NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22434, 2 June 1936, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS

NOT ABOLITION BUT REFORM Many voices were raised for breaking up and casting aside the League of Nations, Mr. Winston Churchill said in a recent address to his constituents. That was a very reckless and shortsighted view. Although the League had failed to prevent aggression, war, and conquest in Abyssinia, no one could doubt that it was stronger and more alive to-day than it was a year ago. The task beforo them was not to abandon or abolish the League of Nations, but to strengthen it for the new and graver trials which might lie before it in the future. Ho trusted that the now Foreign Secretary, Mr. Anthony Eden, whoso eourago and ability had won so much admiration, would devote his influence and energies to this urgent and all-important task.

TOLERANCE IN RELIGION Hotheads and firebrands arc found everywhere throughout the world; but so are men of good-will. In the Holy Land, despite occasional clashes of rival faiths, Christians, Jews and Moslems are learning to respect one another and to live together in amity, writes the Rev. David Stivcn in the Aberdeen Press and Journal, concerning those who attend the churches, synagogues and the mosques. A witty friend said to me in Jerusalem, " Are you going to the Chur-nag-osquo? ■He was referring to the special anniversary service in the Cathedral Church of St. George, where leaders and representatives from church, synagogue and mosque meet together in friendship to offer to Almighty God thanksgiving for a great deliverance. The word Chur-nag-osque is an unwieldy word, and perhaps a little irreverent, but it expresses the spirit of a good ideal. Persecution and pride have had a fair innings, and it is a poor score they have knocked up. Tho thing wo celebrate to-day should encourage patient men of good-will to persevere in ways of brotherhood and the pursuit of peace.