PROBLEMS AFTER THE WAR

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 24051, 13 September 1943, Page 4

PROBLEMS AFTER THE WAR

CHURCHES’ ATTITUDE

PRINCETON CONFERENCE DISCUSSED

The recent conference of Church leaders at Princeton, New Jersey, was not to dictate policy or direct governments on post-war reconstruction problems, said the Dean of Christchurch (the Very Rev. A. K. Warren), in a broadcast address last night, but to let politicians know how Christians looked at those problems. It was most encouraging to find in the United States, said Dean Warren, that politicians were no longer looking with contempt upon what the churches were trying to do. He believed that such a world-wide church fellowship, representative of Christians of all lands, would be a definite help towards establishing the new world order at the conclusion of hostilities. The Dean said that the international conference included representatives of the enemy countries of Germany r.nd Japan; also of the occupied territories, and he emphasised the importance of the messages that were going to the peoples there. He instanced how, when he was speaking from one radio studio in New York, a German was speaking from another room, sending a message of encouragement and hope to Christians in Germany. Of the many matters discussed at the conference, he continued, its members were fully seized of the importance of the United States and Great Britain getting alongside Russia. "Not that one necessarily has to accept all the ideas that the Russian people stand for,” he added.

Plans were discussed for a just and durable peace, which, in his opinion, were essential, if there was not to be another war to be faced by another generation, and they were considered from the essentially Christian viewpoint. “For example, while it was realised that the terms for Japan would be severe, and rightly so,” said the Dean, “as Christians we must see that they arc not designed so as to cripple that country.” In the United States he found that people were swinging towards a more international outlook, and that was the outlook that was being fostered by the Christian churches.

The conference had shown a remar - able sense of unity of purpose, and he recommended its report, which he characterised as “thought provoking,” to all New Zoala - uers. The conference had repudiated isolation, advocated ultimate self-government for some countries, and emphasised the importance of both intellectual and religious freedom for all peoples. Likewise, its members, who were bound together in Christian v vorld*wide fellowship, urged the necessity for setting up the requisite machinery now for the establishment of a durable peace. The mistakes of the last peace, he added, must not be repeated.