NEED OF ARMS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22971, 24 February 1938, Page 15

NEED OF ARMS

CLOUDS OYER EUROPE ROTARY GOVERNOR'S VIEWS KEEPING PEACE BY THE SWORD [by telegraph—OWN correspondent] CHRISTCHUKCH, Wednesday If Britain is to break through the thunder clouds over Europe, then armaments are her necessary implements, in the opinion of the New Zealand District Governor of Rotary, Mr. F. G. Hall-Jones, who addressed the national Rotary conference on the European situation. He argued that poison gas and aeroplanes were necessary aneillnries oi peace and justice, and were not to be spurned nor despised. "The artillery waggons roll in thunder over Europe, the air is heavy with the menace of poison gas, the Riders of the Apocalypse are saddling their steeds in the stable, and we can hear the stamping of impatient hooves," said Mr. Hall-Jones. Example of Abyssinia " Are understanding and goodwill sufficient in themselves to solve the problem? Let us be courageous enough to answer, 'No.' Abyssinia lias taught us that if it takes two to make a quarrel, it takes only one to make a war. However circumspectly the maidens of understanding and goodwill may walk in the forst of the ogres, their fate is sealed unless the Red Cross Knight protects them.

"Justice bears the scales in one hand and the sword in the other; the Knights of the Sword marched with Christianity against the heathen; gunpowder and nationalism overwhelmed the castles of the Danube and the .Rhine; had the Quakers not taken the musket with the Bible to America, the war-whoops would have echoed over their burning villages. In the old days the sword and musket, and today aeroplanes and poison gas, are the ancillaries, not to be spurned and despised, of peace and justice." Threat ol Retribution "To the dictator whose ambitions are uncurbed by democracy, to the military firebrand, to the armament manufacturer and war profiteer, the threat of retribution from the air is the only compelling argument for peace. "Eyes that are dazzled with the prospects of dominion may be blind to the light of reason; minds that are seething with aggression may be impervious to understanding; ears that are ringing with the clamour of conquest may be deaf to the call of goodwill, but the whirr of the aeroplane, like the voice of art angel from the skies, will whisper, 'Peace, be still!' to this troubled world."