PREVENTION OF WAR.

Manawatu Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 4408, 23 October 1934, Page 3

PREVENTION OF WAR.

In a speech at Geneva, Dr. Benesh, the Czecho-Slovakian Foreign Minister, said that while he had no desire to cherish illusions of interested optimism, he was also strongly opposed to any kind of interested pessimism, which usually pursued aims opposed to the general interest. From time to time fears were expressed that war would break out; some even thought that war was directly hanging over their heads. War to-day was in no sense inevitable. Those who guided the world possessed to a greater extent than ever before the means to prevent it, and it was more than ever necessary to proclaim, to the world that responsibility for a war was upon the men who were responsible in their respective countries. The present was a period of internal political and social upheaval, and abnormal international relations were inevitable. But after great catastrophes a period of idealistic effort was usually followed by a period of discontent and comlmotion; after which the constructive forces rallied and resumed their forward march. “We might perhaps be about to enter the third period,” Dr. Benesh concluded, “and might hope to be successful if we were firmly resolved to prevent war and to sustain in every way the positive and constructive forces.”