THE PEACE MIND.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3137, 2 October 1922, Page 7

THE PEACE MIND.

(By Pilgrim.)_ Among our manifold 1 disagreements in one vital matter we are agreed. The crying need of mankind » Peace. Urn distresses at home and abroad cannot e reieved unless we seek and ensue Peace. As to that necessity, we are as men of one mind. But we fail to impose our mind on circumstances. That defect will visit us with condemnation in the days to come But there is vet time to escape the reproach of'being unequal to our opportn, IVdav there gather in London, from all lands delegates of Peace societies for their annual international congress, the first since 1914. We do well to reflect upon the hopes this assembly may brine to the world. In particular 1 , we should linger over the deficiencies we. contribute to the solving of the world s distress. „ ~ . . For as Mr Lloyd 1 George has just said, the friends of peace must work together. But "their business ib not to" preach a 'sect, but the gospel! of peace " We don't want men (and women) saving they won't have anyone shouldering the ark except those who belong to a privileged tribe. Ims rebuke is just and timely. We must profit bv its utterance. Our fault is that we confuse our divided' opinions with the aims we seek to promote. We forgot that unless we bring the Peace Mind to our counsels, we shall meet in vain. Our need, and the world's need, is to build 1 up this Peace Mind. For good or ill (I think the latter) we have come to associate the cause of Peace with ideas of surrender, «f backing away from the settlement of affairs on" the basis of justice. In frankness, we must allow that the fighting stock of Old England is proife to adopt this view. But in truth it is l a serious error.

We are sometimes prevailed upon against our better instincts to act upon this erroneous notion as we watch the efforts of the professed Peacemakers. There is* no more aggressive figure in the world than is the professed Peacemakers. He (and frequently she) utter lv "fails to betray any recognition of the rights of others. And in thafj lack their labors are vain. For, as was said recently. Peace in its true intent is an accommodation of interests conceived as a just appraisement of dues. It is the extension to public affairs of the golden rule of proffering to others what one would receive for one's self. It overrides the compulsion of wayward instincts by subordinating them to the control of a motive which takes account of the rights of others and is actively interested in their recognition. This is the disposition for which the world craves. Unsafe indeed as public guides are they who fail to bring this spirit to our private and public distresses. It can be gained in these days as great figures of the past m all lands released its power. This Peace Mind we must capture again For, as Mr Holford Knight dec ares in the Fortnightly Review: "We have ignored the great saying, but its truth, burns wth a flame our wars cannot put —'Blessed are the Peacemakers, tor they shall be called the children of God.' "