Understanding and Peace.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 18916, 3 February 1927, Page 8

Understanding and Peace.

In the discussions upon tbe work of the Imperial Conference one or two ideas have found a universal subscription, and of these the most important is the thought that Imperial unity requires that we " understand one an- " other." May it not be asked. Is it not just that mutual understanding which is nece3sary to universal peace? is it not true that in almost all parts of our vast Empire we ire criticising those whom Gladstone called " our kin beyqnd the seas" —the citizens of the United States of America? Have we attempted to see the world from their point of view? Their surroundings ore different from ours; their people are different, and their history is different Do we understand themf Things and events both great and small should show us that we differ from them. The need for " understanding" is illustrated in a very striking way in an article in the Modern World, a magazine published in Baltimore, entitled " A Letter "to Dr. David Starr Jordan," one of tbe great intellectual men in California. This letter deals with an incident in 1917, just before the United States joined the Allies in the Great War. There were and aw many pacifists in tbe States. Perhaps there is not one so thorough in his denunciation of war as Dr. Jordan. He has written and spoken much in his condemnation of war. In 1917 he opposed his country's going to war. He attempted to address a great meeting in Baltimore, but he was prevented, and the meeting bad to be dissolved. Breaking up a public meeting and refusing to bear the other side is not an unknown pastime in places other than the United States. This has happened often iu England and in New Zealand. One of the leaders in this regrettable disturbance was a youth, twenty years of age, , and be now Writes an open letter to Dr. Jordan confessing his crror * The last P ara * graph of bis letter is worth quoting. It is: "I-do not apologise to you, "sir. No apology is possible for such " an act. I assure you only that experience and maturity have brought " me the poignant realisation that on " that Sunday evening so long ago, you " wire motivated by the principles of " civilisation while I was motivated by "the passions of barbarism." The principle that should be followed in a Democracy in dealing with public questions is given in words that are worth quoting: "In-a democratic nation " assuredly argument should always be "met with argument. Argument should " never be stuled by force. It would at "least have been possible for those " differing from yon to meet your argu- " meats with more convincing arguments on the other side. They eTiose " instead to use PS and other befuddled

"youths to prevent you from being " heard. From my present pomt of " view this causes me to tear that his- " tory may view with highly critical and " doubtful eyes the boasted idealism "which allegedly caused our pnrtici- " pation in the World War." Let it be remembered that seventy thousand youths of the United States were killed in tho war, and that the writer of the letter went lo the war and saw many of these youths die. This soldier surely teaches a useful lesson lo tho.-e of us who are not prepared to meet argument with argument, lie now realise? that the "essential characteristic: "I " man is intelligence, and thai, the "greatest treason of whieh a man can " be guilty is to fail to use this e.-sen- " tial characteristic." We wonder it those who like him helped to break up a public meeting or meetings will have the intelligence and honesty to confess their error. This letter is valuable for another purpose. It shows that the "States" entered the war not tn make money but to help what they believed was righteousness fighting n tyrant. Let this be remembered when we criticise our "kin beyond the " seas."