IN EVENT OF WAR

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 31, 6 August 1934, Page 8

IN EVENT OF WAR

VEN VERSUS SWOED

EMIL LUDWIG SPEAKS

GENEVA DREAM AT END

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, Juno 21. Herr Emit Ludwig, addressing the annual congress, at Edinburgh, of the P.E.N. Club, remarked upon the prospoets of disarmament and war, saying: "As the League of Nations has shown itself to bo impotent, it is we (intellectuals) who should replace it and show we are stronger. "We see war approaching. There is far more possibility of it today than iu past years. "Twenty years ago international intellect completely surrendered to the force of arms. The Disarmament.Conference has 'I Wrought the: woild noarer to war because wo have now come to the depressing conclusion that it cannot be prevented. . " . ''All international agreements are handicapped by personal or economic considerations. A great part of world capital is interested in the armament industry. ■: "Tho Vatican is powerless, and instead of one Labour International, as in 1914, we havo three all fighting one another. Intellect alone is independent—absolutely in theory,, partly, in practice. PREVENT WAR BY MENACES. "As war is the greatest menace to civilisation we should at least establish the position which we as writers arid members of an international body of intellectuals should take up in the uase of war. "Pacifism strove to oppose the spirit of war, but its niothods failed completely. Today it would be dangerous to go about preaching disarmament. No intellectual dare- propose, as we did after the war, disarmament or conscientious denial of his countrymen, for he would surely be at once attacked by his neighbours. "Nowadays there is a greater chance of preventing war by menaces than by agreoment, for there are nations which beat a retreat whon threatened. "Tho dream of Geneva has come to an end. The'nations bent on war have brought it about that we must now count on a world in arms. We must decide on what can international intellect do to prevent war and what it is to do aftor war has broken out. "To the first question we must answer 'npthing,' as we cannot prevent its coming. We must therefore count on having to act immediately before tho explosion, if it docs not begin suddenly with a nocturnal bomb attack at one of the twenty-six frontiers of Europe. The leaders of our club should meet at the last moment before fighting sets in and issue a manifesto. LEAGUE OF NATIONS IMPOTENT. "Should, however, tho League of Nations fail, tho intellectual leaders of the world should, through the medium of the P.E.N. Club, call together a court to fix the aggressor, and should then call upon the world to fight against it. • "I foresee the Tollowing situation: In countries that abhor war, and which will therefore be the ones attacked, all. intellectual leaders will at once combine in offering their words and examples, their thoughts and arts to beat the aggressor. This will happen in tho fighting parties as well as among ■rfeutrals. In'tho attacking countries many intellectuals will follow their Governments at any price- and will try to find them not guilty. The congress of intellectuals, therefore, shortly before the war, will show the full responsibility of writers before the eyes of the world, while during time of war our combined action, bringing together international efforts against tho aggressor, might become an organisation strong enough to shorten the war. y "As tho League of Nations -' has shown itself to be impotent, it is we who should replace it and show we are stronger. In the case of Avar will P.E.N. bo silent because it is international ana intellectual, or will it speak because it is international and intellectual 1 >' '