PEACEMAKERS.

Evening Star, Issue 22379, 1 July 1936, Page 16

PEACEMAKERS.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —Mr B. E. Kite states a truism when he says: “If matters were left to the common people there would be no wars." in dealing with the forces making for peace he touches upon, a subject that should have the attention of every thinking man and woman. The World War was not a quarrel between the peoples of the two opposing groups of countries. It did not commence because the people of Britain and France wanted to kill and maim the people of Germany. '.lt was a war between competing groups of industrialists in different countries for a greater share of the world market and for profitable areas for the investment of capital. It was a continuation of imperialist' policy by forcible means. As Lloyd George afterwards admitted it to be, it was a “ sordid trade war.” The common people of both sides suffered and endured hardship, but powerful groups of industrialists,, bankers, and munition makers profited.' It was the sons of the common people, the working class, who bled on the battle--fields, who were suffocated with poison gas, and who returned home as invalids and cripples. It was their wives, mothers, and children who endured deprivation and anxiety at home. Today the peace of the world is again threatened. The armament race which is the expression of the war policy of capitalist imperialism has brought the world to the verge df another mass slaughter. But the last word does not lie with the war-makers. Those responsible for the last war and those leading preparations for the next are not the masses in any country. The working masses who nave nothing to. gain by war are capable of halting the approaching catastrophe. A united front of the working class, nationally and internationally, . will maintain peace.—l am, etc., June 30. Jab. Townley.