INTERNATIONAL PEACE

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27750, 30 August 1955, Page 6

INTERNATIONAL PEACE

CONTRIBUTIONS OF NEW ZEALAND

ADDRESS BY DR. PAPPE TO CONVENTION

The part New Zealand could play in helping to make the United Nations work and the contributions the Dominion could make towards world peace, were outlined by Dr. H. O. Pappe when he spoke to delegates at the convention on international relations at Canterbury University College yesterday. Dr. Pappe was discussing how the United Nations organisation could be made into a more effective instrument for peace. “Our first contribution to world peace is to keep our own house in order and to practise the principles which we wish to preach to others,” he said. “There is a fine tradition of mutual respect and regard for social justice in this country, and it is up to us to keep it up. Through our membership in the Commonwealth we have a better training for world citizenship than most people outside this tradition. “We must ensure that New Zealand contributes in proportion to our economic ability to the financial burden of the United Nations, and we may be able to do better in this respect.

“We must review, and I hope, revise our decision to keep outside the International Monetary Fund, which is one of the emerging instruments of world-wide co-operation. By studying and keeping world events before the public eye we should create an enlightened public opinion. If we understand our own dependence on foreign events, we will increasingly understand them.

“Finally, we can concentrate our effort on help to the less-privileged and underdeveloped peoples, who may be turned into friends rather than a threat to us,” he said. “Extreme Ways” Dr. Pappe-said that there were two extreme ways to improve the condition of the world. The most desirable solution would be one world governed by the constitution of a super-state or a ready-made world federation. The weight of tradition and the nature of human beings were likely to bring such plans to grief. At the other extreme were politicians of a more conservative type, “The Micawbers who always wait for something to turn up, or shall I say rather, to turn down?” he said. “They believe in laissez-faire or let alone, however, only as long as things turn out to their advantage or satisfaction.” One recipe to avoid the pitfalls of either extreme ha<J been propounded by the philosopher Spinoza, who had said that when he had applied his mind to politics he had taken pains not to laugh at the actions of mankind, not to groan over them nor be angry with them, but to understand them.

We must scrutinise the facts with as little bias as a watchful scepticism permits,” said Dr. Pappe. “And we must come to know our own mind. We must test our moral convictions. We can then bring our ideals to bear upon reality of human nature and historical conditions.”