PEACE MUST BE WON

Timaru Herald, Volume CL, Issue 22063, 9 September 1941, Page 5

PEACE MUST BE WON

No Compromise On

War Aims

National Day Of Prayer

By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright LONDON, September 7. Yesterday was observed as a day of prayer throughout Great Britain. In St. Paul’s Cathedral, the clang of the hammers of workmen repairing air raid damage could be heard above the sound of the prayers.

Addresses were given by the Archbishop of Canterbury (Dr. Cosmo Lang) and by the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster (Cardinal Hinsley). The Chief Rabbi (Dr. J. H. Hertz) has called on all Jewish people in the British Empire to prepare for a week of rededication, culminating in the Day of Atonement. The Chief Rabbi will inaugurate the week in an overseas transmission of the 8.8. C. on September 23.

Last Year’s Deliverance

In his address, the Archbishop of Canterbury said that only now was it realised how great was the deliverance when last year’s Battle of Britain was won by the valour of the Air Force. He asked for remembrance in thoughts and prayers, of Russia’s armies in their fierce ordeal, of her workers and of her peasants driven from their soil and from the homes they loved, and also of all the oppressed nations. Dr. Lang said there could be no compromise—indeed no neutrality—between the conception of man’s dignity, for which the Allies were fighting, and the Nazi conception that the State was all-powerful, acknowledging no right but its own might. “We must see in this tremendous conflict nothing less than the struggle between these two wholly opposite conceptions of the meaning and purpose of man’s life,” he said. “One is that man is the child of God created in his Father’s image and responsible to his Creator. To meet this responsibility he

must have freedom of thought, speech and worship, and opportuntly to develop his whole personality. He is bound to claim truth, mercy and justice between man and man. “Under the Nazi doctrine, if truth, mercy, justice and freedom stand in the way of the all-powerful State, claiming to be an instrument of a superior race extending away over the World, they must , give place to it. We see these principles thrust aside and trampled underfoot throughout Europe by the armed force of the German State.” But the deepest need of man was not a vindication of his rights, but redemption from his sins, added the Archbishop. Only the Christian Gospel held out hope of redemption. Cardinal Kinsley’s Address “If racial pride and selfish utilitarianism are allowed to defeat the aims of the present struggle,” said Cardinal Hinsley, “then, as in 1918, we shall gain only a respite from war. Christ will not let us have peace at any price The true peace for which we pray is the peace which is promised to men of goodwill.” The Cardinal, while endorsing the alms declared by Mr Churchill and President Roosevelt, including freedom from fear, said: “There is another fear Which we must pray God to instil into our hearts. The heart of man stands in need of fear—fear of losing God’s love. From this fear comes fulfilment of the law, and herein lies that essential security which human contrivance by itself is unable to guarantee for the happiness of mankind. We are being tried in fire.”

The Cardinal asked particularly for prayers for Poland. Never were a people so mercilessly treated by a cruel invader, he said. Poland had now concluded a pact with the Russian people in order that her sons, and especially her young girls, might be delivered from a slavery more awful than death. Russia had been guilty of great wrongs to others and to Poland also, but peoples whose rulers did wrong did not forfeit all their own rights. “We pray that the defence of Russia’s rights may help repair Poland’s unmerited wrongs,” he added.

Prayers From Ireland

The Archbishop of Armagh, Primate of All Ireland, in a broadcast, said the people of the Church of Ireland gladly joined with their fellow Christians of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland in the observance of a day of national prayer. “We are thus enabled to show our close partnership with you in the deepest and most vital realities of national life,” he said. “We share your belief that the existence of. all that is worth living for as a people is threatened by the designs of the enemy.

“United are our prayers with yours that God will give us and our Allies courage to endure whatever further sufferings and losses that await us, and strength to go forward without flinching.”