PEACE AND WAR

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21656, 14 December 1935, Page 19

PEACE AND WAR

We Say “No”! By H. B. L. Sheppard. John Murray. 168 pp. (3/6 net.) Peace or War. By Francis Anderson, M.A., LL.D. Angus and Robertson. 47 pp. (2/- net.) The war-famous Canon “Dick” Sheppard believes that the nations have failed to do those things which are necessary to save them from war. Armaments and power-politics are leading us on to cataclysm. We are trying to build up a peace system on the foundations of force, and hedging it round with military sanctions. I do not believe that peace can be established on such a basis. . . This can only happen if we renounce war, not only formally, but absolutely and unconditionally. I want all the nations to do that. I believe that they would, if only one of the Great Powers had the faith and courage to lead the way. I want Britain to be that Power and I want her to show that she is in earnest by disarming completely. I believe that the general public is ready ... In order to test this feeling, I launched my Peace Pledge, and invited individual men to sign an undertaking that they would have no part or lot in any future war. I have written this book in order to explain that pledge, and to put before my countrymen the reasons why I consider it necessary.

Dr. Anderson, emeritus professor of philosophy in the University of Sydney, is president of the New South Wales branch of the League of Nations Union. He does not commit himself on the points which Canon Sheppard speaks about so bluntly. There are eight speeches and essays here on such topics as “The Meaning of Armistice Day, “My Country, Right or Wrong,” “Dictators and Dictatorships,” and so on. The essays are quiet and highminded and his thought is Christian.