PACIFISM AND WAR.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 123, 23 April 1940, Page 8

PACIFISM AND WAR.

STOPPING SPREAD OF EVIL. ADDRESS BY MAORI CHAPLAIN. Dealing with pacifism as he saw it, Rev. Captain K. T. Harawira, chap-, lain to the Maori Battalion, delivered an eloquent sermon at All Saints’ Church, Palmerston North, on Sunday. Preaching on the text “He who is not with Me is against Me,” he explained the view that it was better to try to stop the spread of evil by force than to stand by and do nothing about it. Captain Harawira dealt with various attitudes towards war, saying that some said it should not be supported and took up a pacifist attitude. He dealt with his own experiences in the last war, which he Went through as a combatant. After it, he said, he thought that war should be done away with, and certainly war could not bo called a Christian act at any time. However, lie felt that his desire to take up a pacifist attitude was a fusal on his part to look more deeply into the question. “During the present war I have realised that being a pacifist is to allow wickedness and destruction to spread £ill over the world,” said Captain Harawira. “I would be standing aside and seeing sorrow and destruction spread even further than Europe if the war ware allowed to go on. To try to prevent that spread bv forec is better than to see it spread. The taking up of arms is justifiable because it is the lesser of two evils.” So that we could be quite sure about the justice of our attitude, we had to make a decision, added Captain Harawira. AY'o had to do what was right, true and pure. We were either on the side of right or on the side of wrong. There was no neutral position in the fight for life, for Christ had said: “Who is not with Me is against Me.”