THE PACIFIST POSITION
Sir, —The comment in your Friday's issue on the pacifist position, occasioned by the manifesto of "five influential Englishmen," is scarcely convincing. The pacifist position is not reached through "obsession with the horrors of war" on the idea that "there can be no greater good than peace." Neither are they willing to sacrifice the ideals of "justice, freedom, country, home,!.' or freedom of "mind and spirit." This is a misstatement of fact. The pacifist position is justified by the fact that these ideals can never be attained or established by force. We would suggest that the people who are "in a fog" are those who fail to see that this truth was demonstrated by the last "war to end war." These are spiritual ideals which can only be secured by goodwiil and fellowship between man and man and nation and nation. They never have been, and never will be, secured by war. Another, war, if provoked, will again intensify hatred and bitterness, leaving the defeated nation with the resolve to rearm and regain its lost prestige, as has been the case with Germany. The next State will be worse than the present. The pacifist believes that war is fio remedy and seeks a better way. G.A.G.
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New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22538, 1 October 1936, Page 15
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209THE PACIFIST POSITION New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22538, 1 October 1936, Page 15
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