The Timaru Herald FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1934. WANTED: A CODE FOR PEACEMAKERS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 19904, 14 September 1934, Page 8

The Timaru Herald FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1934. WANTED: A CODE FOR PEACEMAKERS

Every discussion on the question of armaments in relation to the preservation of peace seems to evaporate before the difficulties that are found hi evolving a programme behind which men of goodwill may unite despite personal Convictions and without affecting other programmes. Daniel A. Poling, writing in The Literary Digest last month said:

“The imperative need of the peace movement is unity—unity not uniformity. Such unity alone can meet the challenge of the present crisis. It is obvious to most thoughtful men that unless the forces of peace do unite, unless they do concentrate the maximum strength for peace against the war menace, sooner or later another war seems inevitable.

One of the gravest developments within the peace movement is the division iu the ranks of the friends of peace. This has been demonstrated by the returns on a questionnaire sent out by a committee of churchmen, in the United States: One hundred thousand copies of the questionnaire were distributed, and 20,870 replies were received. Of these 20,870 clergymen, 12,904 declared that they personally were prepared to state that it was their present purpose not to sanction any future war, or participate as an armed combatant. Also this total of more than 12,000 represented an increase of more than 3000 over the number of clergymen taking the same position in a similar questionnaire three years ago. On the other hand, the fact that the distribution of 100,000 questionnaires this year resulted in less than 21,000 replies, while 50,000 questionnaires three years drew in more than 19,000 replies, with the further fact that of the ministers replying to the questionnaires thousands expressed themselves as opposed to extreme or final pacifism, emphasises the wide divergence of opinion existing to-day on the question of evolving a code for peacemakers that would produce unity.

Notwithstanding this plain lack of cohesion in the ranks of peacemakers, it is felt that some code might he evolved to appeal to all people. Here are live points suggested hv some friends of peace. First of all, we may think peace. We may acquaint ourselves with the causes of war. We may familiarise ourselves with the aspirations of Ihose nations along whose borders the peace is stalked by hates and fears. There is the beginning of knowledge, know-' ledge that will be power for international good will.. Second, the peoples must unite to prevent international competition in building bigger and bigger fleets and equipping more powerful armies and air fleets, and generally inventing new engines of warfare. On the third point, it is urged that the enlightened democracies of the world must unite to press for the most searching investigations of the private manufacture of war munitions. It is, indeed, only reasonable that the efforts of the nations assembled at Geneva to reduce armaments should not be hampered by powerful interests whose finances are involved in securing the opposite result. On the fourth point, it is insisted that the peoples of all nations, where the manufacture of arms is carried on, should unite to urge their Governments to complete the so-called arms embargo approved recently to prevent the shipment of arms to nations — great and small —bent on making war. And finally, on the fifth point, it is claimed by the advocates of creating peace in the world by creating peace in the hearts of the leading peoples, that they can unite iu support of the proposal that nations enter into an international pact of nonaggression. Pacts may not offer the sovereign solution of all the phases of international rivalry, or cure suspicion borne of fear, but pacts are not as powerless as the critics say. The peace movement is in its infancy, and no one can deny that every pact signed at least strengthens the popular will to peace. If the process is not hindered there may come a magnificent movement in the history of the world, when the will to peace is more powerful than the will to war. In the United States particular attention is being given to President Roosevelt's proposal which is regarded by many of his countrymen as something in the nature of an Eleventh Commandment. But if it embodies a simple principle that asks the nation to promise that there will be “no hostile crossing of international boundary lines” —no crossing of a border as an enemy to carry death to another people—it may yet lie regarded as the unassailable foundation upon which enduring peace and international understanding can be built; indeed, it is widely asserted that men and women who would be bound to spring to action in defence if their homeland were invaded, would gladly engage to give the most solemn undertaking “not to invade anybody else's homeland.” In such a programme all citizens of goodwill, whatever their present peace activities and without interference with any other programme could engage. Such a world movement would strengthen every aspiration for peace, and would undergird all those sacrificial endeavours which have as their final objective the elimination of armed conflict and the reign of durable peace throughout the world.

