"CIVILISED?"

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 234, 3 October 1935, Page 5

"CIVILISED?"

SCREEN WAR PROTEST

CABLEGRAMS FROM AMERICA. TO ITALY AND ETHIOPIA. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LOS ANGELES, September 1. Aroused to action over the current Italian-Ethiopian crisis, with its international complications, and utilising the power of the screen as a means of expression, Southern California churchwomen have launched a vigorous and unique protest against the threatened conflict. On behalf of more than 500,000 members of the Southern California Council of Federated Cliurchwomen, Mrs. Cora A. Buley, president, and Mrs. A. O. Scliofield, secretary, dispatched lengthy cablegrams to both Premier Benito Mussolini of Italy and Emperor Haile Silassie of Ethiopia. The cablegrams implored both Mussolini and Silassie to view the motion picture "Are We Civilised?" as "an expression of sentiment of the American people" before resorting to actual hostilities. At the same time the cliurchwomen made arrangements with the Edwin Carewe Pictures Corporation, makers of the film, to forward from London prints by air express to both Rome and Addis Ababa, and, through their international organisation, brought pressure to bear on the two rulers to see the picture. Action of the Californian leaders, who preview all major pictures before release on behalf of the National Council of Federated Churchwomen, followed a special showing of "Are We Civilised?" an independent production which dramatises the futility of war and glorifies the doctrine of tolerance in human relationships.

Suggests Ostracising. Criticising "the recent effort of Washington to ensure our neutrality in the impending conflict in the East" as "a weak gesture for a nation that boasts of its humanitarian ideals," Dr. Arthur H. Wurtele, pastor of St. Thomas' Episcopal Church in Los Angeles, declared that "there can be no neutrality when civilisation is threatened with collapse." "Christian churches should demand the ostracising of any nation attempting aggressive war," said Dr. Wurtele. "Threatening war clouds in Italy and Abyssinia teach us the same lesson of 1914, that mankind, when inflamed with militarism and selfish nationalism, can easily forget the teaching of the Prince of Peace. A new generation seems to have forgotten the awfulncss of the World War, with its delude of blood, crime and overwhelming indebtedness."

"Crime of War." "War is a crime, just as racketeering is a crime," continued Dr. Wurtele. "Wo cannot propose neutrality in our fight against organised crime, nor can the civilised world watcli the slaughter of millions of human beings without admitting its own weakness and shameful disgrace. "Where is the Christian conscience in Italy and Europe? Is it possible that, under the development of dictatorships, the voice of the Church to protest is lost in the fanfare of trumpets and drums? This is not pacifism. Sane, practical Christianity demands that every honest effort be made to prevent the crime of war and to preserve the rights of smaller nations."

London's sewers have a total length of more than 500 miles.