NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22481, 27 July 1936, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS

ORGANISING WORLD ORDER If an ordered cosmos is to replace the present cliaos in international relations, it seems obvious that one of the first tasks is to organise a system of collective security which will create sufficient confidence that States will not fear to reduce, and eventually dispense with, their expensive and fear-breeding armed establishments, writes Dr. Frank M. Russell, professor of political science at California University, in his book "Theories of International Relations." In the case of most nations, he continues, it is probably safe to say that it is fear rather than pride and ambition that causes them to insist on keeping their powder dry and keeping plenty of it. Others are rightly or wrongly dissatisfied with their position in the world, and want to bo strong enough to change it, if necessary, by armed forces. But if there can be developed a dynamic international political system capable not only of maintaining the status quo against violent change, but also of modifying it or effecting adjustments in international conditions whenever .justice and equity demand them, no legitimate reason remains for such nations to maintain large armed establishments. FORCE TO UPHOLD JUSTICE The Archbishop of York, Dr. Temple, referred to the present as a "time of great anxiety and complexity" when he addressed the Joint Synod of the Convocation of York. " The success which has hitherto attended the unscrupulous aggression of Italy upon a fellow member of the League of Nations has filled most of us with dismay and shame," he said. " It is not our function here to say by what policy justice may best be promoted and secured among the nations of the world. It is our business to insist upon the obligation which lies upon Christians to seek God's Kingdom and His justice before they seek economic advantages or even security. In my own judgment this involves for our own country, as of course for others, the duty of providing that contribution of armed force which is our share of the burden of the maintenance of justice, and also the duty of readiness to forgo what could be claimed as a matter of legal right if this is demanded by the requirements of justice. Unfortunately, those of our politicians who insist 011 the former obligation commonly deny the latter; and vice versa."

SPIRITUAL LINEAGE There is something in us and of us that, did not originate in the world of matter, in tho time-space order, in the phenomenal process, writes Dr. Rufus Jones in his book, "The Testimony of tho. Soul." We are more than curious bits of the earth's crust, more than biological exhibits. We have a spiritual lineage. We may have collateral connections with flat-nosed baboons, but at the same time wo are of direct noumenal origin. We belong to an Overworld of a higher order. We carry in the form and structure of our inner selves tho mark and badgo of lineage and kinship with a realm which can best be called Eternal, since it is real in its own essential being and of the same Nature as God who is the centre of its life and of ours. First, last and all the time, religion has lived and flourished because man in his inner deeps is in mutual and reciprocal correspondence with eternal reality, and is in some measure the organ of it. We are religious beings because we partake or may partake of this higher Nature and share by our inmost form of being in a realm that is eternally real. At one apex point within ourselves wo break through the world of change and process and belong to another Order which may become our fatherland and home. "Religion at its best is the discovery of home* and fatherland.

OPPOSITE .POLITICAL FAITHS "Look abroad on the world to-day. There is a tremendous problem being worked out on the stage," said Sir John Simon in a recent speech. "Nobody yet knows what the last scene may be. It is the clash of view, of attitude, between the dictator countries, the totalitarian States, and the Parliamentary and self-governing countries. You and I have been brought up to believe that democratic liberty will win. There are, however, tremendous movements going on which must cause every thoughtful mind to reflect what is the strength as well as the weakness of another form of State, a State in which the opinion of the citizens can be effectively, controlled, and they hear only what their governors want them to hear, a Stato in which opinion violently opposed to the Government receives very sharp treatment and in which there is a drilling not only of the mind but of the body. There is* a terrible problem in front of us, whether the improved technique of the dictator States is going to make them more and more powerful in the future of the world. I cannot see how people at a time like this can stand aside and say, 'There is much to criticise and disagree with.' Away with that; let us all do what we can," PACIFISM THAT HASTENS WAR The Bishop of London, Dr. Win-nington-Ingram, condemned extreme pacifism as liable to hasten war, in an address at the London Diocesan Conference. Recently Mr. A. Duff Cooper Minister for War, called upon the leaders of the Church of England to denounce "the insidious doctrine of pacifism" as heresy. The Bishop of London declared that it was plain that if the British were to be, as everyone seemed to expect, the police of the world, wo must bo armed with an effective truncheon. He added: "The out-and-out pacifists are, i believe, going the wrong way to get peace. We are all longing for peace and in the next 1000 years war ought to be as dead as slavery or duelling arp to-day. This extreme pacifism, which prevents young men joining the territorials, holds back recruits from the Army and oven discourages clergy from acting as territorial chaplains, is absolutely hastening war. If this had been our policy in 1914, either the German Emperor or Hitler would be in Whitehall to-day and that freedom for which our forefathers fought for 2000 years would bo at an end. Nothing in tho world will induce me to believe that that was the will of God. Even to-day, if we had been stronger, it is very doubtful if Mussolini would have dared to have done what ho has dene. If the democracies of the world are to be able to withstand the armed dictators they must be armed themselves."