The Hawera Star. FRIDAY, JANUARY 3, 1930. EFFORTS TO “HUMANISE” WAR.

Hawera Star, Volume XLIX, 3 January 1930, Page 4

The Hawera Star.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 3, 1930. EFFORTS TO “HUMANISE” WAR.

Delivered every evening by 6 o'clook in Hawera, Manaia, Kaupokonui, Otakeho, Dec. Pihama. Opunake. Normanby, Okaiawa, Eltham, Ngaere, Mangatoki, Kaponga. Awatuna, Te Kiri, Mahoe. Lowgarth, Manutahi, Kakaramea, Alton, Hurleyville, Patea. Whenuakura, Waverley, Mokoia. Whakamara, Cmangai, Meremere. Fraser Road and Ararata

It is perhaps only human nature that each of the great leaders in the worldwide effort to accomplish peace, and to minimise or to wholly end the horrors of war, has mot only his own pet method for attaining this end, hut is critical of the methods suggested by others. For example, General Smuts, in his highly suggestive address before the League of Nations in London, eon fessed doubt as to the practicability of President Hoover’s suggestion for the immunity of food ships in time of war. Ho said, what is undoubtedly true in the present state of the human mind: “I doubt whether methods of human- ‘ ‘ ising private war will ever really “serve a useful purpose. That was the “road followed in the era preceding the “Great War. As soon, however, as the * *ciTvrvf .Tinaic -frv/ar! /fTinc** Inumo n • ■»» T

“expedients went iby the board. It “will always be so. War cannot be “effectively humanised. Its utter in- “ humanity and inexpressible barbarity “will be its undoing and will work the “cure, and not attempts to render it “more human to the innocent.” Having thus disposed .of this suggestion, General Smuts, with a cheerful optimism contrasting curiously with his pessimism in consideration of the Hoover proposition, proceeded to urge aerial disarmament. Mr Hoover, dn urging immunity for food ships, said that the time had come to abandon the starvation of women and children as a weapon of war. But the (militarists of to-day make no concealment of the fact that plans are being developed whereby, in the case of another war, cities would bo laid waste ibv bombs

dropped from aircraft, releasing incendiary fluids, stifling and lethal gases, pestilential germs, and every possible device which natural science has perfected for the destruction of human beings. If the starvation of women end children is to be abandoned, it Is u>gical to argue their destruction by other equally barbarous methods, should be abandoned. General Smuts sees this, and therefore urges that after the naval conference which is to take place this month, military and aerial disarmament, should be considered. He says of the latter: “Of these, aerial disarmament “is the more urgent and important, as “aerial warfare constitutes' by far the “more serious danger to civilisation. “It moans ruthless warfare, not against “the armed forces of the enemy, but “against .his civilian population, with “the consequent destruction of cities “and (he population behind the lines. “The position with regard to air war-“.fa-re is still in a fluid, formative

“.stage, with air .forces rapidly growing “in many countries, and it should ‘‘therefore bo dealt with without, fur “thor delay. ’’ Nof. a word of this indictment need be questioned in pointing out .the great diflicmlty that lies in the way of five South African’s project. Net only are aircraft employed perfectly legitimately—as scouts, as markers lor the direction, of artillery lire, and ns swift carriers of information; but even if am inf oima.tional ban should be put on the prod.notion of military airplanes, a.s in Germany ,to-day, the ordinary aircraft of commerce can. bo so swiftly adjusted to military needs that the ban could never ibo made really effective. Mr Smuts’ own plan for aerial disarmament in its last analysis is merely an effort to humanise war—a purpose which when sought by President Hoover he condemned -as imprac-

ticablo. I), is probably time- that in a moment of vital conflict nations ■would rudely thrust aside any limitations wiliicli might liave been put upon them by treaty or mutual agreement. The one lesson of this is that every possible endeavour should be exerted to develop methods other than war for the settlement of international quarrels. The League of Nations-, the Hague Court, and the Permanent Court of International Justice are all parts of ai coherent system established to accomplish this end.