FIST STILL MAILED.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 260, 2 November 1929, Page 8 (Supplement)

FIST STILL MAILED.

IN THE SHADOW OF WAR.

FEAR OF WORLD ARMAGEDDON

NOT LIFTED TEN YEARS AFTER

VERSAILLES,

(By SENATOR W. E. BORAH.)

There is" a fascinating 6tory to be found in mystic lore —I read it years ago —which undertakes to reveal how an awful crime committed in the stately home of an old estate for ever after determined the fate of the inmates of that home. Those born long after the crime had been committed, those wholly innocent of the crime, were nevertheless compelled to recognise the effe6t and to obey the fateful decrees and thus to suffer because of the crime of their ancestors. When some boy or girl in the family sought to escape the spell of the ancient crime, disease or confusion of purpose took hold at .rim and he was brought back helpless to shrivel and die within the four walls of the accursed mansion. This story illustrates my thoughts. Ten years ago an awful crime was committed —a war without justification, brutal and ruthless beyond precedent, was waged for four years. Many were responsible for this crime.

The question which I propound is: How long is that crime going to fix the fate of unborn generations? How long are we going to determine our course as a people, or peoples, because of the decrees and the pronouncements which spring from that crime? For myself, lam in favour of determining our course, not by what criminals did ten years ago, but by what the interests of humanity and the calls of justice at the present time and for the future demand of us. Let us break this spell of the World War crime and do our deeds and shape our policies in the light of present necessities and future demands. " A Continuation of the War."

When the Treaty of Versailles was signed, a celebrated French statesman declared: "This treaty is a continuation of the war." Subsequent years seem to have confirmed this cruel prophecy. Perhaps the most important question in international affaire at this time, is, How to escape from the feelings, the bitterness, and the influences born of the World War. We are proceeding along the same lines and in the same way that we would proceed if the war had closed but yesterday. We seem not to have escaped at all from its influences. We are not building with our faces to the future, but building with our thoughts wholly upon the past. How long shall the spirit of Versailles animate and control international affairs? There has not been a conference in Europe during these ten years but has had to contend with this "war spirit." Europe is plastered with military alliances. It has the heaviest military establishments at this time that it has ever had in its history, heavier than when the war broke out in 1914.

All this is well illustrated by the socalled peace conversations which lately took place in Europe. Hopes and Meals and plans were discussed. But the one concrete result of the gathering was the place and the status conceded to conscription and to the reservist forces. These constitute the rock foundation of militarism. Little wonder, therefore, when they were given a secure place, that there was great rejoicing and. the ironical announcement was made that we could now come to a better understanding with reference to disarmament. Step by step for the last ten years, while talking of a disarmament and peace, there have been fastened upon the world the greatest military establishments .in all., history, and naval armaments without precedent or parallel. Humanity escaped from the World War mangled and bleeding and cai-rying a great tax burden, a burden which meant, and still means, hunger and disease to millions of men, women and children. To what extent have the last ten years been utilised to lesson the weight of armaments or to lighten this load of taxes ? Our armaments have grown heavier and our taxes have increased. In the language of the statesman first quoted, the war has gone on—the conflict just continued. It has not been waged just as it was waged prior to November 11, 1918, but waged in a way scarcely less deadly in its effect upon millions of human beings. The Dead Hand of the Past.

The world is watching with anxious solicitude the struggle now going on over reparations. If it were only a question of dollars and cents, only a question of how much Germany can pay and still live, the intellectual combat would still be of uncommon interest. But in a large measure that struggle involves the economic health of Europe, and' possibly the future peace of that continent, if not of the whole world. And it is all being fought out upon war lines and in the spirit of the Great War conflict. Posterity has no chance to be heard. Those who must earn the vast sums to be paid, as well as those who may* suffer in case peaceable adjustments are not made have no voice. The participants in that conference are tied down by the dead hand of the past.

When the war ended, Germany was stripped of her colonies, deprived of Alsace-Lorraine, one of the richest industrial centres of the world, of the vast wealth of the Saar Valley and of Upper Silesia and of her shipping. In addition to all this, Germany has paid in cash and kind a sum equal to billions of dollars. It has been said that nothing is ever settled until it is settled right. And I maintain that these questions cannot be settled right if we are going to be governed by conditions and supposed facts of ten years ago. We must take into consideration what are the best interests of all peoples, of all nations, what will advance a better understanding, and what will more nearly ensure peace. Relief Needed from "War-made Policies.

I am one of those who do not believe that the peoples of the different countries can indefinitely carry the load which is being piled upon -them, upon the theory that everything must be adjusted from now uatil doomsday in the light of the results of the World War. Unless there is to be a change of attitude, a change of view, a change of policy, from which we approach these public international, matters, I do not see how this burden is to be diminished. And there will be no change of view,, there will be no change of policy, until we determine to adjust these matters and to settle all controversies, not under the direction of the past, but in the light of the present and the demands of the future. The Human family is en-

titled to be relieved .>f these war-made policies. It is entitled to have present controversies settled upon the basis #f justice, of reason, and in the interests of men and women now living. If the genius of Aeschylus and Shakespeare and Moliere all combined were to create a tragedy exhibiting all the horrors of infinite injustice, it could not give even a glimpse of that unspeakable hell wherein a few men are permitted not only to bring upon those of their own day and generation great sacrifices and sorrow, but to fasten upon coming generations the unpitying curse of carrying out and putting into execution the decrees which they saw fit to •write in the hour of hatred and madness. — (Anglo-American N.S. Copyright).