ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 35, 11 February 1935, Page 6

ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT.

ATTITUDE OF R.S.A.

(To the Editor.)

I was interested, to reaa wiai, me juominioa Council of the N.Z.R.S.A. has at last expressed its views regarding war. With respect to &. statement that the delegate from Auckland only spoke for ten per cent of the members, i should like to issue a challenge to the local' R.S.A. to institute a plebiscite of all member* on the anti-war question. I for one would be prepared to abide by the decision. 1 strongly object to the attitude of the national executive that the problem is so huge and intricate that as a loyal organisation it should not participate in any controversy, but can leave the matter rest with the general public of the world to remember the horrors and hardships of the last great conflagration. My answer to this is that a new generation is growing up which lias not lived through the abominations of last war and which has only felt the effects indirectly. As regards the intention to leave the question for the determination of the general public, what about conscription? The causes of war are economic, and it is significant that war budgets have increased, while at the same time unemployment budgets have decreased. Why the feverish manufacturing of armaments? There is only one way to prevent war, and that, is the united will, of the brain and hand workers of all lands to unite internationally. The fate of the world is in -their hands, and they, individually and' collectively, can make the world hear and obey the new commandment. There is an interesting fact I should like to mention in conclusion, and that is that at the recent Anti-War Congress at Wellington of 5u delegates 13 were returned soldiers', or approximately 25 per cent. . SID ADAMS.