“SOCALISM WILL PREVENT WAR”

Northern Advocate, 25 May 1936, Page 4

“SOCALISM WILL PREVENT WAR”

PROFESSOR SAYS LEAGUE IS TOOL OF CAPITALISTS

“The only way to make war very unlikely and perhaps impossible is to change the economic system of the world. The real cause of war is the private ownership of the means of production and the friction between the capitalists of one country and those of another. “The British Empire should work on the same lines as the Soviet Union and New Zealand’s Labour Government, which I feel sure is looking forward to a Socialistic Dominion, should endeavour to bring to bear on Great Britain the necessity for peace and the need that she should emulate Russia and so work for a Socialistic future, * which is the real prevention of war. Those were the opinions around which Professor W. A. Sewell, M.H., lectured in the Town Hall last evening on the subject, “War Can it be Prevented?”

The speaker is Professor of English at Auckland University, having been at Oxford, England, and .South Africa and his address was given under the auspices of the Workers’ Educational Association. The Mayor, Mr W. Jones, occupied the chair and there was an audience of about 130. In the year 1936, it is distressing that our minds should turn back to the year 1914. The situation today is as dangerous as then. Europe today is a powder magazine and there are men powerful enough to set the powder alight. We can visualise a war in future as more horrible than any previous conflict,” said Professor Sewell. The whole basis of social structure in 1914 was not so much dedicated to war as Fascism in Germany and Italy today. The three factors against the outbreak of war are the League of Nations, the anti-war public feeling and Russia, the Professor said. Britain was a pacifist nation. Her foreign policy during the past year had been governed by public opinion. In France, there had recently been a supreme triumph for anti-war public opinion. The Soviet Union was the only country that did not need to make war. Unless she was attacked, there was the very slightest possibility of her going to war. “War Nearer Than Ever.” Professor Sewell dismissed any possibility of the causes of war being either ti'ibal or connected with diplomacy. If diplomacy were the cause of war; he said, Foreign Secretaries could control the action of a nation. There were the Kellogg Pact, the League of Nations Covenant and the Locarno Pact and yet war was nearer today than ever. Not a country or Foreign Secretary in Europe today wanted war.

The lecturer quoted two authorities on the psychological causes, Huxley and Dr. Glover. Huxley contended that a ferment in man broke out now and again. He believed that the mechanical age was npt suited to man’s impulse and one cause of war was man’s refusal to accept the every day things of life. It was not necessary. however, he said, for these impulses to be released with war as the outlet. Dr. Glover attributed international conflict to two impulses of man; That of stealthily enjoying the prospect of being hurt and the instinct to be cruel. These suggested causes too, Professor Sewell said, must be dismissed.

The real cause was the private ownership of the means of production and the quarrelling of the capitalists in one country with those of another. That must be wiped out. The British Empire, he declared, had been built up as the result of a search by capitalists for more raw materials, markets and profits. Britain, today, was However, the primary cause of 1 war was that nations, without colonies, needed to expand. The economic system must be changed. The League of Nations, Professor Sewell claimed, could not be trusted. In September, 1935, sanctions were imposed on Italy and yet in 1931, they were not imposed on Japan when she entered Manchuria.

I “Have we not the right to state,” | he said, “that in the imposition of j sanctions Britain is looking after j her own interests. Em 1935, she I had Egypt in mind. The League j * s n °t a perfect mechanism. It is [ a tool of the satisfied Powers and j is bound up with everything that ! * s pernicious and damaging. The j League has been dedicated to the | sanctity of the Versailles Treaty | and in keeping a stigma on Geri many and Italy, it is really more an instrument for war than for j peace. j N.Z. Headed For Socialism. However, the speaker said, the League was a shadow of a world {council and it must be supported, but j loyalty must be transformed, j Britain, the Soviet Union and the ! United States were pledged to peace, jhe said. New Zealand’s Labour Gov- | eminent looked forward to a Social- , ist Dominion. Today. New Zealand (and Russia, the smallest and largest countries in the world, were unique in that both were heading towards Socialism. New Zealand should try to bring to bear on Great Britain the necessity for peace and that she I should emulate Russia. | The Government should tell Britlain that she was following on the

lines of Russia, with an eye to a Socialistic future. Professor Sewell concluded. No questions were asked and a hearty vote of thanks for Professor Sewell’s very able address, moved by Mr R. Welham and seconded by Mr C. Collier, was carried with applause.