HOW TO STOP WAR.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 16797, 22 July 1920, Page 9

HOW TO STOP WAR.

A FOOLISH PROPOSAL. War drums will boat no longer (says the Melbourne Argus) if the executive of the Federated Seamen’s Union of Australasia lias its way. Where the greatest statesmen of the world have failed this little executive has succeeded —it has discovered a means of preventing war, which is, briefly, a general strike of seamen all oyer the world whenever war is declared. The plan is novel, if is dressed in grandiloquent words, it is extremely silly and impracticable. In the first place, there would need to bo an assurance of complete and world-wide unanimity on the parf of seamen. In view of the splendid record of the British seamen in the late war this cannot be expected. Then the scheme would cripple maritime nations and leave great military nations easily triumphant. Had it been in actual operation in 1914 it would not have prevent the war; it would have enabled Germany to overrun the whole of Europe and the greater part of Asia—to say nothing of Africa. It is hardly worth while discussing tire scheme, for, to the great credit of our seafaring men, they cannot, when the call comes, resist the instinct of patriotism. Latent in all of them (excepting in, perhaps, the landlubbers who run the unions) is something of the Nelson spirit.