OPPOSITION TO WAR

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 285, 29 August 1935, Page 6

OPPOSITION TO WAR

Society of Friends’ View

Uncompromising opposition to war as a means of settling international disputes was reaffirmed by the Society of Friends (Wellington and Hawke's Bay area) in a letter addressed yesterday to the Prime Minister (Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes). The letter was as follows :—

Dear Sir,— In expressing- relief at your explanation in the Press of your wrongly-reported statement in Canada regarding the position of (New Zealand in the event of war, this meeting of the Society of Friends desires to draw your attention to the following extract from a statement sent to the British Premier, Mr. Stanley Baldwin, from London yearly meeting of the society in May last:— “We know and affirm that along the path of piling up weapons of human destruction no permanent and creative peace can ever be attained. We reaffirm our historic conviction that a Christian relationship (between nations calls for a complete change in the policy pursued. Only as nations tread a path of friendship, recognising that we are members one of another, and prepared to seek the well-being of a common human society under God, can faith be re-established and treaties be made that are free and honourable engagements. Such a policy calls for a complete' renunciation of the resort to arms. On tfeis matter the Society of Friends lias always taken a radical position.’’

In view of the present international crisis, we reaffirm this “radical position” and urge our members to maintain by word and deed the society’s testimony against all war.