"ANOTHER WAR"

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 8, 9 July 1931, Page 19

"ANOTHER WAR"

WHAT IT MAY MEAN

A STRIKING ADDRESS

.ft "Some aspects and consequences of • another war" was tho title of an address given by v his Grace Archbishop ,o'Shea to the Lower Hutt branch of the League of Nations Union last night., A good attendance was presided over by Mr. H. P. Kidson. At the conclusion of his address, the Archbishop answered questions, and was accorded a hearty vote of thanks. His (irace spoke of tho greater dan-' ' ger fr«m the air that might bo expected in the next war compared to"tlio last —of faster aircraft, refuelling in mid-air, and carrying more powerful explosives, so that no placo would be safe. Poison gas was another power of destruction that had been vastly improved, and it too could be ;iised from the air. There were also long : range guns to be considered. No doubt they would find methods of counteracting , all these weapons of offence, but the attack would be so much more destructive, compared with tho last war, and the means of dofence, too, that much more terrible damage would be done. . Another/aspect of a future war was the part the coloured races would play. In the last conflict the French and the British had brought coloured peoplo from their dependencies to fight against the white races. Many people thought 'that a mistake. After the war some of the white nations had sold unused ammunition and guns to coloured peoples, so that they had now learned a lot regarding the use of explosives. It was true that the whites were dominating the coloured races because of their knowledge of explosives. That« had not always been so, and might not always be so. . WOMEN UNDER AEMSr- ■ It was possible, said his Grace, that women wauld take an active part in the next, -war, for they were now entering the occupations and doing the . things that formerly belonged only to men. , In many dangerous pursuits they showed a courage and an initiative equal' to any man's. . It was a terrible thing to contemplate women .being , torn to-pieces along with men in another war, yet war .brought strange consequences. * What would be the consequences of another war if Such a war 'would be a great menace and a danger t6 civilisation itself. It would so weaken the whites as to leave them open to the danger of attack by tho coloured races. There were some who said that.another war would drive the world into barbarism,ft Another war would lead to the financial ruin of some nations. Money power which was a menace to democracy had taken a great'stranglehold oh the civilised world since the last war, and another war would give it. a greater stranglehold still, so that it would become a menace to liberty and nations would decay. ■

All the time tho coloured races were increasing and the white races were at a standstill. Science had done much good to the white races, but it had done the same for the coloured peoples. Some idea of this could be gained from, the fact that in the last 40 years in India, owing to the care taken by the British in sanitation and health matters, the population had increased by over one hundred millions., The same .thing might happen to the present; civilisation as happened at the. decline of the Boman Empire, which was attacked ,by armies whose officers ft had been "trained by the Romans. It might come about again that people would use their knowledge against those who • had

taught them. It might be that China would Jbe the scourge of Europe, coming through Eussia, or the scourge of America through Alaska. With modern means of transport an enemy could catch a country almost unawares. MORAL INFLUENCES. 'Of the reasons why there should not bo another war the moral ones surpassed all, said his Grace, and he instanced tho_, degradation, misery, and broken lives that resulted from the last war. Many had hot recovered from the moral harm done then, and once the people began to go clown morally tho'nation went down too. In tho event of another war it was likely that the moral bankruptcy of the world would follow. • His Grace Fhought that there was a danger of another war —maybe not for a while, remembering the evils of the last conflict, but. people soon forgot. The struggle for commercial supremacy, the cause of most wars in the past, was still going on. Another danger was that all the nations were preparing for war although some were doing it unconsciously, thiuking it only preparation for defence. Tho freedom of the seas had not yet been settled .betweon Britain and America, and might provoke a war. Soviet Knssia had failed so.far to destroy the European system by propaganda, but' might succeed by an uprising of the coloured races. These things did not constitute a pleasant picture, but peoplo had to face the facts, and it was too late to work for poace when war .was on. They must work for peace in times of peace. The people must be educated and their education must be fundamentally religious, for if religion wore eliminated ifroni their lives it would bo eliminated from their government, and war would follow as surely as night follows day. Tho League of Nations Union could help by getting public opinion to impress, upon our own Government the necessity for disarmament being agreed upon at the Disarmament Conference next year. His Grace exhorted his hearers to do their utmost in this direction. "You must work now if you want to save the.world, your country, perhaps, even your own children, from the horrors, abominations,. and evils of another war," he concluded.