Nansen of Norway by a friend

He [Nansen written in 1940's] struck me as a simple, sincere, large-hearted and far-seeing man, with just a suggestion of ,the sadness which seems to be characteristic of the Norwegian people. He was a typical Nordic-fair-haired, with deep blue eyes, and a far-away
look in them. Being lionized in almost all the civilized countries of the world had left him unspoilt, and wholly natural. He spoke English fluently. Nansen saw a great sign of hope for the future in the fact that so many different religious leaders were thinking out what could be done to establish and safeguard universal peace by disarmament of minds"-and by helping youth to understand what peace is, and what brotherhood is, and what it is to love your neighbour. "That," he said, "is the most critical issue for the future of mankind." One passage in Nansen's speech ran: "When we think of the history we learned in our childhood it must strike many of us that the morality taught through that history was often very strange. In your religious teaching, in your ethical education, you learned that to steal, to rob, and to lie were great crimes, and if you killed someone you would be put in prison and perhaps lose your, own life. But if you lied, cheated, and killed for the advantage of your country it was a noble thing, and you were considered a great patriot and a great man. This double moral standard must be abolished if a real betterment of the world is to be achieved, and in this direction the religious teachers of the people have a great mission indeed." Less than two years afterwards Nansen died suddenly at Oslo in his seventieth year.