SOCIAL JUSTICE

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23353, 12 June 1941, Page 3

SOCIAL JUSTICE

PROPOSAL TO CALL CONFERENCE COMMENT AT CHRISTCHURCH PRESBYTERY MEETING It appeared that some well-meaning people were trying to run a crusade based on a particular theory of social justice of their own, said the Rev. A C. Watson at a meeting of the Christchurch Presbytery yesterday, commenting on a circular received from the organisers of the Crusade for Social Justice. It was announced at the meeting that the Moderator of the General Assembly (the Rev. G. H. Jupp) would soon make a statement of the view of the Presbyterian Church on a proposal to call a conference of the Churches to discuss questions of social justice and international peace. Considerable publicity had been given to the proposal to hold a conference on the lines of the Malvern Conference in England, said Mr Watson. He warned members of the Presbytery to be careful how they answered a number of questions included in the circular from the Crusade for Social Justice. The name of the president of the Methodist Church (the Rev. W. A. Burley) had been added to the list of signatories of the circular, but Mr Burley had told him that that was the first he had known of it. “That just shows you what you are dealing with,' 1 said Mr Watson. When this statement was referred later to Mr Burley, he said he had been approached in a letter by the Crusade for Social Justice. He had replied that he was in sympathy with the proposal to call a conference on social justice, but considered it should be done by the Churches, not by the organisers of the crusade. The circular received by the Presbytery bore the signature of Archbishop Averill, Archbishop O’Shea, Lieuten-ant-Commissioner J. Evan Smith (Salvation Army), the Rt. Rev. F. J. Tylee, Moderator of the Auckland Presbytery, and Mr Burley.