NO MORE WAR MOVEMENT

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21376, 19 January 1935, Page 11

NO MORE WAR MOVEMENT

TO THS BDITOB 0» THE PRBSB. Sir,—A letter jn Monday's paper needs a reply. Your correspondent, "Clear Them Out," would prescribe thought for the whole race. That there always have been and necessarily are now, those that are a kittle ahead of the majority is an accredited fact. Believers or not in the theory of evolution will acknowledge this. That they are usually "cleared out" does not stay the progress of civilisation. It seems equally necessary that there are some still to stay in the backwash of events and demand such things as armaments, battleships, and other equipment, presumably for defence. Strength will be found yet to lie in peace, and God is stillness. There has been and will always be opposition to the minority. It is this very opposition which forms its life. Attraction is drawn to the movement and notice taken of it until the strongest opponents oppose so strongly that at last they topple over, and at last see the point. The sinner is the one nearest sainthood. After a little thought—opposition I have called it—one must surely realise that war will not cease with war. It takes two to quarrel and two to fight. A peaceful man will always overcome a warlike man, and it is the same with nations as with individuals. Until we learn by heart the Sermon on the Mount, we must I sup-

pose. That there are some who have learnt to turn the other cheek, to forgive enemies, and to love where despitefully used, in fact, to resist not evil, is the greatest forward movement of the day, and it is here to stay. May "Clear Them Out" know that it is far more difficult not to fight than to fight. It seems in human nature to know the joy, shall I say, of a fight. Keenly contested bouts of boxing, wrestling, tennis, etc., are the proof; but an old adage says, "It is only the weary who know how to rest." Perhaps these No More War Movement men and women are they who, in other lives, have grown weary of the fight and now know something better. I believe this is the case. May I say we do not shelter under the British flag so much as uphold it in all its truth and beauty, knowing the real meaning of its crosses and colours. —Yours, etc., D.O. January 17, 1935.