MORAL RE-ARMAMENT

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 47, 24 August 1939, Page 11

MORAL RE-ARMAMENT

A GROWING POWER

EASING PRESENT TENSION

Cabled advice has been received in Wellington that the members of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, at the close of their jubilee conference in Oslo, joined in a declaration sponsored by Count Carton de Wiart, former Premier of Belgium and president of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, Mr. I. Lykke, leader of tha Norwegian delegation and president jof the conference, and Mr. C. J. Hambro, president of the Norwegian , Parliament, and the British representative, Mr. Hope. "We attending the conference of tha j Inter-Parliamentary Union welcome the lead in the M.R.A. during tha past year by members in many Parliaments and the world-wide responstt that has resulted," says the declaration. !' "The only authority which can com[mand the respect of every nation is the authority which springs from the absolute moral standards of honesty and unselfishness. On this basis alone can strong and healthy national life be built. This spirit is particularly essential in the present parliamentary system, so that difference of viewpoint may enrich the full national pattern rather than degenerate into partisanship, for integrity of men is the guarantee of sound institutions. "It is the duty and privilege of Parliaments not-ctily to administer affairs of nations but to give a lead to their peoples in building a new world. No more urgent task can be performed by Parliaments than spreading this spirit of M.R.A. through the world by first applying it in practice and policy in their own countries. "M.R.A. being the prerogative of no one system but the prerequisite of all good government provides common ground on which highest aspirations of all mankind can meet. This spirit dominating the councils of the nations provides one sure hope of just and lasting settlement, nor as it grows can it fail to ease present tension."