The Sun MONDAY, AUGUST 27, 1928 A PROMISE OF PEACE

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 443, 27 August 1928, Page 8

The Sun MONDAY, AUGUST 27, 1928 A PROMISE OF PEACE

PEACE in enduring freedom from war is tlie world’s greatest need. This may be proved in a material way by simply citing' the appalling fact that out of every pound of taxation the British citizen pays, fourteen shillings are due to past wars and preparation for future wars. And the cost of peaceful defence grows and grows in a hotbed of desire and demand for mechanised armies, for cruisers, for submarines, for mighty fleets of aircraft with swift power to wreck great cities and massacre their inhabitants with poison gas. There no necessity to elaborate the moral and spiritual advantages of universal peace. The inspired preacher may he entrusted in complete confidence to emphasise these high benefits with the perfection of impressive argument. People with short memories, or with minds susceptible to the glamour of militarism and the adventure of war, should turn for a moment and glance at' the monstrous record of the world conflict that was Armageddon without the advent of the Millennium. It caused the deaths of 7,582,000 human beings, and it cost the belligerent nations the bewildsring sum of £37,000,000,000. Everybody is familiar with the post-war heritage of misery, muddle, economic banditry and" political stupidity. So there is ample reason for world-wide jubilation over the signing of the Kellogg Pact in Paris to-day for the renunciation of war by the major Powers and associated nations; and there is also appealing reason and need for prayer for its efficacy in future international affairs. The Treaty is a solemn covenant to outlaw war as a barbaric means of composing the provocative differences between nations, and represents a sincere promise to keep the peace of the world. The supreme value of this American idealism is purely moral and sentimental. It expresses a sane hatred of war without attempting to make a new heaven and a new earth. The Paet does not pretend to make an end to war. All the international plenipotentiaries, who this eventful day in world history will bind their respective nations to a noble vow to outlaw war, know quite well in their alert minds, as in their hearts, that the abolition of war cannot he achieved by the magic of determined promise of renunciation. Such obligations cannot be made absolute. Peace shall endure only when nations make enduring peace the basis of all their treaties and policies, and have peace as the core of their creeds. No one willingly would wish to cheapen tlae historic ceremony in Paris to-day, or belittle its purpose, hut there need be no illusions about the value of the Kellogg Pact. At its best the Treaty will do a tremendous amount of good in its moral influence on the popular mind of assenting nations and, let us hope, on the minds and methods of their politicians, while at its worst, it will do no harm. But it may not kill the outlaw. In most countries to-day the people have learnt by bitter experience that war must he smothered as effectively as possible, because war, as a normal method for the settlement of international disputes, is merely destructive madness. But in some parts of the world that plain truth is a lesson still to be learned; in these countries people and politics are enamoured of strutting militarism, and the habit of being armed to the teeth is always a temptation to fools to attempt the fleshing of swords. The representatives of fifteen nations, including New Zealand as an independent, national unit of the British Empire, will sign the outlawry of war to-day in the French centre of European history. Within forty-eight hours following on the completion of the ceremony, forty-seven other nations will be invited to accept the Pact, and range their moral forces on the side of peace. One pan only in imagination join the happy inhabitants of Paris and share their pleasure at the spectacle of friendly flags and the new Republican flag of an ancient enemy flying together in the clear autumnal air over and about the Quai d’ Orsay, symbolising peace and the combined hope and determination to keep peace for ever. ' *