Appeal for Peace Across Frontiers

Northern Advocate, 28 January 1939, Page 10

Appeal for Peace Across Frontiers

(Received 1 p.m.) RUGBY, January 27. An eloquent appeal for peace and co-operation among nations, over the signatures of nearly a score of public men, eminent in diverse fields of public activity—literature, education, law, science, finance, medicine, administration, art and music—has been issued to the Press for publication. The Associated Press says the statement was submitted before publication to the highest quarters, where it is regarded as one of the greatest possible contributions to the moral case against war. It is considered most timely. Broadcast to Germany.

Arrangements are being made for a broadcast of the statement to Germany at least three times tonight. It is also included in all other foreign programmes from the 8.8. C. The signatories include leaders in science and art, who have a recognised fqllowing in Germany. The text of the appeal is as follows; “A spirit of uneasiness broods over the world. Men and women in every country are uncertain as to what the next weeks and may bring. “They see huge armaments piling up on every side. / Only Death and Destruction.

‘They see plans being made for civilian defence, and they realise only too visibly that war, under modern conditions, between highly-organised States, can bring no good, but only death and destruction to countless homes, irrespective of age and sex. “They see our civilisation, to which men and women of all classes, and in all countries, have contributed, threatened with the greatest catastrophe in human history. To Avert Catastrophe.

“It is time, if we are not to be too late, that men of goodwill, who value the fruits of civilisation, who have no hatred or spirit of revenge in their hearts, and who desire in all sincerity to live on terms of friendship with their fellow-men in every country, should speak across the frontiers to those who feel as they do, in order that they may use together their gifts of heart and mind to co-operate in preventing a supreme catastrophe, and i in breaking down artificial barriers of I hatred by which we are in danger of being divided.” i No Desire to Dictate. “We in Britain have no desire to dictate to others. While resolutely determined to maintain our own liberty we stand for peace—a peace of equality for all and justice for all. “We stand for the rule of law in relations between States—the only basis on which our civilisation can be preserved. “We recognise that no civilisation, if it is to survive, can be static, but no nation will find a lasting solution for its problems, save in the spirit of cooperation with others. Join to Lay Spectre of War. “We appeal to them to use those great gifts by which they have for centuries enriched our common inheritance in all the fields of human knowledge and activity, and join with us in a supreme effort to lay the spectre of war and enmity between nations, and in a spirit of free and willing cooperation. by which alone can their needs and ours be satisfied, to build with

us a better future, so that we may not only preserve civilisation, but hand it down to our children enhanced by our experience.” The signatories are the Marquess of Willingdon, Earl Derby, Lord Dawson of Penn, Lord Horder, Mr MacMillan Stamp, Mr Montague Norman, Mr H. A. L. Fisher, Mr G. M. Trevelyan, Lord Eustace Percy, Sir Michael Sad- j ler, Sir Vaughan Williams, Sir William Bragg, Sir Arthur Eddington, Sir Edward Lutyens, Sir Kenneth Clark, Mr John Masefield, and Lord Burghley.