CLERICAL WARNING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 275, 20 November 1935, Page 8

CLERICAL WARNING.

PACIFISM AND WAR. MINISTER URGES CAUTION. « DEFENCELESS NATIONS." A warning that while the Church was in favour of pacifism it believed that Great Britain should not permit her armaments to drop below those of other countries was issued by the Rev. E. D. Patchett, chairman of the Auckland Methodist Synod, which opened at the Pitt Street Church Hall this morning. "With the war as a lurid background the Church has iilled the intervening years with peace propaganda," said .Mr. Patchett. "Perhaps she lias succeeded not wisely but too well. No one in touch with social affairs can fail to be'aware of the remarkable response the youth.of the Empire are making to this appeal. Not only have any remnants of a militaristic spirit been exorcised but a pacifist movement of vast potentialities for good or evil has sprung into being. . ' "The problem now confronting the Empire is how to reap to the full the precious harvest of this will to peace without sacrificing the will and the way to justice and honour in international affairs. It ought to be clear to the most one-eyed pacifist that a policy- of complete disarmament while others arm is the way both to national suicide and international impotence. Moreover, it is contrary to the elementary law of justice to demand disarmament below the minimum for safety unless it is general. The absurdity of the claim that a defenceless nation in the possession of coveted territories is safe is surely exposed and exploded by recent happenings in Abyssinia."