WORK FOR DEMOCRACY

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXVI, Issue 235, 17 September 1936, Page 6

WORK FOR DEMOCRACY

English-Speaking Union’s Ideals BRIDGE-BUILDING NEEDED (By 1 elegranil—Frees Association.) WELLINGTON, Sept. 17. Some real bridge-building was necessary between th 6 English and their English-speaking cousins and it should not be taken for granted that because some Americans had come from England the two peoples were necessarily friendly, said the Bishop of Wellington, Rt. Rev. H. St. B. Holland, who with Mrs Holland was the guest of honour at a luncheon given yesterday by the English-Speaking Union. The Hon. W. Perry, M.L.C., presided. Other guests were Bishop and Mrs Sprott, Rabbi and Mrs Katz, Rev. Dr. Walshe, and Mr and Mrs Boulton Smith. in his address Bishop Holland confessed he had been rattier ignorant of the work of the English-Speaking Inion. Nevertheless he knew something o£ the work of Sir Evelyn Wrench, who was responsible lor the venture, and considered him to be in the forefront ot those who placed spiritual values first in their efforts for the betterment ot international relations. ,

New Zealand was almost unique in its relationship with the country from which it was farthest away. He had set himself to find out whether New Zealand-born people naturally spoke oi Great Britain as Home, and had found it was so. This was a great factor for world-peace.

Looking at the world, people saw democracy trembling in the balance, even in the United States. The future of democracy, lay in the stability with which the countries ol the British Commonwealth maintained its ideals The leaders of Britain were conscious of the fact that the present was a crucial test for the survival of democracy. New Zealand, in his opinion, was doing a great deal in maintaining democratic government without revolution. The English-Speaking Union was there to see that true democracy did not founder, and that the religions o> Fascism, Nazism and the rest were not allowed to undermine all that was best in human lifje. Their thought and prayer should go out to the leaders who were bearing such heavy burdens in international affairs.

He would regard it a privilege, concluded Bishop Holland, to be counted as one who was working for the aims which the union cherished. Mr A. Leigh Hunt, chairman of the Wellington executive, conveyed the union s appreciation of the presence ol the guests. No one looking back over the wreckage of the past, he said, could deny that the world’s future depended on the adoption of Christian principles. He looked forward to the day when men in councils would have the courage to oppose a motion with the words “it does not measure up to the Christian ethic.”