NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 60, Issue 223, 28 June 1940, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

WILLIAM PITT SPEAKS AGAIN. “There is not a man whose stake is so great in the country that lie would hesitate a moment in sacrificing any portion of it to oppose the violence of the enemy; nor is there, I trust, a man in this happy and free nation whose stake is so small that lie would not he ready to sacrifice his life in the same cause,” said Mr 'William Pitt, speaking in the House of Commons in 1797, in the opening stage of the long struggle against Napoleon, the dictator of that day. He continued: “There is one great resource, which I trust will never abandon us, and which has shone forth in the British character, by which we have preserved our existence and fame as a nation, which we shall be determined never to abandon under any extremity, hut shall join heart and hand in the solemn pledge that is proposed to us, and declare to His Majesty “that we know great exertions are wanted; that we are prepared to make them; and are, at all events, determined to stand or fall by the laws, liberties and religion of our country.”

REMOVING CAUSES OF WAR. War, we have learned, is the result ot pre-existing causes, and of these the major, even if not in the last analysis the final cause, is the assertion of national sovereignty, writes Dr. William Adams Brown to the American journal, the “Christian Century.’’ If we are to have a peaceful world, we must have a world that recognises a law superior to that of the individual nation and is willing, if necessary, to apply the sanctions that are essential to its enforcement. But this will be possible only if means can be found for the more favoured nations to share with the less favoured the advantages they enjoy and to remove the sense of intolerable wrong which is the cause of war. It is not the function of the Church to determine in detail how this change is to be brought about, but it is its function to point out the areas in which ■change must take place. There are economic needs which can be met only by a change in the policy of nations as to the tariffs and currency. The Secretary of State, Mr Cordell Hull, is reminding us of this, and in doing so is acting not only as a patriotic citizen, but as a good Christian. There are political responsibilities which can be mot only through the union of many nations in a common policy for the support of which all hold themselves obligated. And these changes affect not only the nations immediately concerned in the . present war, but the neutral nations as well, and not least among them the United States. We come now to the heart of the matter. If we ir. America really arc to help Europe to a lasting peace, here is where we must begin. When we urge the nations of Europe to make some sacrifice of their national advantage for the good of the whole, we, too, must be willing to do the same. And this means a radical change in our own national habits for which it is to be. feared our people as a whole are not yet prepared.