WHAT IS POSSIBLE?

Evening Star, Issue 23175, 26 January 1939, Page 3

WHAT IS POSSIBLE?

TO lUK EDITOR.

Sir, —The Prime Minister (Mr M. J Savage) remarked at a State luncheon at Wellington on January 24 that “ this was no time for violence and it was time somebody took a stand am. got the nations to discuss the future. It should be possible to meet around a table and discuss the problems of the world and make the world immune from war.” Mr Savage has made' a similar statement before, and if he would only give ns a lead how to achieve this very desirable aim it would prove very helpful. I do nut want to appear a defeatist, but what is the position in the world to-day? Japan wishes to nnpiovo the moral and spiritual welfare of the Chinese, and has killed, and is killing, a million or two of Chinese, and has destroyed, and is destroying, a few hundred Chinese towns. Incidentally, Japan is endeavouring to prevent any of the Western Powers trading with China on the same conditions as those to be enforced by Japan on China, jtaly killed a few thousands of Abyssinians, and Abyssinia is now a conquered nation. Oermanv has pushed most of the Jews out of that country, and is also now proceeding to throttle the work of the Catholic and Protestant churches. The Arabs and the Jews in Palestine are more or less deadly enemies. The Irish are making trouble in England, and the relations between Mexico and the United States are certainly not amicable. Bolivia and Paraguay have just finished a sanguinary war lasting over many years, and one may expect that the people there still do "not like each other very much. Spain has been engaged in a sanguinary civil war for over two years. It is generally recognised that the hold ol Britain over India is only maintained by the hatred between the Hindus and the Moslems. The people in the Balkan States are mostly at daggers drawn amongst themselves. • Russia —well, one hardly knows what is going on there, hut the information which has leaked through from that country of the “ purges ” which have taken place there does not make very pleasant reading. And so on. Mr Savage, in the face of this position, says that it should bo possible to meet around a table, discuss the problems of the world, and make it immune from war. Will he tell us, however, how’ we arc to bring about the millenium he visualises? It coulo ho done, of course, if we could change human nature. I do not know how long ago it is since the Old Testament was" written, hut human nature to-day shows little, if any. improvement on the human nature of those olden days, and they did some pretty awful tilings then. No, Mr Savage, I am afraid that the cynical remark credited to Napoleon—that God is on the side of the biggest battalions—has some foundation" of truth. What is happening in the world to-day certainly supports that contention. At any rate. Britain, to secure peace, is to-day arming on a scale iio'-oi- reached before in her history. Which is an anomaly.—l am, Ptf* Pi.atn Facts. January 2-5.