War and its Causes

Manawatu Times, Volume 64, Issue 153, 1 July 1939, Page 7

War and its Causes

ADDRESS TO LUNCH CLUB “If there is another war, we are told that it will mean the end of civilisation. Another person has said that a civilisation that would allow another war to happen is not worth saving.” Starting with those thoughts, Mr C. Lashlie . spoke to members of the Palmerston North Lunch Club yesterday on “War, its Causes and its Cure.” His views were unorthodox and to cure any tendency to warlike aspirations lie proposed the abolition of the right to seL armaments to potential enemies and the conscription of wealth as well as manpower. The real causes of war were economic and the ownership of land was the root cause, he stated. The man who owned the land owned all the potential wealth as could be seen in the royalties for coal and various other minerals in England. Colonisations as far as the British Empire was concerned had been carried out by bibles, bullets and beer. What had tho useful men to gain from war—65,000,000 men had been mobilised and 17,000,000 had lost their lives in the last conflict. Patriotism was the refuge of rogues and the Empire was really bound not by bonds of kinship and the like but by the, ties of debts. To arm for -war as the best means of securing peace was all humbug. It was about as logical as starting out for Auckland by setting off in the direction of Wellington. Munition-making and the building of armaments should be a national matter, he claimed, and steps should be taken to prevent the sale of •arms to potential enemies. Anyone who soid military information to an enemy was liable to be shot for treason and yet the munition and armament manufacturers who, in effect, did the the sair.o thing were honoured. As far as the Defence League was ccn-.-erned with its ideal of compulsory military service that had his full support, as the compulsory defence of one’s own country was perfectly logical. There was only one way—every man had to do his share. “One trained man was worth a dozen untrained men” and that should be the motto of the League. To continue logically the next step was the conscription of wealth. He had discussed the matter with the Prime Minister? Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage, but it was not as easy as many thought. All men at the frbnt should receive the same remuneration as those who stayed behind. If the people did not destroy finance capital it would destroy them. Quoting from a cablegram outlining the measures and provision for civil defence in England, Mr Lashlie remarked that it looked as if the only thing finance had done for civilisation was to present a newly-born baby with a gasmask. England had built Japan into a world Power and now we were being trained to keep her in order, which was so much nonsense. The safest place in the last war was right up close to a munition factory for they had never been bombed. Why? Because they wished to keep the war going. The editor of a New Zealand periodical had made the statement that there would be no war because the bombers would attack the aeroplane factories and the' financiers’ investments would be blown to bits.

The world, he concluded, was faced with four choices: Capitalism, Communism, Fascism and Socialism. Could any man visualise two socialistic states fighting each other?