THE SHADOW OF WAR.

Auckland Star, Volume LVX, Issue 268, 12 November 1934, Page 6

THE SHADOW OF WAR.

Over Armistice Day, when the living remember the dead in the most beautiful of tributes, the two minutes of silence, the shadow of possible war has been cast. The very cable message describing how the King, standing at the Cenotaph, "embodied the reverence of the peoples cf England," is followed by messages showing that newspapers are taking advantage of the opportunity to emphasise the danger of war. It was probably not wholly a coincidence that Mr. Winston Churchill should have spoken last week as he did on the preparations for war abroad and the decline in Britain's armed strength. The complaint of the "Weekly Dispatch/' that the British War Office is recruiting Britons for special police work in the Saar is far less serious than Mr. Churchill's statements, than the opinion expressed by the Berlin correspondent of "The Times" about Germany's intentions in the Saar, and than Mr. Robert Blatchford's opinion • that Germany "again means war." The Saar police are under the League of Nations, and if Britain is to be debarred from giving this trifling amount of help to the police work of the League, what is membership worth? Mr. Robert Blatchford's return to the lists as a challenger of Germany has a special interest. This famous Socialist is now 83 years of age, and only a name to the younger generation. As editor of the "Clarion," at one time the most widely read and influential Labour and Socialist paper in England, and the author of several immensely popular books, Robert Blatchford used to be a great power on the Left in politics, but as he approached old age he mellowed. His articles in the "Daily Mail" on the German menace a year or two before the World War, startled England, and widened the breach between himself and the Labour movement. He wrote these articles with absolute sincerity, and there is no more reason to doubt his honesty now than there was then. It may be said that he is prejudiced, old and weak in judgment. Unfortunately there are other men, younger and even better informed, who share his forebodings. The best safeguard is the will of the world to peace. If there is an influential party in Germany that wishes for war, we may be sure it does not represent the German people, and that in no other nation is there anything like a majority for war and against peace.

Birthday of King of Italy.