MEETING OF EAST AND WEST.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3379, 20 June 1927, Page 8

MEETING OF EAST AND WEST.

The statement ol : Air Hearst, advocating a union oi English-speaking peoples, widely published in the press oi the United States and Europe, raises a question oi world-wide importance which may all'ect the peace oi the world and not one particular nation or the English-speaking peoples alone. It has aroused comment in the American and British newspapers, and has had the official consideration of they existing Government m England. So writes Air J. ivrishnamnrti in “Foreign Affairs,” and lie proceeds; — W’e must not consider this question from a sentimental nor from an economic or selfish point or view, but from the standpoint of the maintenance m peace and friendship between the nu- . thins of the world. The most important principle involved in this proposal is that it constitutes a definite demarcation between East and West which will eventually prove fatal to the peace of the world. There are already Pan-Asiatic movements in existence, some secret, some open, and this propsed union of _ English-speak-ing peoples will inevitably provoke a corresponding fusion of Asiatics, and so bring about a tremendous Western feeling, which will eventually end in a conflagration. ■Air Hearst’s proposal, if adopted, will mean eventually the formation of another League of Asia, in which will he included .Russia, who is to a great extent Asiatic; Japan, who is fully armed, aggressive, and determined to occupy a prominent position in the world, and must have an outlet for her population; Uhina. struggling to express’ her national sentiment and to establish internal peace; Egypt, with her close contact with Europe, and with all her European training and European ideals half digested; Turkey, with her eagerness to following the edicts and customs of Western civilisation, and yet intensely national in feeling; and India, with her ancient traditions and customs still holding tremendous sway over her teeming millions, and with her growing passion for national freedom. i\or can we omit from this League IVlesopotamia, Afghanistan and Arabia, with Palestine and oyria, and probably Abyssinia and -Northern Africa. It would be a world conflagration. Because i have a brown body and another man is .white, does it make me less hungry, tired or cold? ' Do pleasure or pain await the color of a man’s skin? Because I wear a brown coat and you a grey one, does it change the man inside, who is full oi pain, full of sorrow, full of ecstasy and joy? The sun shines on all alike, even though you inay wear a pith tyat and 1 a turban. The day is not complete without both sunrise and sunset. Inc world is not perfect without both East and West.

At these moments of great crisis, we must not judge hy the superficial garments which men call races, but iu terms of joy and suffering, in terms of common friendship and humanity, . . . A Union of English-speaking races alone, ile it might undoubtedly increase the material wealth and prosperity of those races, would not make for the well-being of the world, because it would leave out of the new civilisation the wisdom, the culture, the beauty ol the Bast and of the non-English-speak-ing races. The English-speaking races, while they have been distinguished for their power of organisation, of government and of law, while they have produced great literature and works of art. have never given birth to a religion or to a great spiritual teacher. The spiritual wealth of the world lies in the East, and the material wealth of the world lies in the West; and the union of both is the guarantee of the world’s happiness.