The Christchurch Star PUBLISHED BY New Zealand Newspapers Ltd. SATURDAY, AUGUST 26, 1933. WAR WITH OURSELVES.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 851, 26 August 1933, Page 8

The Christchurch Star PUBLISHED BY New Zealand Newspapers Ltd.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 26, 1933. WAR WITH OURSELVES.

Gloucester Street end Cathedral Square ' CHRISTCHURCH NEW ZEALANDI

TN SPITE of the fact that peoples’ consciences freely admit that war is wrong, and in spite of the very good case for peace presented by the pacifists on historical and economic grounds, anti-war propaganda remains largely ineffective. Shaw stated the paradox another way when he said that the one thing which can unite all men in a common fervour of self-sacrifice is the one thing that all know to be wrong. Nations admit that war is self-defeating, yet they go on preparing for war. The general reason given is fear of the other fellow, but Dr Glover attributes this state of things to the unconscious urge of primal impulses. The average man would he horrified, he says, if he were told that he enjoyed the taste of human blood with his breakfast bacon and eggs. Yet when he folds back the newspaper and reads that the mob is wreaking vengeance in Cuba the faint pleasure that he takes in the cable message is not unrelated to the primitive desires of -war. It is true that pacifists have recognised the existence of the pugnacious impulses, and as a sort of an aside to their moral appeals and historical analysis they have recommended the sublimation of aggression through sport and mountaineering, but so far their ethical preaching and statistical reasoning have been so much waste of energy. According to Dr Glover, this is because they have employed the wrong methods. He sees a more effective attack on war through a deeper knowledge of psychology. “ Study human beings; study in particular the impulses of aggression, and study them first in yourself.” And then he suggests that in a psychoanalysis of dictators, foreign secretaries, diplomats and peace delegates we might find a further explanation of disarmament conference failures.

NEW ZEALAND’S CREDIT. IT WOULD be utterly discreditable if people who lent money in London to the Southland Power Board were to be told that they would have to take a cut of 25 per cent in their interest on account of high exchange, but the injustice of such a proceeding is exactly proportionate to the injustice that would be imposed on the Southland ratepayer if he had to pay the interest in sterling. The villain of the piece is not the power board but the New Zealand Government. By inflating the currency it made a levy on the people of New Zealand generally for the benefit of the farming community. The extra premium payable for primary exports comes not from the buyer in London but from the people of New Zealand. The Southland ratepayers who authorised this loan were invited to do so on the understanding that they would be rated at a definite amount for the interest. Now they find that their liability has been increased without their consent by an act of the Government intended to benefit one section of the community alone. As far as can be seen from cases already decided In the Courts, they are not legally liable for the increase, and they are certainly not morally liable. The moral responsibility, unanswerable though it is, rests solely on the Government that created it in defiance of the legal liability, and if the credit of New Zealand is in jeopardy, the Government must redeem it. This, indeed, is only one of the many chickens that are coming home to roost, as a result of political tampering with exchange. Another is to be noted to-day in the fact that only three firms have tendered for the new Dunedin Post Office, the others holding off on account of the uncertainty of prices created by exchange inflation which is likely to slow down not building alone, but trade generally.