WAR ANALYSED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 50, 28 February 1940, Page 7

WAR ANALYSED.

SPIRITUAL ISSUES.

tap.* Oβ Mted Of Yoeth Of Appeal 1. Few.

FOKBIGir SBOBETAmT STEAKS.

Pi oanhil Wtntmm. (B««elT*4 1.30 P« > RUGBY. February 27. Speaking at a larjre university gathering «t Oifford, in his dnml role of Chancellor of the University and Foreign Secretary. Viscount Halifax dwelt upon the deeper philosophical and spiritual issues which seemed to him to be involved in the present war. and in particular discussed the impact upon the mind of youth of the second appeal to force in a quarter of a century. H« recalled the circumstaeees that the Foreign Secretarv in office when the iMt war broke out later became Chancellor of Oxford University, and **id that Lord Orev had hated war and had dooe hi* utmost, a* hit «»«**son» ia office to-day had done, to avoid war.

Taking a* hi* text Lord Grey* famous aphorism on Aujwt *, 1»14. Lord Halifax said, "We al«o observe, with deepening anxiety at the growing darkness in Europe, our attitude to tfeose instrument* of fore* to which we are compelled to have resort in defence of the hipbfwt thin?* for which and by which we live—our view* about war. Both these are uaehaaged. ,.

What he thought had dainjH wee the temper of the nation and of the youn- men to whom came the mil «*» arms when faced with war. To-day it vm one of «et determination, rather than any feeling of a great unknown adventure.

Referring to the element of disillusionment he perceive* in the mind of youth, he freely conceded that the existence of war in Europe to-day waa a sign of failure, or something more than failure, in Western civilisation, hwt he «m more appalled by the fact that the conflict to-day aeemed to him Im one between an older generation, which had failed and a younger generation than between youth and yonth.

"What ha* teen the driving fore* behind the Nazi movement?" he naked. It bad been German youth. Deliberately deprived aw they had been of element* of true judgment, it waa they who made the movement and still aaataia it. Their point of view atanaa in static opposition to youm," he added.

DatrinllMli ■Thej do not understand toot war of thinking. Your ideal* mean nothing to them. Tber hare their own ideal* which to our mind* are distorted and deformed, but for which huadred* of thousand* of them are prepared, withoot a moment** hesitation, to •acrinVe their lives.

There »• what seems an impenetrable barrier dividing you from them which somehow will have to be broken down if the youth of Europe i* to avoid living always in thi* waste land and if a Kinoaean temple of civilisation i* to deserve and win a rekindling of the lamps. ,.

Remarking that the average thoughtful cituea of the nineteenth century who returned to life to-day would he astounded by the moral letiugietiua ef Europe and* the devastating perversion of youth ia Geiuiany, Lord Halifax continued: "Do not let me over-state the on. I am far from thinking that the wounds inflicted on oar civilisation seed be mortal, but I do think we are fighting for it* life, aad inasmuch aa that life finally depends upoa the ideate that inspire it I think we have no choice hot to resist and defeat by fores the attack to which those ideal* are now mpoaed"

Spint Bthiml Ftm. He added that always it k the #pirit behind the application of force which make* or mar* it* value. "And we may assuredly hope that the «ame epirit which -ive* physical and moral <<ourajr« to defend the menaced value* of life to-day will avail u* when we come through the valley of dark decieiou to the work of reconstruction.

"What i* at stake in this war." Lord Halifax Mid. "k whether the nation* that de*ire peace mu«t perpetually he faced with war if they are not prepared to accept any settlement fierce may •eek to impowe upon them. ,.

The radical doctrine of the Xaai creed he characterised a# *heer nonwense. aad what wa* wdnte—a doctrine invoked in justification of oppretwion of other rases which became a crime ayainct humanity. He concluded hy contrasting thw with a true pride of race.

Of British achievement he said: "We may readily admit that m, like other men. have often fallen «bnrt of our profession*. Our history i* not overfree from fault*. It ha* takea time to e*tablt«h in universal practice principles which have now won mineral acceptance.

"And there mn thing* to-day within our body politic which we need* to fgat not less intensely, if with other weapons, than we fight the enemy without. Bat the broad record of the British race *Und> to be judged on facts that are incontestable.

"It is a fact that durin? the 19th century when the power of tat* country was unchallenged there «u no nation in Europe which felt for that reaton insecure or did not recommit* that our power would be an instrument of peace. 'Pax Britannica' has been no empty *eJfrighteous boaet of purpose.

"It is a feet. too. that in every corner of the world where men of the* British r*«e have an established influence, there, or the immutable law of Xatnre. voa will find established the *eed of 'the plant of liberty. It i* the trial by which i* marked their progress, interpreted to all by standard* of pood faith. re*p*rt for law. and equal justice."