MASTER CHARTER SUGGESTED

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24985, 20 September 1946, Page 5

MASTER CHARTER SUGGESTED

«SPIRITUAL GUIDE TO ALL NATIONS” PETITION TO PARLIAMENT (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Sept. 18. The Public Petitions Committee of the House of Representatives to-day recommended to the Government for favourable consideration the petition of C. D. Cox and 11 others praying for the framing of a master charter which

would serve as a spiritual guide to all nations, and as a basis of world peace. The Hon. A. Hamilton, who introduced the petition, said it originated in Napier, and was signed by 12 fathers who had lost their sons in the war, and if no lasting good came from the v. ar they felt that their sons had died in vain. The. petition had the support of many local bodies throughout the Dominion, and its burden was that in wartime we had sought the aid of the Almighty to bring us through that period, but since peace we had deserted Him.

After several speakers had expressed their sppport of the petition, the Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. P. Fraser) said its prayer was one from which no member would differ, but the question was one of how it could be imolemented. Even for members of Parliament it must remain a matter for indi-

vidual conscience as to how they applied their belief in Christianity to thtj problems which confronted them. The fact that there was traditionally a Government apd an Opposition showed that there was a wide difference in the dictates of conscience to different persons, and the differences revealed at the Paris Peace Conference exem? plified the same divergence.