PERMANENT PEACE.

Northern Advocate, 26 November 1914, Page 4

PERMANENT PEACE.

With all its carnage, dust ruction and barbarism, this war has been responsible for at least one great service, says the Christcliurch "Star- ,, It has relieved the nations of that terrible feeling of tenseness wliiieh lay like a weight on the souls of men, the mlore galling the farther they/ aspired' and progressed. Now that the fight has began in earnest, how many of us would like to revert to ithe.old .aistabh; position? Even in war there is a sense of relief that was never experienced when Europe was staggering under an incubus of armaments which she could scarcely bear. Prom the beginning of the present century up to August of this year, the grim spectre of" the impending conflict haunted statesmen and social reformers, and .delayed for years the passage of measures framed in the interests of the masses. Year after year the expenditure on armaments kept mounting higher and higher, until one thought these mighty armed camps were necessary adjuncts of civilisation. And then the crash came! Weapons that the subtlest ingenuity had contrived were suddenly loosed, and Europe was again immersed in the blood of the flower of her youth. But. great as the sacrifice, great as is the toll ol: suffering, the human spirit will pass triumphantly through it all with hopes ivn(iimmed and aspirations untarnished. We see in the struggle the escape from the intolerable bondage of the war-god, and our suffering is but the parturition pains of a rebirth into a new order. The Renaissance which kindled once more the lamp of evil lure and of learning in Europe was heralded by periods of storm and stress. It was not a silent evolutionary pro-, cess this passing of the world from the dark into the light, but a long and bitter struggle against reactionary forces. But. however cruel and bloody were the wars of this period, they were the prffce paid for the liberation of the mind from the superstition and stagnation of medievalism. New vistas arose before the eye, beautiful con- i

i options in art and poetry broke ; •■ ■■on the soul; find the spirit freed ' ■.i ;:' ■- ,iiVv ;■■' : -" Oi ;::-. ."!i' "!''.-n ! ::nd blind faith became more dar- j ing in its flights, and science? mid j philosophy again came into their own. We do not look, at this age of the world, for a revival sue!) as transformed Europe in <he fit-} teenth century. Such a change is j not in the na+nre of things. Still. I with the end of the war must inevitably come a revolution in the Ihoughi of 1 lie world. New questions will arise, fresh respousibili- ( ties be assumed, and with the pass- i ing of the armaments craze, an im- | petus will be given to social re- j forms thrmighotii Europe Tutor-iia-tionalism will become a live subject, and who can tell that this war will not brins: forth the germ of an international code of morality? The times indeed are pregnant with big issues, and these are for good or bad remains'' to be seen, but the optimist wilK live on in the hope that out of this welter of blood may eomle the permanent peace of the world, and v'iiii. !::in;r ; approaching a Pnited States in Europe.