The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 10, 1916. "A PASSION FOR PEACE."

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 242, 10 October 1916, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 10, 1916. "A PASSION FOR PEACE."

For the cause that lacks assistanoe. For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that we can -io*

Perhaps President Wilson would have been wise not to revive the phrase "too proud to fight." It is true that in: the popular mind it has been taken to mean something rather different from what the President intended, but it will long be used against America —as long, perhaps, as "a scrap of paper" will be a reproach against Germany. In his recent explanation of the phrase Mr. Wilson has given his enemies another opportunity for scoring against him. "America is not too proud to fight i for any just cause/ he says, "but sihe I'will not fight for petty things." This is unfortunately worded, but whether |it is really a very foolish utterance or not depends on what Mr. Wilson had in I his mind. If he meant, as is suggested, that America would fight against Ger:many if she resumed indiscriminate sub- | marine warfare, and thereby took American lives, but would not go to war with Britain over the blockade, he said something to which no objection can be taken so far as the present situation is .concerned. It is one of the Allies' just complaints against bis administration that he has not sufficiently differentiated .between the outrages committed by Germany and the inconvenience caused by the Allies. But the adoption of this proper attitude cannot save him from the penetrating retort that Jiis country has already put up with affronts which cannot be considered petty. The fact is that Mr. Wilson is talking too much about war matters, and the more he talks the more he becomes involved in foolishness and inconsistency. In this latest speech he is reported to have said that "America kept apart from the world conflict, not because she was indifferent, not because she was not interested, but because she wanted to play a different part." He went on to say that "Europe must understand that before we exert the force of this nation •we want to know for what we are exerting it." But surely Mr Wilson knows by this time exactly what each side stands for in this war! "We want | always to hold the force of America to fight for the rights of mankind, not for I the Tightß of property. We want all I the world to know that Aye are ready to use all our force to maintain peace I among mankind." " Admirable sentiments these, but do they not look a little foolish at this stage? If Americans want to fight for the rights of mankind the ring is open to them at any time. The weakness of "tho President's position as would-be peacemaker is this, that he has declared that with the causes and objects of the war Americans are not •concerned. These were the exact worda be used in a speech to the "League to Enforce Peace." In another speech he referred to all the nations engaged in the war as peoples gone mad, willing to go to any extremes to gain their ends. Vet in his "passion for peace" he wishes to see the United States in the future holding the balance between nations that are tempted to go to war. 'The starting of a war can never again be a matter for the decision of a single nation. After the war America must join in a league, of nations to preserve the peace of the world." But, as Mr. Whclpley, an au thority on American affairs, points out in an article in the "Fortnightly," if America is so deeply affected by the war as to have the right to speak "very frankly" of it—as Mr. Wilson says she has—and if America deems it her duty afterwards to favour an international plan to prevent wrr?, America is necessarily concerned wit.i the objects and causes of the present struggle. "Xo Government could possibly enter into any future peace project without a full understanding of the causes, and the deepest concern as to the objects of a war which in itself will constitute the reason for, and will influence materially, all future international peace negotiations. To advocate a world peace pact, and at the same time disclaim, knowledge or interest in the causes and objects of war, is a contradiction, for one cannot exist without the other." Mr. Wilson ia trying to do two incompatible things. He is trying to be neutral on moral issues und at the same time he wishes to be appointed a judge of matters which include these moral issues

•We must remer.ioer that it' is the eve of the Presidential election. Mr. Lloyd George's plain warning that there is to ibe no interference by neutrals will have caused Mr. Wilson keen disappointment, and it may be that he has insight enough to see that the Allies intend to dictate terms. But peace is a fine card to play to the mass of voters, especially in the central and 'western States, where there is so much apathy and ignorance about the war. The President has been ambitious to figure as peace-maker, after the manner of President Roosevelt, and though he has been disappointed, he haa managed to diffuse the impression that he will be appointed arbiter of Europe. That impression will be only partly effaced by Mr. Lloyd George's statement. In an admirable ■chapter in his latest volume, Mr. Buohan discusses the American attitude towards the war. He says of America that while it has produced many able political thinkers and intentional

jurists, "the. majority of her people knew less and cared less about the greater matters of world-policy than many nations far lower in the scale of wealth, intelligence, and civilisation." After two years of war there is still much ignorance and indifference, to which, as well as to the unreasoning idealism that co often accompanies these defects, talk of peace makes a strong appeal.