PRIMATE AND PEACE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22738, 26 November 1935, Page 18

PRIMATE AND PEACE

APPROACH TO THE POPE INVITATION TO ALL EUROPEAN CHURCHES. (From Our Own., Correspondent) (By Air Mail) LONDON, October 20. The Archbishop of Canterbury has announced that he was inviting all the Christian Churches of' Europe to join in a declaration of loyalty to the League of Nations. He was speaking at the Canterbury Diocesan Conference. He revealed that he had already made an approach to the Pope. " I have ventured to make an approach to his Holiness the Pope," he said, " but I learn that he is unwilling at present to sav more than he has already publicly said.' We must all generously recognise the peculiar difficulty in which he is placed. It may be that, in his own time and way, he may be moved to speak some further word; but my hope is that ere long the Anglican and Protestant communions may unite in uttering with the same Christian voice an assertion of the supremacy of the Kingdom of God which may rise above the confused voices of the nations of the world." TREATY OBLIGATIONS. The archbishop declared that the observance of treaty obligations was essential to the peace of the world. "It may be asked," he said, " why we as Christian, citizens should be so active in the support of the League of Nations. The reason is because the issue involved are fundamentally moral, and, indeed, in the true sense of the word, religious. "In the first place, there is the honour of the pledged word. We are bound by the obligations of the Covenant which we have deliberately undertaken. In the second place, the maintenance of peace is a supreme moral and religious duty. "Peace obtained by acquiescence in any violation of honour, justice, and the rule of law would bo an illusion. The only security of peace in the world is the security of collective acceptance of the common rule of law among nations. '' In principles the defence of the Covenant, like the defence of any rule of law among men, may involve the use of physical force. I cannot myself believe that loyalty to Christ can be applied to justify a refusal to allow any use of force against law breakers. You will note that I say 'in principle' because it is plain that the League of Nations has no intention of applying what arc called military sanctions. "It depends, upon the aggressor whether lie will treat any other forms of restraint as an action of war. If lie were to do so, which is most unlikely, then the principle of the legitimate use of force in the defence of peace cannot be shirked. But for the present to talk about war is alike mischievous and needless." IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS. The primate explained his attitude during the Abyssinian debate in the House of Lords. " I think there has been a great deal of justice in the complaints that have been made that Abyssinia has been very slow, and might have been culpably slow, in fulfilling the obligations on the strength of which she was admitted to the League. "Our contention is that, admit as much as you like of the difficulties created by the position of Abyssinia, possibly by the treatment of Italy by Abyssinia—it ought to have been submitted to the League, and it was not for Italy to take into her own hands to judge her own case and at once to mass a great military force against the country about which she felt these grievances." "If there be chances of some suggestions, from Italy as to a possible basis of conciliation," the archbishop said, "certainly they should be treated with every desire to be fair and considerate and welcomed, provided that they be not such terms as if granted would even seem to justify Italy's act of aggression." It was impossible to emphasise too much that the dispute was not in any sense one between this country and Italy, but one between Italy and the League. BASIS OF SETTLED PEACE. On the subject of sanctions leading to a possible war, the archbishop said: "So far from being .militant, our whole contention is that it is the cause of world peace that is involved in upholding and supporting the Covenant of the League. "Although I would passionately repudiate any clamour for war, I must equally repudiate any clamour for mere peace. " The pursuit of peace for its own sake defeats its own ends. A peace obtained for mere acquiescence is certainly one which would never stand and which would be quite inconsistent with the basis upon which any settled peace could be built."