HUMANITY AND WAR

Grey River Argus, 15 March 1932, Page 7

HUMANITY AND WAR

(StocKiG’i Correspondent) In an article written about fifteen year s ago dealing with the White and Yellow Races, Mr Unosuke Wakamiya, in the Chao Koron, said: —“The sun is ful of caprice, it has its likes and dislikes. The sun favours the yellow ma n most; it places him in the largest and richest part of the world, and very probably ho is the original representative of mankind, the first man. The white man has started to defy the sun; but he has neither the right nor the power to domineer over the yellow man; he can never succeed in planting himself permanently in Asia, vjjhich is the rightful home of the yellow man. To be completely acclimatised. the white man has to perform the miracle of lowering his natural Itcmperature in the tropicsjbut this takes several generations, after which the tropics have conquered him, and he i s no longer a white man! The Japanese is a yellow man; he has the warm blood of the South; his temperature is normally below that of the European; and the cry of “Southward Ho!” is most natural to him. Japan, and not Europe or America, is to be supreme in Asia.”

Well, all we can say is that it looks like another insane war ramp, and that the Fruits of Victory will be largely a bui.Lle!

That g'reat armaments lead to war is. or should be quite plain to a fourth standard school child. The standing armies of Europe to-day, number 3| millions--in spuv of the f that exenemy countries are not perml’‘e»’ ’/» have standing armies. And in addition, the increase in methods of destruction has reached a pace not attained in any other sphere of human activity. The colossal expenditure in Europe on arma-( cuts »amuonted to £950.000,000 in 1931. Great Britain alone claims an expenditure of £100.000,000. The Allies told Germany in 1919 that her disarmament was a beginning, ami that it was the prelude to general disarmament. Japan seems to be adopting the attitude of all other capitalistic governments:—“that the fittest survive only because they possess the capacity to overcome the forces bent on their destruction! ’’ All wars are commenced as wars of defence. Erasmus said “They who defend war must defend the disposition which leads to war.’’ To compare the ascertained advantages of War with its ascertained mischiefs, and to maintain a question as to the preponderance of the balance, implies, not ignorance, but disingenuuiisness; not incapacity to decide, but a voluntary concealment of the truth! One of the most evil consequences of war is that it tends to render the hearts of mankind callous to the feelings and sentiments of humanity. If nations fought only when they could not be at peace, there would be very ftt’e fighting iu the world. They who are .‘hocked at a murder on the highway. hear with indifference of the slaughter of thousands on the battlefield. If a murder is committed, the

narrative is given in the newspapers with man v adjectives of horror, with many expressions of commiseration, ami many hopes that the perpetrator will be detected. In the next paragraph, the editor, perhaps, tells us that he hurried a second edition to the press in order that he might bo the first to gladden the public with the intelligence that in an engagement which had just, take n place a few thousands of the enemy were killed. The inconsistency and want of proportion in our sentiments of benevolence offer a cm ,: ous phenomenon! We want to eliminate this cancer of war from the body-politic!