MORAL REARMAMENT

Evening Star, Issue 23324, 21 July 1939, Page 16

MORAL REARMAMENT

WORLD ASSEMBLY AT HOLLYWOOD DELEGATES FROM THIRTY NATIONS [Per United Press Association.] .WELLINGTON, July 20. The Primp Minister (the (Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage) dnd the Premier of New South Wales) (Hon,B. S. B. Stevens) were among the signatories to a message to the MoroJl (Rearmament World Assembly at Hollywood, entitled “ A Call to the Nations for Moral Rearmament,” according to cabled advice received in Wellington by the Oxford Group. Delegates from 30 mations are attending the assembly, >vhich will last for 10 days, having opened yesterday in the vast open-air stadium, Hollywood Bowl, seating 20,000. The world-wide nature of the assembly ia shown by messages from four Dutch Cabinet Ministers, the Mayor and Bishop of Rangoon, the chief of the Swedish Air Force, and others, In addition, thousansd of citizens from nmi,' -countries are sending a message pledging themselves to support their leaders. The “Call to the Nations” reads;— Born from the crisis, the challenge of moral rearmament has brought us new vision and new hope—a new vision for our nation and a new hope for ourselves. Moral rearmament,, is - the strength of a- nation’s resolve. It conquers, fear, ambition, ■ self-indulgence, and hatred. Moral rearmament is the secret of peace. It brings -peace in the heart, peace in the home, peace id the nation; it offers the. One sure hope of peace between nations —a constructive plan which issues from common obedience to one supreme plan. Moral rearmament is a battlecrier—challenging men and women of all’ classes and all ages to an endless vow in a war against the forces of chaos—the war that starts with God-given victory'over thope forces that work in ourselves. . Moral rearmament means first of all a change of heart. It means 1 the .admission of our responsibility for the past, a frank acceptance by nations, as by individuals, of the standards of honesty, purity, unselfishness, and love, and daily listening and daily obedience, to 'God’s direction. At this fateful hour we pledge ourselves to give the last full measure of our devotion—rthc service 'of heart and mind and will—for the moral and spiritual rearmament of our nation—for building the world of to-morrow, a world of new men and new nations, where every resource of human genius is liberated under God’s leadership to enrich the heritage of all mankind. The New Zealand signatories are Mr M. J. Savage, Mr Adam Hamilton. Mr Mark; Fagan, Mr D. G. Sullivan, Mr F. Jones, Mr W. Lee Martin, Mr W. Perry,- Major-general Sir Andrew-Rus-sell, and Colonel C. H. Weston. _ “ Illustrated pages containing the signatures to the British message represent over 1,000 towns and villages,” states the cabled report received in Wellington. “ Bound in 14 books, they made a modern ‘ Canterbury Tales.’ The sheets from Scotland bear the colours of the clans; Welsh miners write a song of hope; in some cities the mayors and councillors signed embossed by the city seal. The captain, first engineer, fireman, deck hands, and winchrnan of a Clyde dredger write: ‘We lake dirt from the Clyde. M.R.A. cleans up the world.’ In the middle of one sheet, hidden among the names of villagers, is the signature of A. J. Cronin, author of ‘ The Citadel.’ Yorkshire cricketers’ names filled a sheet, headed by Hutton and Sutcliffe, and including Constantine and Woolley. Lord Athlone, Lord Hugh Cecil, and the Provost of Eton signed with the townspeople of Windsor. Similar groups representing cross sections in France, Bulgaria, Scandinavia, India, Japan, and China signed the world message.”