering with refreshments. Miss Rose Bush took the chair, and welcomed all those present, with a special mention of new members attending for the first time and of Mr. Bynner who had become Treasurer of the Society since the previous A.G.M. The minutes of that meeting were read in full, and the Annual Report (previously circulated to all members) was considered paragraph by para- graph. Since no more than seven nominations had been received to fill the seven vacancies on the General Committee, the seven nominees (as listed on the notice of the A.G.M.) were elected without a ballot; Mr. H. J. Blackham, Mr. Richard Clements, Dr. John Lewis, and Lord Sorensen, were unani- mously re-elected as Appointed Lecturers; and Messrs. Allfields were again appointed as the Society's auditors. The General Secretary's verbal report to the meeting is summarised on page 20. All suggestions made by those present for the improvement of Conway Hall and of the Society's activities were noted for consideration by the appropriate committees. Summer Break As usual, there will be no issue of The Ethical Record in August. Also as usual, the Sunday Concerts, Sunday Socials, Whist Drives, Country Dancing in the library, and Conway Discussions, are all suspended until October; though the Sunday Morning Meetings continue until July 23, and Country Dancing continues monthly in various private gardens (phone Miss Palmer at Conway Hall for details). The Annual Reunion—generally the highlight of our year—takes place on Sunday, September 24 (see inside front cover).

SPECIAL MEETING AND SOCIAL EVENING Wednesday, July 12, 6.30 p.m. to 9 p.m.

The General Committee invites all members, with a special appeal to new members, to this evening in the library. Tea 6.30 to 7 p.m., followed by a short statement by the General Secre- tary and an informal discussion on the future cultural, educa- tional and social activities of the Society.

22 Summer Outings Sunday, July 23—A visit, jointly with the Shaw Society, to Shaw's Corner, Ayot St. Lawrence, Herts., where, weather permitting, there will be a pro- fessional open-air performance of scenes from Shaw's plays on his lawn during the evening. Admission 4s. Return tickets for coach leaving Charing Cross Embankment at 2.30 p.m.: 12s. 6d. in advance from Miss T. Block, 3 Chestnut Court, Middle Lane, N.S. Sunday, August 6—The Forest Group extends a special invitation to South Place members to join their ramble in Epping Forest with entertain- ment contributed by members. Meet at 11.30 a.m. at Buckhurst Hill Station (Central Line), with picnic lunch. Sunday, August 20—South Place ramble to Boxhill. Meet at Waterloo Station for 10.30 a.m, train to Leatherhead (or join at Leatherhead Station exit at 11.30 a.m.), with packed lunch. Walk to Boxhill (about 6 miles). Optional walk back to Leatherhead by different route. Leader: Dr. S. Crown. Autumn Event

1967 CONWAY MEMORIAL LECTURE to be given by MARGHANITA LASKI, M.A. on THE SECULAR RESPONSIBILITY Chairman: Professor Sir Peter Medawar, F.A.S. on Tuesday, October 3, 1967, at 7.30 p.m.

IN THE LARGE HALL AT CONWAY HUMANIST CENTRE Refreshments 9 p.m. Admission by ticket 2s. 6d.

Kindred Organisations The Humanist Housing Association invites all supporters and friends to a Garden Party lo be held in the garden of Burnet House, 8 Burgess Hill, N.W.2, on Sunday, July 2, from 3 to 5.30 p.m. The British Humanist Association's first general policy weekend con- ference, combined with its fifth A.G.M., is to be held at the University of Nottingham, July 21-23. A week later, July 29-August 5, there is a B.H.A. Summer School at Coniston, on the theme of Human Ecology, but with every afternoon free. Between these two events, and at the same premises as the latter, Humanist Holidays have arranged a Walking Week at Coniston, July 22-29, immediately followed by an "Art" Holiday in the Wirral], July 29-August 12, and, for the same fortnight, a Youth Camp •in Somerset. The Humanist Holidays organiser is Mrs. Mepham, 29 Fairview Road, Sutton, Surrey. The fortnight July 29-August 12 is also the choice of the Progressive League for their Summer Conference, which is to be held this year at King Alfred's College, Winchester. The booking officer is Jack Small, White Cottage, Burtonhole Lane, N.W.7. The Annual Conference of the International Peace Bureau is being held this year in this country, at The Ladies' College, Ripon, from August 21-26, on the theme "Relevance and Functions of Peace Movements in the World of Today". 23 South Place Ethical Society

FOUNDED in 1793, the Society is a progressive movement which today advocates an ethical humanism.the study and dissemination of ethical principles based on humanism, and the cultivation of a rational religious sentiment free from all theological dogma.

We invite to membership all those who reject supernatural creeds and find themselves in sympathy with our views.

At Conway Hall there are opportunities for participation in many kinds of cultural activities, including discussions, lectures, concerts, dances, rambles and socials. A comprehensive reference and lending library is available, and all Members and Asso- ciates receive the Society's journal, The Ethical Record, free. The Sunday Evening Chamber Music Concerts founded in 1887 have achieved international renown.

Services available to members include the Naming Ceremony of Welcome to Chil- dren, the Solemnisation of Marriage, and Memorial and Funeral Services.

The Story of South Place, by S. K. Ratcliffe (5s. from Conway Hall), is a history of the Society and its interesting development within liberal thought.

Minimum subscriptions are: Members, 12s. 6d. pn.; Life Members, 13 2s. 6d. It helps the Society's officers if members pay their subscriptions by Bankers' Order, and it is of further financial benefit to the Society if Deeds of Covenant are entered into. Members are urged to pay more than the minimum subscription whenever possible, as the present amount is not sufficient to cover the cost of this journal.

A suitable form of bequest for those wishing to benefit the Society by their wills is to be found in the Annual Report.

MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION FORM

To THE HON. REGISTRAR, SOUTH PLACE ETHICAL SOCIETY, CONWAY HALL HUMANIST CENTRE, RED LION SQUARE, LONDON, W.C.1

Being in sympathy with the aims of South Place Ethical Society, I desire to become a

Member and enclose entitling me (according to the Rules of the

Society) to membership for one year from the date of enrolment.

NAME (BLOCK LEL 1ERSPLEASE)

ADDRESS

OCCUPATION (disclosure optionalj

HOW DID You HEAR OF THE SOCIETY?

DATE SIGNATURE

David Neil & Company,Dorking, Surrey