PROMOTION OF PEACE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20242, 30 April 1929, Page 11

PROMOTION OF PEACE.

MR. COOLIDGE'S OPINIONS. NAVAL POSITION DISCUSSED. Australian and N.Z. Press Association. (Received April 09, 5.5 p.m.) NEW YORK, April 28. The ex-President, Mr. Calvin Coolidge, in an article in the Ladies' Home Journal, discusses the promotion of peace through a limitation of armaments. He says men will not long recognise the sword as the major source of authority. The time has gone, says Mr. Coolidge, when any one nation is likely to be able to control the sea. To set up that claim now would only be a fiction and to pursue it would only be a delusion. The question of parity partakes of tho same nature. So much depends on the men behind the guns and on the courage and skill with which they arc commanded that a seeming parity on paper never will be decisive. America's commerce and commitments abroad are so large that they need a navy for their protection without much reference to the size of the navies of other countries.

The hope of gaining absolute security through armaments is another delusion, says Mr. C'oolidge. More security will be found in moderate force which menaces nobody than in great force which menaces everybody. If the world wishes to be relieved of taxes it will insist upon summary limitation of tho present scale of armaments.

Peace will never be made permanent by fear alone. There must be a main foundation of justice and goodwill strong enough to satisfy the reason and the conscience of humanity.