The Mining Industry WEDNESDAY, JULY 25. 1923

Maoriland Worker, Volume 13, Issue 30, 25 July 1923, Page 4

The Mining Industry WEDNESDAY, JULY 25. 1923

NO MORE WAR!

War must be judged'by its results, and putting it to tins test, there is nothing to be said .for it. Experience condemns it as gross treachery to humanity, wasteful of precious treasure laboriously amassed over generations, and destructive of hopes for a better future. It is born of greed and hatred and prosecuted by wholesale murder and 'falsehood, and it is none the less vile when it is excused by ideals, for the realisation, of'winch it is alleged to be the instrument. If ever war had any capacity to serve human .well-being we should have received proof of it.from 1911 onwards. Ostensibly no materialist motives animated those .who waged the war, and whole nations were encouraged to suffer its agony and loss by assurances that it aimed at the establishment of democracy, of peace, of a new world based on. justice and goodwill. Every condition required by the statesmen who pledged their honour that the war had no other purpose was vouchsafed them by events —there was .triumphant military victory with the enemy prostrate in the dust —yet what lias been the outcome 1 Economically, ■the world is in ruins, rags and semi-famine and misery being the portion of millions, not only of the vanquished nations, but o J .' the conquerors. The pre-war liberties have given way to censorships, to war'regulations, to Prussianism stark and unashamed. Instead of peace, the war bred other wars, and in every corner of the earth fife is embittered with fear and rancour. Worse than all, it is even, now generating new wars, impelling* new armaments rivalries, deflecting the national wealth from social ends to the most ghastly military preparations, and poisoning international, relationships. In short, the results have .falsified every hope the war was to satisfy, and we see if now as a gigantic tragedy, a colossal failure which has multiplied every evil it was to eradicate. No intelligent human beiuu" contemplating the realities and DESIRING THE PROGRESS OF '/lIS RACE can look upon war as anything but a monstrous error, and a devilish compound of every viliainv,and crime, and none.,-seeing it as it is, can refrain from devoting his energies to its extirpation without doing violence to his conscience. The work' of such is needed NOW. War is an inglorious mess of blood and lies, but some men are bent on waging it —the armaments profiteers, the concession-lmnt-ers, the secret diplomats, the hard faced men who do very well out of it—and these AT THIS MOMENT arc willing it, and are exploiting the apathy of the people to make it possible. They can only be overcome by the wills of other people organised determinedly to outlaw brutal slaughter and to treat all who by word or deed contribute to its outbreak as enemies of the race. We must oppose THE WILL. -TO PEACE to the will to Avar, and strive to give this now .will greater power, clearer aim, and more definite organisation. This week provides an appropriate occasion, for a push in this direction. In every land NO MORE WAR demonstrations will be held, and MILLIONS OF VOICES WILL BE RAISED AGAINST THE INFAMY. We in New Zealand must unite with our brothers of every nation .who hate war, and who really seek peace and diligently pursue it. In this way a new world psychology will be produced, and a mass resolution to lift the nations' intercourse above the level of bloodshed and butchery will be formed. iway with war! Away with the criminal plots which gen- } crate it! Let us work for the day when men shall live in •fraternity and shall struggle, not against themselves, but in. co-operation.for a more satisfying' life._y _ fc '