WORLD’S TWO BIG FEARS: WAR AND STARVATION

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22655, 4 June 1948, Page 6

WORLD’S TWO BIG FEARS: WAR AND STARVATION

“There are two fears wliicli dominate humanity at present. One is the fear of war and the other the fear of starvation. In our time tve have seen two major wars Are we to have a third? Is peace on earth impossible?” I r these words the district governor Mr. R F. Gambrill, addressed the Napier Rotary Club Commenting or. the prevailing world conditions. Mr Gambrill said that the war was now or. a mental plane "We must strive to keep it there no matter wr.at the provocation," he said "The battle is between right ana wrong, and between good and evil." Goodwill Essential

“We must make goodwill our life approach," he said. "Peace is the spirit. It is something for the hearts and minds of men. It must be prayed for. worked for and fought for. We must earn it .Governments and institutions cannot confer it; Acts of Parliament will not give it; we must achieve it. We must, however, beware of the expedients of appeasement and disarmament. We have been tried before and found wanting.

“Is our choice today," Mr. Gambrill continued, “between a selfish capitalistic system at its worst and a totalitarian and dictatorial communism which denies the divine rights of the individual and so controls his life that lie knows nothing of the meaning of thought based upon truth, and freedom of individual. Is there no middle way?" Enemies of Peace The enemies of peace were fear, want, ignorance, inlolctance and hate, the speaker added. "The weapons with which we fight are thought, prayer and goodwill," he said. Thought was the divine gift to each and every individual, and the troubles of the world were all due to lack of thought or wrong thinking. Goodwill was a practical, usable energy which could at this time aid humanity. It was the foundation of peace, and began with the individual.

“We must never be known as pacifists holding a negative attitude toward world problems—demanding peace at all costs and refusing to admit that there are values for which men must fight and die," said Mr. Gambrill. “We must not place bodily safety before those eternal attitudes and those undying procedures which have carried men into the Kingdom of God.

"We will not succeed by preaching pacifism or by crying ‘Peace!’ Peace!', where there is no peace, but only Dy clear enunciation of world principles, by an effort to understand the point of view of all parties, by recognising the sincerity underlying most defended positions, and by a submergence of party politics and nationalistic aims to the ideal of one humanity. We must preach goodwill, not peace propaganda. “If peace is the spirit,” lie added, “then the need' is for spiritual people. I have heard these defined as 'all those who love their fellow men, all true Qhristians Buddhists, and others —all men of goodwill in every land, all who put the welfare, happiness and opportunity of humanity before nation, party or religious organisation and all who give precedence in their thinking and planning to the welfare of the masses of individuals, and not to the welfare of the State.’ ”