CALL TO NATIONS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23866, 21 July 1939, Page 5

CALL TO NATIONS

MORAL REARMAMENT ASSEMBLY NEW ZEALAND SIGNATORIES OF MESSAGE (Pep United Press Association) WELLINGTON, July 20. The Prime Minister (Mr M. J. Savage) and the Premier of New South Wales (Mr B. S. B. Stevens) were among the signatories to a message to the Moral Rearmament World Assembly at Hollywood, entitled “A Call to the Nations for Moral Rearmament,” according to cabled advice received in Wellington by the Oxford Group. Delegations from 30 nations are attending the assembly,, which will last for 10 days, having opened yesterday in the vast open-air stadium, Hollywood Bowl, seating 20,000. The world-wide nature of the assembly is shown by messages from four Dutch Cabinet Ministers, the Mayor and Bishop of Rangoon, the chief of the Swedish Air Force, and others. In addition, thousands of citizens from many countries are sending a message pledging themselves to support their leaders. The "Call to the Nations” reads:— Born from the crisis, the challenge of moral rearmament has brought us new vision and new hope—a new vision for our nation and a new hope for ourselves. Moral rearmament is the strength of a nation’s resolve. It conquers fear, ambition, greed, self-indulgence, and hatred. Moral rearmament is the foundation of true liberty It frees all citizens to give their highest service. Moral rearmament is the secret of peace. It brings peace in the heart, peace in the home, peace in the nation; it offers the one sure hope , of peace between nations—a constructive plan which issues from common obedience to one supreme plan. Moral rearmament is a battlecrier—challenging men and women of all classes and all ages to an endless vow in a war against the forces of chaos —the war that starts with God-given victory over those forces that work in ourselves. Moral rearmament means first of all a change of heart. It means the admission of our responsibility for the past, a frank acceptance by nations, as by individuals, of the standards of honesty, purity, unselfishness, and love, and daily listening and daily obedience to God’s direction. At this fateful hour we pledge ourselves to give the last full measure of our devotion —the service of heart and mind and will—for the moral and spiritual rearmament of our nation —for building the world of to-morroWj a world of new men . and new nations, where every resource of human genius is liberated under God’s leadership to enrich the heritage of all mankind.

The New Zealand signatories are Mr M< J. Savage, Mr Adam Hamilton, Mr Mark Fagan, Mr D. G, Sullivan, Mr F. Jones. Mr W. Lee Martin, Mr W. Perry, Major-general Sjr Andrew Russell, and Colonel C. H. Weston. ‘'illustrated pages containing the signatures to the British message represent over 1000 towns and villages,” states the cabled report received In Wellington. “ Bound in 14 books, they make a modern * Canterbury Tales.’ The sheets from Scotland bear the colours of the clans; Welsh miners write a, song of hope; in some cities thfi mayors and councillors signed sheets embossed by the city seal. The captain, first engineer, fireman, deck hands, and winchman of a Clyde dredger write: ‘We take the dirt from the Clyde. M.R.A. cleans up the world.’ Domestic workers In Gloucester signing Under the emblem of a pail and brush write: “M.R.A. springcleans ourselves, our homes, and our country.’ In the middle of one sheet, hidden among the names of villagers, is the signature of A. J. Cronin, author of ‘The Citadel.’ Yorkshire cricketers’ names filled a sheet, headed by Hutton and Sutcliffe, and including Constantine and Woolley. Lord Athlone, Lord_ Hugh Cecil, and the Provost of Eton signed with the townspeople of Windsor. Similar groups representing cross sections in France, Bulgaria, Scandinavia, India, Japan, and China signed the world message.”