PRESBYTERIAN PEACE MANIFESTO

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 241, 12 July 1928, Page 13

PRESBYTERIAN PEACE MANIFESTO

A SPIRITED ATTACK "IRREVOCABLE INJUSTICE” IF PASSED .Dominion Special Service. •' ■ -A"" Auckland, July 11. v A spirited attack by the Rev. W. L. Marsh on the peace manifesto submitted by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church marked a debate on peace in the Auckland Presbytery to-day. A discussion that aroused great interest and some’ Warmth of feeling was adjourned until the next meeting of the presbytery after only a few speakers had taken part. “The general assent of the Assembly means nothing,”' said the Rev. W. L. Margh, who opened thq discussion. "The general Assembly, when this manifesto came before it, had been bored to tears over this military training business. )t t ame in the very last hours when the majority of those voting admitted they had never read it, but they gave a general assent.”

.They woukj findj he proceeded, that ♦his was a tremendously serious and dreadful document. Although it appeared no simple and harmless, yet they had there something that was going to split the Presbyterian Church from top to bottom. He read from the manifesto that “war as a means of settling disputes between nations is utterly opposed to the mind of Christ," and other strong denunciations of it. Denunciations of the manifesto were platitudes, he said.iThere was certain stresp in the manifesto intended to identify the whole Clitirci with out-and-out pacifism if they passed this. If war was diametrically and irreconcilably Opposed to Christian principles then' every soldier in uniform was excommuni-i cated. If they accepted that manifesto and made it part of the constitution of their Church they would do an irrevocable injustice to the memory of all those who had gone into the war fourteen years , ago believing they were doing their duty for Christ. They would bo doing irrevocable injustice to their own historic past.” ' Voices: Oh, no. Mr. Marsh: Oh, yes. The Pacific was expected to be the storm centre of tlie coming years, and this manifesto would completely tie their hands unless they adopted it with those mental reservations that were the curse of ecclesiastical resolutions. The manifesto was simply an indulgence in airy nothings. Who was going to take any notice of it?, He ed they wbuld not amend the manifesto, which wijs fall of contention and controversy, but that they would try to find some formula in which they could express their utter horror and detestation of war, and yet at the same time give the Church something positive to go upon. This manifesto, he concluded, had no relation to any concrete reality in the world. After several members hud spoken a committee was set up to report on the manifesto.