PEACE AND MILITARY SERVICE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22630, 23 July 1935, Page 14

PEACE AND MILITARY SERVICE

TO THE EDITOR Sir, —I leave your correspondent, “ Practical Heathen,” to exult over the discovery of an ambiguous clause, but I hardly think the Kaiser, during his 17 years’ exile at Doom, was much consoled by the thought that we did'' not destroy his dreams of world-wide conquest. Hitler’s propaganda appears to be based now not so much on' the aim of worldwide conquest as on that of getting back the colonies which Germany lost during the war. One will, therefore, find that the achievement of the allied troops was not as barren of results as your correspondent fondly imagines./ The cost was great, but would it be less if all the allies were pacifists? Would law and order, with the blessings of peace, be maintained if the police were disbanded? I doublt it, if a guide is provided in the American literature of early pioneering days, where each man, armed'with a gun at his hip, was his own policeman. In my youth, at.Gooyea Station, Queensland, I saw a big red-headed Scotchman give a big German bully a severe pummelling, with the gentle reminder, “ You will he a gude neibor the noo.” It was a fact. He was. He was even thoughtful to the tarboy and picker-up whom he had bullied" and abused before the fight. And the individual character is sometimes a correct guide to the national character.

Your correspondent’s sneer abqut_ military cranks suggests he has an infallible remedy for peace we all long for. If so, what is it? If it is prayer, let roe remind him of Thoreau’s story in his book, “A Week,” of a man who, on being attacked by Indians, wrote a powerful appeal for prayer that God would not let the Indians kill him, but he concluded with an even more powerful prayer for guns, ammunition, etc.,, to let him kill the enemy before they killed him. Even the Continental Communists favour the party that stands for conscription, as it places the guns in the hands of the workers and will let them fight their way to freedom as the Russian workers did. Therefore, they would not vote for a Eartv that favoured the Volunteer system, ut would prefer to support the Mussolinis and Hitlers who would create war and arm them. If your correspondent reads “ The Iron Heel,” by Jack London, written before the war, he will find out with, what prophetic vision he pictured jfche success of the social revolution through conscription in war as far at least as. if applies to Russia. The Communists claim that wajr can only be eliminated from earth by the establishment of a classless society in which the profit motive will be eliminated as money-making and personal aggrandisement are the causes of war. In Russia, where the Communists, have some say, they are not suffering from the illusion that a profound belief in pacifism will stop war. On the other hand, they are reported to be armed for defence purposes with an efficiency that is the envv and admiration of militarists the world over. When they assumed control' of Russia, true to their peace ideals, they entered into a peace agreement with Germany. But peace ideals did not bring peace, as for four .years they had to fight enemies without and for three years enemies within, and such a hideous recollection did it create, in the Russian mind that anyone who talks disarmament in Russia has a visit from the 0.G.P.U., and they only circulate peace propaganda abroad in the hope that, their future enemy may have a taste of the confusion they had to put up with. My motto is an old one: “Pray and work for p eace > but keep your powder dry.”—l am, etc., {J. E. MacManus.