W.C.T.U.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 31 May 1930, Page 14

W.C.T.U.

"WORLD PEACE DAY" '

ADDRESS KV MRS F. W. 0. SMITH

The special meeting arranged by tho W.C.T.U. as "World Pence Day" was hold in Uurrpugh House, Mrs F. W. 0. Smith presiding. Aftor -the opening devotions Miss Cooke read u paper forwarded by Mrs Evans for the occasion. Prayer followed, after which Mrs Smith delivered tho following address:— Again Peace Day is here, and it is well we should take a review of tho nations of the earth. First let us remember that Asia is more than four times the size of Europe and that Asia to-day is awakening from tho slumber of ages. What does tho awakening of Asia mean to the League of Nations? It is a gigantic force which for weal or woo will exercise a power in the world hitherto unknown. Without taking into account the smaller states such as Palestine, Syria, Irak, Siam, Persia, and Afghanistan let us look for a few moments this afternoon at China. India and Japan. These three countries have' between them some 800 million inhabitants nearly half the total population of the world. Of these three countries .Japan has made wonderful progress, when wo remember that 50 years ago she possessed only a fleet of small*gunboats and that she is to-day one of the great naval powers of the/world, that she has conquered China and Russia, that in 1914 sho entered the Great War as our ally and emerged from it a gigantic force ever to be reckoned with in future strife. Her schools are produring a higher standard of literacy than exists in Great Britain. Her factories and mines are equal to anything either in America or Great Britain. To-day Japan is heading for peace. Her loyalty is unfailing. If the future brings war Japan will fight and fight well. If peace is to be the watchword she will work as hard for peace as Britain herself. The millions of China have a different temperament, from that of Japan. They take longer to wake up. Though they were forced to open their'country to foreign trade 15 years' earlier than Japan, in 1895, Chinese soldiers went into battle armed with bows and arrows. To-day there is a small educated section in China, which is rapidly waking up or imbibing western ideas and striving to throw off the Bolshevist inlluonco with which their country is threatened. Tho future of China is of the utmost importance. Will she ovolve toward or away from Europe? China has been a member of the League from its inception; but there have been times when there was great danger of her breaking away. At the present time she regards America as being more sympathetic than the European powers. The League could give China much help in building up jicr financial institutions, and it is essential that China should look to Geneva for guidance. Then there is the question of whether China can hold together at all. Since 1911 when the monarchy was replaced by the Republic rival generals have been fighting ceaselessly for mastery. Military operations have ruined trade and commerce, but to-day the light is breaking and the country being slowly unified. India remains! She ranks at Geneva as an independent state. India to-day is deeply concerned because she cannot shake off that British rule whicli has operated for two centuries. The eyes of the world are fixed on India because of- the civil disobedience proclaimed by Mahatma Gandhi, as a protest against the delay in granting unqualified independence to India. In the judgment of British statesmen the time has_ not come for granting India absolute independence. Probably the event < of greatest moment to India is the coming publication of Sir John Simon's Commission which has been studying what form the future Government of India shall take. The report will ho published this year and then will be called an All India Conference. This year promises to "be one of tho most momentous in the history of India.

WORLD CONDITIONS

A general survey of conditions in the world to-day arouses many misgivings. Unemployment is rife in almost all countries. The financial position is a cause of great concern to many statesmen. Tariff barriers are being thrown up, the ultimate result of which can be conjecture only. And we need today, perhaps as never before, faith, hope, zeal and above all continuance in prayer. Undoubtedly much has been accomplished by the various organisations operating amongst tho nations ; but there is always a danger that we may be tempted to regard these organisations as a matter of course, bodies which no doubt do useful work but re of no immediate concern to us. We must strive to dispel such a delusion, and this is being largely done by excellent publications. The League of Nations is the' realised dream of the pacifists of the last 300 years. The peace movement, like all others, has been scorned, but the women of the race are probably the ones to bring it into being—the_ main factors in influencing public opinion. The League of Nations came into being in 1920. America through President Wilson gave the idea of the League to the world. The Covenant was accepted and signed by 23 nations at first. Unfortunately America afterwards pulled out anil the burden of responsibility fell on England. England raised seven times as much money as all the rest of the world for the League of Nations. The League grows stronger every day. Fifty-six nations have now signed the Covenant; this is threequarters of the human race.

The. League has already done-great things. It has stopped three wars. It has raised a loan of £25,000,000 for Austria, which prevented'anarchy in tfhe centre of Europe. The League has repatriated 380,000 prisoners of war. Think of what that means—3Bo,ooo prisoners returned to their homes! Who can measure the amount of joy that statement means ? The League has turned back the typhus plague and has fed millions of starving children. War, pestilence and famine always go together. 1 Always the two latter follow in the track of the first. Although America pulled out of the League of Nations after starting it, the president of our Dominion League of Nations Union, Sir Francis Bell, stated some 'time ago that he belioved she would soon be in again, and already she has joined in some of the League's institutions.

One important thing that is heing ventilated by the New Zealand branch of this Union is the teaching of history in our schools. This has, in tho past, been largely about kings and their wars; but the Union is showing that the real history ,of a nation is along the line of economic ami moral pro gress, and that any adverse circumstances affecting other countries must

have an adverse influence on New Zealand ; and that anything great or small that helps to bind the nations of the earth together is education on a very solid foundation. The business is slow, so slow that we sometimes think the reign of economic peace will never come, oven in our own country and that international peace is far away; but "the mills of God grind slowly, but they grind exceeding small." Wherever we are, at home or abroad, our vocation is one, the reconciliation of God and man, of man and man as brothers of Christ. "Do that which is assigned to thee and thou can'st not hope too much, or dare too much." —Emerson. "If my hand slacked I should rob God, since He is fullest

good, . . Leaving a blank instead of violins._ He could not make Antonio Stradivari's violins Without Antonio.—George Eliot.