The Timaru Herald THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 1936 “ WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH"

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLI, Issue 20441, 11 June 1936, Page 8

The Timaru Herald THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 1936 “ WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH"

When Paul the Apostle wrote his Epistle to the Galatians, he proclaimed no mon! fundamentally sound ethical truth than that expounded in the sentence: “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” This is a simple Biblical saying which is universally accepted as the yardstick by which not only the acts of individuals, but of nations can be measured, and their ethical soundness tested. If then the harvest of international relations has been and still continues to be strife, a succession of wars increasing in their casualties, horrors and after effects, may it not be fairly concluded that the seed sown by the nations has been of an impure kind? It is hardly necessary to labour this point, because every thoughtful citizen of an enlightened community, can enumerate, without very much trouble, a large variety of causes for the unhappy state in which the world finds itself to-day. Facing up to the international situation as it confronts humanity to-day, a distinguished American commentator said: When viewing the seething state of the world politic, instability seems to be the predominant feature of “foreign affairs.” Treaties are made and broken, suggestions accepted and disregarded, allies made of enemies and foes of friends, and it appears that every country is consumed with anxiety as to which nation it may be beneficial to befriend, and which unfortunate to offend. This state of affairs is not peculiar to the present day, but is recorded throughout history, and so far, generally speaking, all efforts at peace and the brotherhood of man appear to have failed. But have peace and brotherhood ever truly been the aims? Right, down the centuries men of courage and vision have pleaded for an advance of the nations, particularly in Europe, towards a world state (or at least international understanding), but every development in this direction—the last example the League of Nations —has failed in the main, because of the failure of responsible leaders and people to put their principles into effect. But to-day, perhaps in a more definite way than ever before, it is being felt that unless our generation can learn to cultivate the larger loyalty to mankind as a whole, and unless we can help on the creation of that New World State with which mankind is now in labour, then our civilisation is doomed. The reason for this insistent demand is, as C. E. M. Joad points out: Man’s new powers of destruction have become so terrible that the old-fashioned loyalties are a luxury which man can no longer afford. A man has only to make the most superficial acquaintance with the literature of the next war, to realise exactly what it will mean in terms of death by poisoning and disease, by burning and choking and maiming of the defenceless population of the world’s great cities. “Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap!” And there is in evidence the growing willingness to plant the seeds of future international understanding and goodwill which should yield a pleasant crop. For centuries, these ideas have been striving after the light. For instance, Alexander 1., of Russia, dreamt of a Holy Alliance, which might be joined by any nation. The famous Frenchman, M. Briand, of France, planned that the United States of Europe should grow out of the Locarno Fact, and President Wilson conceived the idea of the League of Nations and in 1919 he persuaded the Powers to make this principle the basis of peace. And also we have H. G. Wells, lifelong champion of the world state idea, who looks on independent sovereign states as the root of political and economic trouble. And these pioneers of international understanding have obviously inspired Rear-Admiral Byrd who is prepared to devote his life to the creation of a spirit of international brotherhood because lie realises that our generation is seeing the first feeble beginnings of that modern World State which H. G. Wells has advocated so long and so eloquently as the necessary next step in civilisation, if civilisation is not only to progress but to survive.