ROAD TO PEACE

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 260, 29 July 1932, Page 12

ROAD TO PEACE

Benefits of Disarmament

INFLUENCES AGAINST WAR

“From an historical point of view; tremendous strides have 'been made toward the establishment of universal peace,” said the Rev. Gordon McKenzie, of St. Paul’s Pro-Cathedral,'in an address he delivered on. “Disarmament” at last evening’s meeting of the Wellington League of Nations |lnion. Mr. McKenzie said the success of arbitration among nations had led to the setting-up of the Permanent Court of International Justice. It could not be denied that the court had proved its value. Seventeen major disputes had been settled by the League of Nations. The great difficulty of the League was that it tried to legislate for a world in which each nation reserved the right to declare war when and where it liked. The League of Nations had been driven by the logic of events to take her part in the move for disarmament. ’The years of the Great War had brought to men’s minds the fact that war was not only the concern of the nation fighting, but of all nations. Quarrels were inevitable, but fighting was not. The first great reason for disarmament was a moral one.. The second reason was more prosaic—that of money. The expenditure on fighting forces was enorm bus. The third ground for disarmament was the increasing efficiency' of modern machinery for the production of death. The great influences at work to bring about disarmament were therefore honour, cost, and danger. The great hope was the inarticulate longing of the people for peace, and the conviction that war was Wrong., Disarmament was an extraordinarily complex subject, but complexity was no reason for not attempting to find a solution.