THE "FEAR" COMPLEX

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 21, 25 January 1936, Page 18

THE "FEAR" COMPLEX

WORK FOR UNDERSTANDING

"THE HARVEST WILL COME"

"World peace is of vital moment to •womankind and we plead with our readers to work and pray to this end. writes the editor of a well-known English woman's magazine. This is no new dream born out of the griefs of the last war. It is a very old dream, and all true seers have seen it: the whole world, all the nations of the earth, living in perfect harmony and friendliness; so brotherly the feeling between the races, that the old boundary lines once jealously guarded need not be held at the point of the sword any more, because the whole planet with its many nationalities has become one great kingdom under a righteous government unanimously elected and loyally obeyed. "Travelling round Europe some time ago, I was struck in practically every country by the 'fear' complex which is almost universal," writes Sir Evelyn Wrench. "France fears Germany, Germany fears France, Poland fears Germany (though perhaps not so much as she did); in fact there is hardly a country that you can visit in which one nation is not' afraid of another nation. We are rapidly getting to madhouse politics. A COUNSEL OF DESPAIR. "And the disturbing thing is that many of our leaders want those of us who are working for international understanding to 'chuck up the sponge,' and say that the task is too difficult for us, that we had better just concentrate on arming ourselves and thinking only of our own affairs— a counsel of despair. All that I have 6een in Europe only makes me feel more than ever,that Europe is waiting for the right leadership, and in spite of the wave of nationalism in certain countries, if only we do not lose heart and continue to work for the great cause of European unity, I believe the harvest will come. "We should press forward with every movement which makes for personal contact., I would like to see a congress of the women of Europe organised in the Albert Hall with chosen delegates from each country, when women would tell men what they think of the condition they have got Europe into. The agenda for this congress ought to be very carefully prepared, but if it were done on the right lines, I believe it might have a great effect, and I should like it to be followed by a Peace Conference of the women of Europe." "If every nation's youth were absorbed in the task of putting its own house in order, up to the eyes in work, there would be no thought of war—anywhere," says another famous writer, Miss Marjorie Bowen. "An enlightened and industrious populace would refuse to supply the armies to fight another enlightened and industrious populace, even if unscrupulous politicians or financiers tried to create war for their own ends. PEACE BASED ON JUSTICE. "More and more I am driven into the belief that the only world peace that can stand secure is a peace based on world justice," affirms Mr. Arthur Porritt, editor of the "Christian World." "We no longer need fear the wars that arise out of dynastic ambitions and religious animosities. What we do need to fear are wars that arise out of political or. racial prejudices and economic rnaladj ust'rrien.ts. , Not until we have first studied the causes of war and then removed the galling grievances that foster the war spirit will, the peace of the world be stabilised. These grievances strike'deep. They will not be removed without sacrifice. Japan with her appalling problem of over-population on the one hand and prohibited immigration on the other is a symbol of the injustices which an enlightened world statesmanship would seek to redress. Until economic, industrial, and racial causes of war have been eliminated by the applied spirit of international justice; until the Occident is just to the Orient and the white man to the coloured man, we shall go on crying peace when there is no peace." "PEOPLE AFRAID TO LOVE." "Most people are afraid to love; they only judge and criticise; it is love alone which will bring world peace— nee gladio nee arcu," states Mrs. Marion Cran. "We do hot fear those we love, nor do we grab from them. The

inclination of the young is towards love, but youth is early trained to fear. If no history (With _ its inaccuracies and its national bias) were taught throughout the world for fifty years there would-be an end of racial hatred; nation ■ would: v meet nation upon its merits, and the World Brotherhood obtain.