WORLD PEACE.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20083, 12 November 1930, Page 15

WORLD PEACE.

NATIONAL ARMAMENTS CONDEMNED.

addresses at Public

meeting.

A public meeting to affirm the principles of peace was held last night in tlie Leeture Half of tile Public Library, aiid was attended By about iferty people. Mr C. K. N, Mitekie piesidud. The chairman apologised for tlie absence of the Mayor (Mr J. K. Archer), who was to have presided, but who had another meeting; whidh he had to attend. He said that Mr Archer had great sympathy with the work of peace iind goodwill* He expressed the Opinion that people engaged in big business had come to the conclusion that war did not p&V. He moved: — . "This meeting expresses its satisfaction at the stispensioil of compulsory military training, and congratulates the Government for showing its, desire to bring this Dominion into liHe iVith the rest of the Empire, and into harmony with the spirit of the Keliogg Peace Pact.

"It further applauds the Education Departhteiit's appeal to the public stfhool teachers in the new syllabus to refrain from the inculcation of 'the nttrrdw natieiiali§tid iiltergrctfttldß fit' History' ftnd froiii 'afolising ißtei : hfi.i tional jealousies,' arid asking that in the teaching of history 'there should be sedulously eultivated a strong iaitli in a raore hftrmoiiidus, and prosperous world.' This meeting l&ments therefore, that, notwithstanding this appeal, and that training in the Secondary school ijadetfe is now purely voluntary, the gbi'ernifig bodies of the schools ai-g maintaining, and the parents permitting; silcli military training, and so perpetuating the oblique mental outlook inseparable froin such training, find subverting tlie work of the teachers in striving to propagate ideas of international fHfefidship aiid co-opSrfttiofi. '"this ftieetilig fgaffiffofc the dfctefmi= nation to co ; bpferate Mth the wOrld peace movements fßr,the total abolitioii of war and tho establishment of an era of peace and goodttilL" High Cost of Armaments. Mr C. H. 061§, iii secofidiiig, said tiiit he could not think of a better way of observing Armistice Day than by reaffirming the determination to cooperate with the world movement for peace. The idea that the Great TV'a# had crushed militarism was Answered by the facts that hi 1913 the British Empire spent' £llo,7!it),t)Od fdfr military pUriiosgs, aiid in 19Si-& there was spent SmjSguiOOO; in 1918 France, Italy, the United States, and Japan spent £ 194,380,620, as compared with £524,8(14,477 in 1924-5. Mr H. T. Armstrong, M.P., s4id that though he was not a member of the Croveriiment Party life was prepafed to give it ctedit for the measures taken to rid the country of the stupid, comic opera system of boy conscription. The systein was Costing tbo mueli, and he! took it that was the Government's reason for its abolition. They could have militarist! in & very b"ad form under the voluntary system. (Applause.) He did not urge that militarism should be abolished right a tray j when people had grown to manhood, if they still wanted to play at stildiers they should be allowed to do so. But they should not tolerate militarism being engendered in the rtiinds of the young and ihiiOfeeiit. The Government would not be entitled to full credit until they wiped it out of the education system altogether. hear.) * Miiitafy Sy&ttrai ill the ScUdblst. The lifev. J. As Allan Said, that Affttifetiee Day should be fin inttifrn&tlbJi&t feelebratioii fiiid that during the two minutes' silence 4hey should remember all who died i'n the •vi'SH It not dishdiiSiirlfig the dead to say that they wantSd to set aside the tyethod of settling disputes between n&tiofts by war: The ihilitary SyStein iii N£w Zealand W-as still entrenched iii the education yery place it ought not to be. In Urgiiig the desirftßlehfeSs of disarnittineiit, tHB Sp6alter said that the signatories to the Peace Treaty werd under sdleriiii obligations tiJ di&Srtn, afld he quoted, with ftpptoval, the remark of Sir Robert Borden (Canada): "We have renounced war; why have we not, renounced armaments'?" The motion was agreed to uiiahijiiously.