TO AVERT WAR.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 249, 21 October 1935, Page 10

TO AVERT WAR.

OBJECT OF ROTARY.

PRESENT WORLD CRISIS. EX-MAYOR SPEAKS OUT. Outspoken opinions concerning steps to avert a world war were voiced by Mr. G. W. Hutchison, ex-Mayor of Auckland, to-day, when, in his capacity as actingchairman of the Auckland Rotary Club, he introduced a speaker on "The International Question." Mr. Hutchison emphasised the fact that the sixth object of Rotary was the establishment of peace and good will amongst all nations. In the present critical time he sxiggested'that the Auckland club should initiate a movement whereby the district Rotary governor of New Zealand would be authorised by all the clubs to cable Rotary headquarters asking that a world-wide resolution from all Rotarians expressing good will to Italy should be sent to the Italian Rotary clubs and soliciting their assistance in averting the present threatened world catastrophe.

"What's the use of the Rotary Club," continued Mr. Hutchison, "having all this talk over a period of 20 years cm the subject of international good will if, when the need for action is imperative, we stand idly by. The alternative is to scrap our sixth object and face the world as honest men. "There is yet another organisation more powerful than Rotary, and going back not 26 years, but 2000 years," continued the speaker. "I refer to the Christian religion, both Protectant and Roman Catholic. I would suggest that from every church should go forth to Italy a message of brotherhood and a prayer for peace. Surely there is something in Christianity, and this is the time to show it. At the present time British -warships cast a sinister shadow over those beautiful Italian towns. This is no time to be idle."

Mr. L. K. Munro said Italy had had a raw deal from the Allies after the war and her efforts to seek economic redress were quit© understandable. If peace was to be secured, Britain and France would have to «iake sacrifices to satisfy legitimate Italian needs.