PEACE WITH SECURITY

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 103, 3 May 1932, Page 3

PEACE WITH SECURITY

ENGLISMM^S DUTY

A BISHOP'S ATTITUDE'

The Bishop ;of ..Gloucester writes, on the subject of Disarmament in ■ the Gloucester Diocesan "Gazette." He is not in. sympathy with those who are too urgent in. their pacificism. He considers that if they'wouldVbe less militant they would be more intelligent in controversy.'

"I do not know why the advocacy of peace should justify such violent misrepresentations as I have been reading recently in the local papers," he writes. "I;should lik'eto makeit clear that it. is; not because; I dislike peace that I fear, unwise disarmament; but because I- flesire peace and'because I am convinced that if the British Empire were inadequately, armed it would mean an outbreak of war on a very disastrous scale."

.An examination of .certain passages in the .New Testament leads him to the conclusion that the sword must not be drawn.-'in _tlie: cause of Christianity. But that,; he points out, has nothing to do with the "civil power. He finds implied in the 13th' chapter of St. Paul Js Epistle ■to - the • Eomans "the right of the civil, authority to;iise the power- of: the sword, whether in. internal affairs or , for external protection, "f •'■■.--.

"The upkeep of,a sufficient foreef to protect our ; Empire and our country is part of the diity which is imposed upon every Englishman, not for his own sake.merely, but for.the sake of everyone who is affected—the 400,000,000 of the British Empire—and we -,must be prepared to make the necessary sacrifices.

"The-soldier, however'imperfect his character may be, who is ready to lay down his life for his duty, has understood the teaching of Christianity much better than those who are so anxious to relieve themselves of tho obligation of supporting tho forces' of the country." . >

Peace is looked upon by the Church as something: which should -be1 prayed for, Dr.. Headlam declares, and the Disarmament Conference should be a source .of' earnest prayer. " "But," he adds, "we must not either ourselves be ready to' give up the force necessary for the protection of our own people or expect others to do so. " .". • ■

"I believe that by mutual arrangement a considerable diminution of armaments might be effected," he adds but .the League of Nations itself would!, be powerless unless it 'could recourse; to, and had behind it, theforees of .-its constituents."