ARMAMENTS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 284, 29 October 1934, Page 2

ARMAMENTS

DENUNCIATION FROM PULPIT, SERMON AT ST. ANDREW’S CHURCH.

A full congregation, which included the Mayor (Mr A. E. Mansford) and many representative citizens, among them members of the Palmerston North Rotary Club, beard an impressive address at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, last evening, by Rev. John Hubbard, entitled “The Prince of Peace and War,” with special reference to the book, “The Bloody Traffic.” The preacher declared at the outset that if ever he was tempted to subscribe to the cynical statement that the heart of man was fundamentally insincere, it was. when he considered our attitude to war. Even the Bible held its incongruous passages —visions of eternal peace followed within a few verses by the fire-eating eulogies of war. The crying dove became a rampant lion. Even to-day many people were similarly inconstant; they formulate their religion quite apart from their politics. He believed the world had reacted from warfare, yet Mr Arthur Henderson had recently declared that ill the last five years the nations had spent a thousand million sterling annually on armaments. “Twenty years ago the idealists of the earth went forth to fight a war that was to end war. But to-day one often wonders what that company of the nations really fought for. It is only 16 years ago since peace rode into our cities, and we determined to keep her established there. To-day we honour those who poured out the sweet red wine of youth, and we think of the charge they left us to preserve for the world the fruits of their struggle. But their spirits, restless and unsatisfied, seem sometimes to call to me that

their charge is being neglected. V hat do we find is the condition of affairs in the world to-day P The iron and steel works of Britain are working full time and even overtime; schoolboys even are discussing with interest the next war; the nations are preparing for another holocaust. Soon we will hear the shrieking of the shells and see the rottenness of death from another war defiling the land. The conviction is held by many that another war, whether it is iniquitous or ‘righteous,’ will sweep away all our culture.” Dr. Norwood,

a London divine, had said that war was destructive of all the moral fibre of the people. Everybody knew the moral wreckage occasioned by war. Since the last conflagration there had been an obvious lessening of spirituality. Men lost all sense of values, n line we had been urged to wa.r with an inflamed s-ense of patriotism, ii Had since been revealed that we bad been the victims of propaganda. Truth was the first casualty in the last war. It was disquieting, too, to know that to-day propaganda for a future war was being prepared. This war, should it ever eventuate, would be a very different affair from that of 1914. With the instruments of man’s diabolic inventions becoming ever more devastating, i would mean that whole civilian populations would be wiped out. Not onlv the fighting males but the women ami children would suffer the utmost horrors Man’s inventive tennis was being misapplied to the production of ever more fiendish instruments of destruction. Manless aeroplanes and bombs with an effective range of over 6000 yards were but examples of the latest terrors. The perfection of | as teo ' l_ nique would have a similar effec . Great Britain and the United States poison arsenals were preparing for an orgy of destruction, unless something intervened to prevent it.

LEAGUE OF NATIONS REPORT. Mr Hubbard continued that to-day we had at hand the report of the League of Nations Committee on the manufacture of private armaments Summarised, it showed that these firms were doing everything posßibte to inflame national hate and sell then wares by nefarious and unscrupulous means. They had gone so far as o play one nation off against another and to send agents to disarmament conferences. “English ships were sunk by Lnglisli shells,” continued the speaker in referring to the operations of armament firms in supplying munitions to Turkey. ‘Sometimes I look at our honours board here, and I boil with indignation to think that as our men climbed those bullet-swept gullies on the Hellespont they were mown down by British shells. The morning glory that was Anzac was marred by the fact that many of our men were slain by the weapons produced by thencompatriots. ” , . ~ , It was stated by the preacher that at one battle on tlie Western front 22 million shells were fired, each at a profit of 10 per cent, to these firms. What cared they for the travail and carnage if their profits were continuing? The extent of their machinations was shown by the fact that the 19—7 Naval Conference was virtually ruined by the intrigues of a lobbyist representing three American armaments firms. A cruel feature of the traffic was that shares in the armament firms were held by many politicians, and there had been seen the spectacle of members of the House of Commons urging the purchase o t f more war weapons. It was on record that certain countries had been refused a loan from the banks unless they spent a certain amount on armaments. How long was the world to suffer such injustice? It had been said that we were in the hands of an .organisation of crooks, and he was moved to add that from the shreds of millions of lives they had Avon, not 30 pieces of silver, but millions of pieces of gold. If the traffic Avere to be abolished, we must take the manufacture of arms out of private hands and vest it in a peace-loving international committee, the preacher contended. This was essential if the hovering perils of another Avar were not to be loosed on the world. We must no longer hate the foreigner, and Ave must depart from the course of aggressive, selfish nationalism. Our great hope Avas in those organisations having as their objective the promotion of peace, goodAvill love and brotherhood. The international aim of Rotary, if rightly applied, could Avork wonders in this direction. . “But our great hope is in the Church of Jesus Christ,” Mr Hubbard concluded. “I don’t think that you Avill find anywhere in the New Testament an incitement of Avar. Christ, with the kingdoms of the Avorld at His feet was tempted to use force, but He chose instead the way of peace He is the Prince of Peace, Avho seeks to bring in His kingdom by love, goodwill and brotherhood alone. His Church must more and more speak against those things that provoke Avar and defile the temple of peace. There are 586 million Christians m the world and if they sought earnestly the way of peace we-could have a Avarless world and militarism Avould be torn U r> by the roots. So, too, Avould its analogue in civil life unscrupulous business competition. The Sermon on the Mount was meant to be taken senously. If the Church Avould assert herself, then the drums of war might for ever be stilled.” The churches Avere taking a stand against war and in this attitude they were supported by other organisations, and it was pleasing to , know that

Rotary, Avith its international membership Avas playing its part and Avas attempting to fulfill its sixth object, Avhicli Avas concerned Avith the encouragement of peace and international good-Avill.