The Crusade of Peace

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 226, 24 September 1938, Page 8 (Supplement)

The Crusade of Peace

A GOVERNMENT dinner to the representatives of many nations attending the London Conference of the Comite International Permanent des Anciens Combattants was held at Grosvenor House, London. # Sir Thomas In>kij». K.( .« Mmi>ter for 11,0 Co-ordination <>f Defence, who pre--i< 14■ <1. in welcoming the representative* «jm iko of the embracing character of the international brotherhood of e\--ervieemeii. 11l hi- 1 speech. which wn 4 broadcast. lie said that tho-e tliey honiin red that night represented Belgium. Buliiaria. Czechoslovakia. Fiance. Cernianv, Crcat Britain. Australia, Canada. Creece, Hunjary Italy Poland, Rumania and Yugo^lavia. At their head was a famous ex-soldier, Signor Carlo IJelcroix. whose eloquence in the cause of peace had been heard throughout Kuropc. We made a mistake, he said, when wc under-estimated the strength of the forces which made for Among those forces tlere was n.me more powerful, it" propirlv organised, than* the voice of the ex-s.-rvicemen

"It no longer matters whether you fought alongside or against each other. Once you displayed the noblest qualities on field and sea and in the air: now. forgetting past quarrels and eschewing political differences, you «eek to employ the same virtues in reconciling men and nations to each other. Politicians and diplomats have their special tasks: their ditlicultie* are infinitely greater when, as too often, they have to work in an atmosphere of suspicion and misunderstanding. To create a fund of goodwill upon which statesmen can draw is to render an immeasurable service to mankind and that is what you are doing. In such interchanges of visits, in the .spoken and also in the written greetings that we extend to one another, there is perhaps more hope for the world than in all the treaties."'

Signor ( *xJo Delcroix. tha president of the C'omitat who lost his eves and his hands in th» war. replied in Italian. Referring to the work which the British Ivegion had done for peace, he said it was greatly appreciated by ex-service-men ill all countries. If they spoke of peace it was not because thcv were not ready to dare and to suffer, but because to-day it was the means of continuing to serve the ideal which they had espoused by their blood. This ideal was the nation, -uul for them there could be no undertaking which ignored the nation. The nation was not a trench, but it was a bridge forming a link with humanity, and if it were destroyed there would be as many peoples as there were individuals. An ideology had denied this reality, had brought divisions into the very midst of the peoples and had ended

by calling on them to fijiht each other in the name of pa-Monate partisanship, as if dyinjr for hate wore not infinitely more tragic than dyinjr for love. If after the la.-t conflict the new equilibrium had 'iot been readied as yet. it was because tliere existed a deeper rlea va fie. of which war was not tlic cause but the consequence. Never had the world been more divided in spirit 'and so united in destiny: which ! had mult iplied the means of offence, liad ! increased the reasons for solidarity, and : to-day no people could hope to derive benefit from the ruin of others

"Yesterday saw a dangerous tension dissolved by a ju>t agreement as soon as the English and Italian people looked each other in the face without any bias or any illusion. It is a good augury and it should be an example, for the old world with all its shadows remains the eun of history; if a new war were to mark the netting of that sun there is no reason to BUppose that any light would ever come from outside Europe. For many of lis a community of sacrifice has become a community of faith. Our common feeling was born in the depths of jrrief, and it should not be for the people* to come together again when confronted by danger. I do not know if what we nave suffered will spare our sons similar sufferings, but we must hope that the thoughts which have come to us in the silence and have lifted us up in the darkness may unite our people* in justice and in peace. With this thought and in the name of the generation which went through the fire. I drink to the glory of the King of England, to the prosperity of his peoples, and to the good fortune of the world." (Cheers.)