POPULAR INTEREST IN DOGS

Even the most enthusiastic dog lover among the organisers of ribbon parades that have been held under the auspices of the newlyformed South Canterbury Kennel Club have expressed agreeable surprise not only at the large attendances of the general public that patronised the parades but at the high quality and the wide variety of dogs exhibited. The success of tlie first show organised by the Kennel Club and staged with such success iu the Drill Hall, must be most gratifying to the newly formed club. Obviously the Club lias found a place in the popular interest and the officials and members may look forward with the utmost confidence to the success of their efforts to create interest in the breeding, care, and exhibition of purebred dogs. All that remains is for the lovers of dogs—and they are legion—to show by their attendance at the dog show to-day that they welcome the revival of interest in purebred dogs. For long years dog shows have been held in New Zealand, and we should have to go back many V(iars to discover the date on which the first dog show was held in England. But we do know that sportsmen and dog fanciers have always been keen supporters of exhibitions of good quality dogs. It is interesting to note the differing attitude of peoples in the ancient past to the dog. In the Scriptures the dog is spoken of almost with disgust; indeed, it is ranked among the unclean beasts. Dogs were held in veneration by the Egyptians. Historians tell us that the annual overflowing of the Nile was looked for with considerable anxiety. Its approach was announced by the apearance of a certain star, Sirius, and as soon as tlie star was seen above the horizon, the people hastened to remove their flocks to tlie higher ground and abandoned the lower pastures to the fertilising Influence of the stream. They hailed that star as their guard and protector, and associating with its apparent watchfulness, the wellknown fidelity of the dog, they called it the “dog star,” and worshipped it. Anyone who yesterday visited the splendid exhibition of dogs now benched in Timaru would be excused at first glance if they questioned the pronouncement of Dr. P. C. Mitchell, secretary to the Zoological Society of London and University Demonstrator in Comparative Anatomy, that “it is not improbable that all dogs sprang from one source.” Dr. Mitchell suggests :

Climate, food and cross breeding caused variations of form which suggested particular uses, these being either designedly or accidentally perpetuated as the various breeds of dogs arose and became numerous in proportion to the progress of civilisation. Among the ruler or savage tribes, dogs possess but one form, but just as the ingenuity of man has devised many inventions to increase his comforts, he has varied and multiplied the characters and kinds of domestic animals for the same purpose; hence the various breeds of horses, cattle and dogs.

It is interesting to note that Dr. Mitchell confessed that the parent stock of the dog is now impossible to trace, but he insists that tlie wild dog whenever found on the Continent of Asia or Northern Europe, has nearly the same characters, and bears no inconsiderable resemblance to the British dog of the ordinary type; while many of those from the southern hemisphere can scarcely be distinguished from the cross breeding poaching dog, the lurcher. No one is much concerned in this day in the distant pedigree of the domestic dog. It is difficult to believe that the theories of race which tend little by little to transform the life of the inhabitants of the German Reich, do not confine themselves to the human species exclusively; as a matter of fact, activity in this direction extends over all territories, and includes even the breeding of dogs. According to the newly appointed “Dog Fuhrer,” for a nation which prides itself on its race principles, it is quite natural to apply those principles not only to man but also to his most faithful companion the dog; indeed, the necessity of reform imposes itself because there exists in Germany to-day eight times as many mongrel dogs as there are thoroughbreds. “'One gets some notion of how stupendous such a task seems,” says one Nazi official, “if one bears in mind how difficult it is to purge the country of its Jewish element, which represents only one per cent, of the entire population”! It will thus be seen that even the dog of impure blood is no longer safe in Germany! That the dog still holds his own as a popular possession is demonstrated in the quickened interest in the canine aristocrats now benched in Timaru, and all lovers of man’s faithful friend the dog will wish the South Canterbury Kennel Club every success iu its efforts to create and maintain popular interest in purebred dogs.