CHURCH AND WAR

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 47, 25 February 1937, Page 14

CHURCH AND WAR

METHODIST VIEWS

"FORCE IF NECESSARY"

(By Telegraph—Press Associations

AUCKLAND, February 24.

A wide divergence of opinion on defence and other aspects of war and peace was reflected in discussions at the session of the New Zealand Methodist Conference. In the ultimate issue, which arose out of a report by the public questions committee, the views of what was described as the extreme Christian pacifist section were revealed as being held by a minority only. The. conference adopted with few dissentients a proposal by the committee requesting the Government to repeal immediately the compulsory clauses of the Defence Act, but declined to pass a motion by a lay member condemning participation in war under any circumstances. An amendment upholding the use of force if necessary for the preservation of peace was carried by 109 votes to 47. The motions submitted by the public questions committee were adopted. Stating that the conference, "having already emphatically declared that war is incompatible with the spirit of religion and inconsistent • with the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ, feels that, a way must be found to bring under an impartial survey economic grievances and other inequalities out of which the anxieties and fears of nations grow, and which account in a large ■ measure for the fearful race in armaments," the conference urged that the League of Nations, acting in conjunction with those States not included in. its membership, should convene at the earliest practicable date a world conference on these subjects open to all States.

The conference expressed its grave concern at the universal movement towards re-armament, believing that such re-armament is provocative of war.