PEACE AND WAR

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 167, 11 April 1935, Page 20

PEACE AND WAR

League of Nations Union ADDRESSES AT MASTERTON Dominion Special Service. Masterton, April 10. Five representative Mastertun speakers delivered brief addresses on “Peace and War” at a meeting held in the Parish Hall last evening under the auspices of the Masterton branch of the League of Nations Union. Introducing the speakers, the chairman, Mt. H. B. Tomlinson, said that anyone who believed that law should replace anarchy in international relationships bad a right to become a member of the union. The idea underlying this meeting was to have speakers representing the Church. Parliament, education and business, partly to show how the questions of peace and war affected all sections of the community, and partly to lead men and women to consider what methods would best serve the ends they had m common. Tile Rev. G. F. Stockwell, the first speaker, said that .anyone who believed in the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man also believed that the only thing to do with war was to do away with it altogether. War at its best was madness; at its worst “Hell let loose." The Church was-solidly with the League of Nations because war, besides being wicked and irrational, was destructive of moral standards. He had heard a'preacher declare prior to the commencement of the Great War that it would ennoble the nation in spirit and life, and he wondered what that author would say to-day. No man oi woman thought they were better for the war. but they all knew they were a good deal worse. He recalled the grief and desolation of those four years. War struck its keenest blow at the heart of the nation’s womanhood, and that was a further reason why the Christian Church stood with the League Many people were of the opinion that no League of Nations would ever prevent war, stated Mr G. R. Sykes, M.P., and against that belief he appealed to those who had sons, for whom' they imagined lives of usefulness in years to come, to remember that if war should break out, youth would readily answer the call as before, and those now standing on ‘he threshold of manhood would soon be lying shattered on the battlefields. At a gathering held in honour of’ 500 high school boys of one city who were killed in the Great War. Sir lan Hamilton bad said that there must be something wrong when a State devoured its own children. He also said that there had been too great ■a tendency tc glorify war, and that history dealt too lightly with its devastation and aftermath of misery To protect the lives of the young, Mr. Sykes said, they must rely solely on the League, of Nations, which had done wonderful work fortlie welfare of nations by nipping incipient wars in the bud. In his opinion the present peacemaking efforts in Europe and the impending Stresa conference would lift the clouds, making the future bright with hope and confidence. "Mutual Suicide Chib.’ '.'War is a mud thing—a mutual suicide club,” observed Mrs. M. B, Thompson, M.A., principal of Solway Girls’ College, speaking on tile woman’s point of view. Armament manufacturers were to-day engaged in propaganda to open markets for their products, and war was again threatening in Europe. To her way of thinking, die only thing to be done was continually to preach the doctrine of internationalism, which, although Utopian, was certainly constructive. It was as old as Christianity—she believed it to be older. The future was in the hands of the young people, and that was where women in the’ homes could do much Similarly, good work dould be done in the schools, while the League of Nations should be supported as tile one and only constructive agency that had emerged from the “devastating peace treaties.” Mr. C. M. Bowden, speaking as a business man, said that witli the exception of Christianity, the League of Nations would continue to be the greatest force in the world. Nothing did more Io upset stability and commercial prosperity than war. It engendered false prosperity, but distress always followed. The false prosperity of the Great War had now disappeared. bnl the world was full of its other effects. Peace was essential to order and prosperity, and from the hardheaded business man’s point of view no war could ever be of any benefit. The last speaker of the evening was Mr. J. Robertson, who is to contest the Masterton seat in the Labour interests. He believed the the causes of war lay in the economic conditions in which we lived. he said. Formerly nations.fought oyer sources from which to obtain supplies, while to-dav nations went to war to force “the other fellow” to take their surplus goods The menace of war wa’ now hovering over the world. War was important less fot its bloodshed than for what it did in peace time, when it determined the conditions under which we were to live. Mr. Robertson spoke of the futility of the Great War. which was fought for freedom and democracy and had brought ruthless dictatorships. He said that although it was not possible to change human nature, it was possible to change human behaviour. and that whatever armament firms might do. if the common people decided that there was not to be any war. there would be no war.