PORTFOLIO OF PEACE

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23000, 20 April 1940, Page 15

PORTFOLIO OF PEACE

(SPECIALLY WBITTES FOB tBB PHES9.) [By WHIM-WHAM.] ... the Christchurch branch of thfe NeW Zealand peace Pledge tinibii urges on the Prime Minister and GOVermuetlt of New Zealand the importance of establishing, without delay* a Ministry for Peafce. . . .**— Resolution passed _by the Christchurch branch 6f the Peace Pledge tittibtt* A Ministry for Peace appeals to ine As Something eminently brave and iIeWJ I wonder who the Minister would be And what his Ministry would have to do* To start with, he would have to Undertake Discouragement of every warlike Action, Restraining Anybody WliO might break The Reign of Peace by Force, or Fraud, or Faction: Especially, of course, be Would demand Firm Measures to eliminate Aggression, All lawless Undertakings would be banned, All Tendencies to Violence and Oppression* To gain these laudable pacific Ends He would employ, as fitting the Occasion, His Eloquence, his Gift for winning Friends, Preserving Peace by rational Persuasion If Means as obvious as These should fail To bring about the wished Tor Consummation, Would he despair of trying to prevail Upon a bellicose and powerful Nation?

Oh not at all! He would sit down and write (The Hope for Peace no matter how remote) To any Government disposed to fight, A strong, btlt klftdly, diplomatic Note, Should Notes, however kindly, prove In vain, On Peace intent, as sole Desideratum, He’d then deliver, trying once again, A stem— but Wholly tranquil—Ultimatums Then, Notes and Ultimata all rejected, That gentle Minister, without Remorse, Gould see that Peace* WaS properly protected By other Means—if necessary, Force, One feels inclined to ask, What’s in a Name? The Minister for Peace could do no more Than hand his Resignation in, or claim The logical Portfolio Of War*