AN ARMED PEACE.

Colonist, Volume LVI, Issue 13598, 7 October 1914, Page 2

AN ARMED PEACE.

Writing in tho "Clarion" recently Mr. Robert Blatchford said:—l met a man who has lons been one of the most uncompromising and active of the pacifist leaders. lie stopped to talk with me, and he told me, much to my sni-pri.se, that he was now on our side. "I see now," he said, "that we could not have kept out of'the war." And he added, "But Tarn afraid of Russia." For my part I am not afraid of Russia. Not that I trust Emperors or Kaisers. Indeed, I have learnt sorrowfully that this is a wicked world. I But assuming that we can put the Kaiser in his place, I do not see any cause to fear Russia. By the time we have settled accounts with Germany I think we shall all of us have supped full of horrors. Ido not believe that Europe will wait another war for a very long while. On the contrary, I am hoping for a federation of the European States from Norway to Italy as a guarantee of peace. Let France, Britain, Italy, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Holland, Portugal, and Spain form an alliance for the preservation of the status quo, and there will be no need to fear Russia or any other Power. Let us have an armed, enlightened, democratic Europe banded in an open alliance for the preservation of peace; and let any autoci:at or bandit break the peace at his peril.