PEACE

Northern Advocate, 10 November 1934, Page 4

PEACE

(Specially Written by Mrs. Paterson, Dominion President, W. 1.) As Armistice Day draws near again the thoughts of men and women everywhere are turned right about face to that ever-probing, pressing and persistent question of Peace versus War. “Great movements have their birth in great ideas; these may be long in fructifying, blit they come into being eventually,” During these sixteen years there has been a moving among the peoples of the world, expressing itself in crusades of one form or another, but all with the object of bringing about friendliness and peace and understanding between all peoples. This has been the dream of leaders of thought, poets and prophets in every age, and a wonderful thing it is that we who are' alive today see a prospect of that great dream coming true in our time. At the end of the great War, the feeling was universal that what the world wanted more .than anything else was peace; it was realised that the world had suffered from an inhuman lack of understanding, and that many of the tro’ubles and hostilities of previous times Had in a very large measure been due to one people not understanding the other. And so it came about that the vision of a World Peace at last descended from the land of desire to solid ground and took definite shape and form, the tempest and devastation of war had left the nations involved in it—and indeed all the nations—prostrated and strengthless. This society of nations was formed with the object of securing understanding and co-operation between nations, find to educate public opinion into the idea of the possibility of all, working together in harmony and happiness, and to remind us individually that those of our loved ones who made the supreme sacrifice gave their lives—their all—for a cause—the great cause of Peace. A solemn responsibility rests upon the peoples of the world today, upon the citizens of the British Empire, and in a very special way upon the citizens of “God’s Own Country.” For the sake of those who fought and died that the world blight be better for those they left behind and for those who were to follow, for our sakes, for the sake of our children, for the sake of humanity, for the sake of Him Who is the Prince of Peace, let us re-dedicate ourselves to the great task of making the dream of those who fought and fell come true. All can help. “Let us appeal to youth,” said M. Paul Hymans, president of the First Assembly of the League of Nations, “It is upon them that the great burden is laid, it is to youth that I appeal to construct the League of Nations, it is. upon them that the great burden is laid, it is to youth that I appeal to construct the new moral world. . .”

Lord Londonderry, Secretary for Air, in a speech, emphasises that the peace of the world rested in the hands of youth. “The children can do much. Through their many international oiv ganisations they are gradually creating a world of friendly children. “Much also depends upon the women, Great power for good or for ill lies in their hands. Sir Herbert Samuel has said that women’s suffrage is an important force for peace and disarmament. They can inform themselves of the progress of peace efforts, can help by thinking peace, discussing peace questions among themselves and instructing the children in peace ideas. “Those who lend their aid to the cause of world peace ever have the intense satisfaction of knowing that they are helping to come true the most glorious dream in history—the dream of love and good will and fellowship between all peoples and coutries.”