PEACE ON EARTH.

Otago Witness, Issue 3031, 17 April 1912, Page 88

PEACE ON EARTH.

(By C. C.) In a sentimental aspect the recent holiday season had peace on earth, goodwill towards men, as the dominant note in the general harmony resounding throughout Christendom. But the universal outlook at the beginning of the year afforded too many indications that holding out the olive branch was more the expression of a thought that is considered proper than indicative of pacific intentions. The Herald Ansels are Dreadnoughts, huge standing armies, bigger and more destructive guns, airships to drop explosives more unerring than thunderbolts on the heads of enemies; submarine,:, which, reaching their objectives, may the biggest battleships to the bottom with small chance for the officers and crews to escape engulfment; compulsory military service, the establishment of new naval units, and children tunned into Scouts in semi-military kindergartens. In the commercial, industrial, and social world strifes are incessant, and are growing in volume as well as in numbers. Tariff walls are built up with one hand while (reciprocity agreements* are signed with the other, the chief object of the contracting parties being to eliminate from roost favoured treatment as many articles as possible. Strikes are mef with lockouts, arbitration awards are openly flouted, and union registrations are cancelled so that workers may be more free to fight their battle* against capital. Boycotting has become quite a recognised method of bloodless warfare to injure the trade of an offending producer. Even the Church has becoirio militant in the direction of disestablishment, as a disturbing element in national education, and in dictating the terms on which .marital relations still exist. Dynasties are being- swept away by force of arms, and geographical boundaries are subjected to forced delimitations. And yet at no timo has the desire for universal peace found such widespread and influential expression as at present. Never have the advantages of social and national arbitration been so strongly urged. Eight of the principal naval powers ass&mbled in London not so very long ago, and agreed to the establishment of an International Supreme Court to deliver final judgment upon all cases of marine capture, and to some such court it is hoped that national disputes will some day be submitted rather i than to the arbitrament of the sword. Such I is Mr Andrew Carnegie's hope, and he hes | given his millions to assist its consumma- j tion. The International Arbitration and , Peace Association, whose headquarters are in London, held a great meeting in July j last. The president, in his opening address, i had no practical suggestion to offer for securing universal peace, but he said: I Hatred of war was now a matter of conscience with the serious-minded, and until tlie national conscience was educated to revolt at the idea of war-making the work of peace congresses and peace societies would be incomplete. The picturesque and emotional side of warmaking was so ready to inflame, and the war-making instinct so inflammable, that in times of tension the power of reasoning might be drowned by drums and trumpets. There would always be this danger until the national conscience placed war in the same category as gluttony, drunkenness, murder, and such like.

It is not likely that any large body of people, however "greatly they may deprecate a resort to arms as a means of settling international difficulties, will ever class war in the same category as murder. It is much more probable that the theorem put forward by Mr Norman Angell, in his enormously popular book, ''The Great Illusion," will be accepted as the most hopeful way of bringing in that millennial time when men shall learn the art of war no more. To the alarmists who predict that the successful invasion of England, such as was designed by Phillip and Parma, and again by Napoleon, would be as great a catastrophe to the British Empire as the bursting of the boilers in a Dreadnought, Mr Angell replies that, so long as the natural wealth of a country and the population to work it remain, an invader cannot "utterly destroy it." He could only destroy the trade by destroying the population, which is not practicable, and if he could destroy the population he would destroy his own market, which would be commercial suicide. In other words,' tho conquest would assure the conqueror no profit, and therein lies one of the best guarantees against the probabilities of invasion, to say nothing about the fear of sotting aIL Europe ablaze and bringing about international bankruptcy. Mr Angell puts this point very forcibly when ho argues that "as between economically highly organised nations a customer must' also be a competitor, a fact which bayonets cannot alter." and gives a passing allusion to tho late Mr Seddon's economic fallacy that England made her purchases with a stream of golden sovereigns that was all the time growing siriiiller. whereas there was never enough gold in England to pay for six months' imports. The prime argument in this thought-compelu'ng book is that physical force is a constantly diminishing factor in human affairs, and the increasing factor is international to-operation that tends to attenuate State divisions; that tho commercial inter-dependence of one country with others is getting so intimate that war is in a fair way of becoming impossible, because it will not pay to quarrel with good customers. Of course, there is the other school of publicists, who aver that the only guarantee for peace is preparedness for war. The strong man armed is safest from attack, at.d the fear of the consequences has been the means of keeping peace in Europe for the past 40 years. Military experts like Lieutenant-general Sir Reginald C. Hart maintain that the Utopia man has so long sought after, where he will enjoy peace and plenty, ease, comfort, and perfection in all hings, is a mere will-o'-the-wisp. Arguing by analogy, he contends: '•There lias always been constant and deadly war in tho vegetable as well as in the animal kingdom; indeed, ever since the conditions of the planet permitted the existence of the lowest forms of organic life, and it has only been by war that from thoso humble beginnings it has been possible by evolution and natural selection to develop so comparatively perfect a creature a 3 man. The nie"ans of improvement must be the same as in the past—namely, war, relentless war of extermination of inferior individuals and nations. History proves up to the hilt that nations languish and per Ssh under peace conditions, and it has only been by war that a people has continued to thrive and exist." Finally, in defence of our war-

like virtues, this authority points out that "for some inscrutable reason it nas pieubrU the Almighty to constitute all life in this world on a war and not on a peace basis," and asks: " Is it -.vise of the creature to dispute the wisdom of the Creator?" In view of those conflicting opinions there is not much comfort to be drawn from tho religious aspect of t,he question. Early Christians looked for the establishment of perpetual peace in their dav, and refined to bear arms; but for the 'past 2000 years ecclesiastical influences have increased instead of diminished the number of wars. In the Crusaders the valour of the soldier Wa j stLmiila.tcd by his passion as a devotee. and this unholy combination was responsible for the massacre of the Albigenses. and the cruel hatred of misbelievers that deluged the world with blood. Bishops and abbots led their followers to battle even as late as the Battle of Aarincourt, and today no British battleship is launched without high Church, dignitaries taking part in the ooremony. Regimental colours aro blessed, and in times of war the god of battles is invoked for victory. The Greek Church blessed the thousands of Russian :kons that were carried to the Japanese war, and the Church of Rome assured the Spanish soldiers, that thoy would be invulnerable to the American bullets that would be directed against them in the Cuban war of 1893. The principles 1 of the Sermon on the Mount are treated as impossible under twentieth century conditions. We do not, dare not, turn the other choek to the smiter. but, if recent war soare news is to be credited, are ready to get in tho first blow and let. that bo a knock-out one. Duels havo almost disappeared from Christian countries because tfie public opinion of industrial and well-ordered communities censured suoh practises. It may be that with the spread of intelligence and' improved means of communication huge standing armies will be disbanded, and most of tho Dreadnoughts go to the sorapheap. having only enough of the army and navy to do iK>lice duty throughout the world.