CHRISTIAN USE OF FORCE

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume LVI, Issue 89, 26 November 1935, Page 4

CHRISTIAN USE OF FORCE

The Archbishop of York, in his monthly letter in the York Diocesan Leaflet, referring to the Itaio-Abys-sinian dispute, says he was convinced that Mr Baldwin was right when he said that we could secure peace only if we were ready to fight for it. If all the nations of the League were ready to fight for it, they would not have to do so, for no one would challenge them. But it was quite probable that some nation would want to test their readiness, and that was the critical moment. Our first duty, as Christians, was to proclaim the Gospel as the power that could banish war, but to go on from that to deny the right of the Christian to use force for the maintenance of law against lawless force was, he was convinced, heretical. We might honour those who took that position, and it was from the Christian standpoint the noblest of errors, but we might, and he thought we must, regard it as error none the less. The League existed to secure peace. Was it a contradiction of this to hold that it might have to call upon its members to uphold its authority by armed force? Obviously that must be the very last resort. We all desired a settlement without the agony and the ill-will inseparable from fighting, and Christians most of all must desire this.