SPIRIT OF CO-OPERATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20990, 29 September 1931, Page 11

SPIRIT OF CO-OPERATION.

GROWTH AMONG NATIONS.

GREATER THOUGHT, FOR OTHERS

The view that there was developing a new spirit of co-operation between nations and interest in tho -welfare of others was expressed by the Rev. W. G. Monckton in an address on "Christianity and the Present-day Economic Crisis," at the annual meeting of the Auckland Council of Christian Congregations last evening. Mr. Monckton said recent years had seen in America the desire to extract international debts to the utmost, to build high tariff walls and to seek the country's prosperity at the expense of that of others. Leading men now saw that these were the causos of one of the greatest financial catastrophes the world bad seen. They were beginning to see that the remedy lay not in rivalry and competition, but in co-operation. The countries of Europe had endeavoured to put their trade in a watertight compartment, Mr. Monckton said. Slowly they were coming to realise that the application of the spirit of Christianity applied equally to nations as it should to individuals. The result was seen in the growth in Europe of economic units for self-help in trade. It was the very essence of Christianity that people should look to the interests and prosperity of others as well as to their own, Mr. Monckton said. "We should agree that what is needed is a change of spirit among nations," he said. "Unless that is done it is recognised that all political nostrums are useless. There must be a spirit of co-operation and it is the duty of the Churches to bring this about. I believe we are on tho eve of a great spiritual revival, perhaps born of the days of adversity through which we arc passing." 1