DISARMAMENT CONGRESS

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28920, 13 June 1959, Page 3

DISARMAMENT CONGRESS

Comments On Dean’s Withdrawal

“It is a pity that the Dean of Melbourne (Dean Babbage) has withdrawn his sponsorship of the forthcoming Congress for International Co-operation and Disarmament, because the influence of a righteous man in a righteous cause, even if among some ‘unrighteous’ people, can be Immense.” said the Very Rev. C. W. Chandler, Dean Emeritus of the Diocese of Waikato, in a statement.

Dean Chandler said he had been prompted, as one of the New Zealand sponsors and chairman of the New Zealand committee for the congress, to give his comments.

“If, riding* on an ass from Jerusalem to Jericho, I found a Communist lying by the wayside, after having been robbed by highwaymen, I hope I would alight .from my ass and pour oil and wine in ills wounds,” said Dean Chandler. "We are all human beings .before anything else, and if the ■fbrthetming congress for international co-opera-tion afld disarmament being held in Melbourne in November is being sponsored by men and women of all political parties and of none; of all church denominations, as well as by those avowedly unbelieving—what matters? “Alfred Diekie, the Presbyterian minister in Melbourne, as well as Professor Murdoch and many others equally well rejected, were not afraid to identify themselves with a congress, the sole aim of which is to provide a sounding board against which the thoughts and opinions of the common people might be heard on the side of peace and nuclear disarmament,” he said. “I am sure that many people were afraid to identify themselves with Jesus when He walked this earth. Even Nicodemus went to see him by night He w ? s a little afraid of what people might say if he were seen eonsorting with such an unpopular figure," said Dean Chandler.