WOMEN AND PEACE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 57, 7 March 1936, Page 3 (Supplement)

WOMEN AND PEACE.

INFLUENCE IN EDUCATION.

A POWER IN THE WORLD.

(By SHIRLEY DAY.)

It has been said recently by more than one prominent worker among women in world affairs that women at the present time are a more potent power in the world for peace than men are. The Women's Disarmament Committee is no mere name. It is a band of women who are active in the real interests of world peace. Dr. Sweet, who passed through Auckland recently on her way to Geneva once again, says that at Geneva it is a noticeable thing that the women are more earnest, less tied up with political parties and interests, and have a greater and more sincere desire for peace than the men have. After all, if this is true, it is not surprising. Peace, although at the present time a far-away dream, is a state that every woman desires. She is tilt mother of the race. In her arms babies grow to manhood; and lfien, when trouble comes upon them, become babies again. She is the bringer of comfort and balm in times of national peace; it is she who suffers most when wars come to mar the earth. War is not the simple business it used to be. It was once very easy to make everyone believe that wars happened by chance; that countries had to arm to defend themselves, and that an aggressor country was the cause of an outburst. But now everyone is a little wiser. The causes of war have been proved to be found always on the same side—on the side of Mammon. There is perhaps more money to be made in the manufacture and sale of armaments than in anything else. So much money, in fact, that it is an easy thing for these wealthy powers to keep the world on edge, nation arming against nation, while the profits bulge their pockets. Every country hears the same stories —that another country is looking for her trade, her colonies, her possessions. Every country is advised to arm to the teeth, and so avoid the clangers of invasion. While the countries are thus arming there is little danger or an outbreak of any size. When the balance of power is fairly even, and there is a lull in the hammering and banging and riveting, there is danger of war; because natioi'6 do not buy when their cupboards are. full. They buy when their arms have been destroyed and when rear can again be put into their hearts. Money Maniacs. This is not a fairy tale. It may sound like one to those who know nothing of international affairs. To those who live simply, spending their days in honest work and loving service to individuals, it may sound like a fantastic dream. But it is'quite true. The live-j of our men, and our own lives, are definitely in the hands of unscrupulous money maniacs, who make vast fortunes out of selling arms and then destroying them. Recently several books have been published about this very aspect of the subject. There is no excuse for people not knowing the truth about wars. Red herrings are thrown across the trail, of course, but that need not pit" one off. It is safe to say that ever since arms were first manufactured on a large scale, and enormous fortunes made out of them, not one war has been fought for any other reason but to destroy them. A woman who realises this —and all women who study these things do realise it —is not lacking in love for her country because she works for world peace. She is not lacking in loyalty if she refuses to make a human sacrifice of her flesh and blood so that rich brokers can become richer still. In fact, the greatest patriot of to-day is the man who works hardest for world peace; who knows what is at the root cause of war, and does everything in his power to bring it into the light of day and destroy it. There is, of course, another aspect of the same thing. Wars would not be possible if life were lived rightly from the point of view of the individual. This is a generalisation which is easy to make, but human life, as it is lived, is drab; it is monotonous; it is uninteresting; it lacks colour, romance and real thrills. A man who works from daylight till , dark keeping books, who sells yards of cloth all day to silly women who can think of nothing but their own vain selves; who milks cows year in and year out; who works away from the sun in , a mine; who otherwise is shut away from life and breath and beauty—he will go to a war because it offers him something different from the stifling littleness of the life he knows too well. It offers him excitement, risk, something new and absorbing. He can fling himself into it, and for a time forge! : that he is just little Bill Jones, earning . a few shillings a week and never getting ' a thrill outside a picture theatre. Wai ' may hold pain for him, or even death; but he is willing to risk these. They 1 seem very small change to pay for the ' bigness of life. *!. \ Realising Values. But supposing life were different. Supposing it were not so unbalanced that people's hearts were empty for real values. It would not be so easy then for the exploiters of human life to find anything to exploit. They might go on : offering their mud and blood and pain, ! but it "would not have any appeal. No : really sane man wants to live like an ' animal in holes in the ground unless s his emotional life is so starved that he ' will welcome anything at all m new E o-arb- or unless he is mentally deranged. 1 Manufacturers could go on making guns ! and 'planes and ships and powder, but ' if there were no human machines to " man them, they would just be the innoL cent toys of harmless old imbeciles. ' It is liere, really, that the educational " value of women's work for peace really 5 lipa There cannot be disarmament in 3 a world that is otherwise full of mal- " fldiustment. It would not matter if 3 there were. War is not the only evil 1 in the world, and peace would not necesl sarily. include all the virtues. Lie " cannot be divided up into compartments The will to peace does not mean only the will to disarmament; it means an active quality of love, always in operation in the lives of men In business, i in politics, in the minutest dealings each -JL flip other, it means a sense of ; justice and unselfish considerai Hon Wars are made by individual, ?' w ot'p fought by individuals. [ They can be outlawed by individuals j • wav only. Women are a ; ££« for pS ® -," ld wta "' wellM uldefWding the causes of i «eu a , f_:„+; or > thev are alert to : riZTZ fJe"VpSt at work in them- - 5r de I teC = t War in the world is not a ' M m that can be isolated, to be ; Ffa^y yG rwTdte b o^f P t It he *work of moral education" for peace that is every woman 8 domain.