A MODERN PEACEMAKER.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 April 1933, Page 6

A MODERN PEACEMAKER.

Good King Alfred and Edward the Seventh, have each in their time been, lauded as the peacemakers of the age. Newer days, however, have been accompanied by newer ways, and the task of peacemaking now falls more to the lot of statesmen- than to that of monarchs. In awarding the 1933 peace prize to Arthur Henderson the Carnegie Endowment has given recognition to services that are probably less widely known than they deserve to be. One of the features' of Mr. Henderson’s administration of the portfolio of Foreign Affairs in the British Labour Government was the energy and tact which he constantly applied to the smoothing over of international differences, and it was as a result of this work that serious trouble was more than once averted. True and proper appreciation of his labours came when he was appointed chairman of the Disarmament Conference. Before the conference opened he was defeated at the general election in 1931, but it speaks well for the high standard of British statesmanship that although he was no longer Foreign Secretary his services as chairman of the conference were retained. The cards have been stacked against him during the past year, and the chances* of success of the conference grew more and more remote as the months went by. Mr. Henderson must have found his position a most disheartening one, but there has never been any wavering in his earnest desire for a general agreement to reduce armaments. Perhaps the time will come when his efforts will be assessed at their real worth. At the least it can be said of him that he is a man of broadmindedness and of vision, and that in his indefatigable advocacy of the international rather than the national outlook he is pursuing the only road to real and lasting peace.