CAUSES OF WAR

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22121, 17 June 1937, Page 14

CAUSES OF WAR

"SOMETHING LACKING IN CIVILISATION" ADDRESS BY DR. H. E. FIELD "Tha fact that war may bring out qualities not realised in time of peace is an indication of something lacking in our civilisation," said Dr. H. E. Field, Professor of Education at Canterbury University College, in an address given last evening under the auspices of the Christchurch branch of the League of Nations Union. Dr. Field said that it should be considered whether part of the causation of war did not lie in the failure of modern civilisation to give satisfaction to certain human impulses. Instinct in itself could never be a significant cause of war. The crucial thing was the use made of instinct, and the type of opportunity given to the individual to live a full life. One of the most interesting fecte today was the apathy of a great.many people to the question of peace or war. Most people were prepared to.give Up service to the cause of peace, out when it came to the test they were susceptible to propaganda urging them to war. This indifference was one of the major problems facing the worker, for peace. One urgent need appearea to be to stimulate interest in thk. knowledge of wide realities which we™ not part of the individual's immediate environment. Everyone agreed that a vital interest in the welfare of the country as a whole was desirable, but little had been done in the development of ways and means lhe prevention of war was not merely a matter of setting up machinery for the settling of disputes. It demanded not only remedial measures, but ai&o a broad constructive programme Dr. R. R. D. Millisan presided at the meeting, which was held mVae lecture hall at the Canterbury Public Library.