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Show Ill WHO'S NEWS THIS WEEK By LEMUEL F. PARTON NEW YORK. Mahatma Ghandi has indicated that, in his opinion, opin-ion, a world war against Adolf Hitler Hit-ler would be justifiable and possibly necessary. The Understudy of British, with Gandhi Calms their impera-t- jr. l tive jobof keep- Toward British great Indian empire in hand, probably aren't worrying about Gandhi. More important is the attitude and activity activ-ity of his vigorous and popular understudy, un-derstudy, the 44-year-old Pandit Jawahharial Nehru. The latter has been boldly resistant to British rule, spent six years in jail, and has acquired ac-quired popularity and leadership as Gandhi reaches his seventy-second year. Meager news reports from India' In-dia' indicate that Nehru has been calming down in his agitation agi-tation against British imperial- I ism, and that, a few weeks ago, he was vehemently denouncing fascism and the new German aggression. London is reassured, re-assured, but watchful, as Asia may become a balance of power in the clash of world dominions and Nehru has been an active propagandist of pan-Asiatic doctrine, doc-trine, summoning browns and blacks to resist what he believes to be the aggression of the whites. Born of a noble caste, Nehru was-educated was-educated at Harrow and Cambridge, taking honors in the classics. His father, the Pandit Motilal Nehru, was a lawyer and the richest man in Allahabad. He gave away his mansion and moved into a shabby little house when he became a convert con-vert to Indian nationalism. His son, reared in splendor, had no such ideas when he came home from England. He was a strong supporter of the British regime until the Amritsar massacre mas-sacre of 1919. Then he burned his 50 British suits, donned native na-tive dress, and became an agi-- agi-- tator for the Nationalist cause. However, he was no devotee of loin-cloth asceticism. He was all for fighting and it was as the most belligerent of all the Indian In-dian leaders that he came to the presidency of the all-Indian congress in 1935. Nehru was at times sharply opposed op-posed to the non-resisting Gandhi, but apparently their differences have been resolved. He is handsome hand-some and engaging, a vigorous assailant as-sailant of the ancient caste system of India. IT WAS not until a year ago that I Romain Rolland returned to France, after more than 20 years' exile in Switzerland. He had opposed op-posed war. Sev-' Sev-' Lamplighter' eral years be-Sees be-Sees Hope Only fore he finished In 'Inner Light' K SS had called him "The Conscience of Europe." He is a pallid old man now, with thinning hair and sad, deep-set eyes, but still "above the battle" and still trying to arouse the conscience of mankind. He dispatched to the New York international congress of the American Amer-ican Musicological society a mes-' sage of good will. It is quoted here in accord with this department's wartime alertness to such men and messages. He says: "In the field of art, there is not there should not be any rivalry among nations. The only combat worthy of us is that which is waged in every country coun-try and at every hour, between culture and ignorance, between light and chaos. Let us save all the light that can be saved. There is none more refulgent than music. It is the sun of the inner universe." It was this sun that illumined "Jean Christophe," one of the greatest great-est books of all times, published here just before the World war, profoundly profound-ly moving to multitudes of Americans Ameri-cans as an avocation of the creative and aspiring spirit of man. Many times in recent years, Romain Rolland Rol-land has written that the world had little hope of escaping another and possibly last devastating war. But, described as "an old man, broken and despairing," on his return to France last year, he has continued contin-ued his plea for peace, decrying hatred, pleading for understanding. understand-ing. His has been a lone voice, never identified with "movements," "move-ments," or political groupings, right or left. lie opposed Henri Barbusse and his Clarte group, and the various "united fronts," as he did the leaders of violent reaction on the right. He was educated in music at the Ecole Normale, became a devotee of Wagner and then of Tolstoi and Shakespeare. He is the evangel of the humane spirit in a day when it is hard pressed. iConsolidated Features WNU Service.) |