THE Wairarapa Age FRIDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1937. THE SPIRIT OF PEACE.

Wairarapa Age, 24 December 1937, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age FRIDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1937. THE SPIRIT OF PEACE.

In the time-honoured practice of many nations, Christmas is a season of kindly thought for others and above all for children. At the broadest view, there is in the observance of the Christmas festival an expression of the spirit of peace and of universal goodwill. Looking at what is going on in the world it might be said that tjiis spirit has never been violated more flagrantly than in the present-day practice of a number of nations. Wars of unjust oppression and spoliation are being wagefl in Europe and in Eastern Asia and the internal and external policy of some nations ostensibly at peace is visibly calculated-and directed to stirring up disunion and hatred. All that is best and finest in the ideals: to which our own people and some others pay spontaneous tribute at

Christmas time is denounced and menaced by aggressive and war-mongering dictatorships. In times like these it becomes very necessary that the peoples of the free democracies, of which the British Empire stands foremost, should not only preserve* and uphold their ideals, but should keep their heads.

Any dispassionate survey of world affairs at the present day leads to the conclusion that a true and faithful allegiance to our democratic idehls does not of necessity imply that our own nation, alone or in association with other nations with which it is in sympathy, should be prepared to plunge into war in order to attack even obvious and admitted evils which have lifted their heads in the international field. Neither a confession of weakness nor an abandonment of hope for democracy is implied in the contention that there is a limit to the crusading that should be undertaken by the British Empire and by other nations which share its ideals. That contention was stated frankly and in clear terms by the British Foreign Secretary (Mr. Anthony Eden), when he declared in the House of Commons on Wednesday that there was no assurance of lasting peace until international order and the limitation of armaments were generally accepted. Britain (Mr. Eden added) must do all she honourably could to restore peace and do her full share with others towards the fulfilment of international obligations. She must also protect British interests and territory. “We must be patient, yet firm, conciliatory without being defeatist, and ffiust continue to arm because it is the only way to get an arms agreement,” he said. “That is the policy the country will indorse and which the Government will con-

tinue to pursue.” Hot-headed idealists in plenty' no doubt will be found to denounce the policy thus outlined as one of timid caution and even, of acquiescence in evil. The more the facts are considered, however, the more plainly will it appear that Britain is being guided wisely and well in these days of crisis and alarm. << < A readiness ott Britain's part to plunge into war on behalf of any anil every victim of aggression probably would do much less to help these victims than to establish and 1 confirm a reign of chaotic disorder in the world. Whether an ultimate conflict between the democracies and dictatorships of the world can be averted remains to be seen. Britain and other nations which share her peaceful ideals at all events are not reduced to playing a merely passive part in the world.' They are building up both economic and military strength and are profiting' by peaceful association with, one another. In the last analysis, the strength of democracies rests upon the free and unhampered development of the individual citizen. The deadly and corroding weakness of the dictatorships which are doing so much to-day to unsettle and disorder the world is in the suppression of individual freedom. The observance by the British Empire and other democracies, in a time when so much is being done to unsettle the foundations of world peace and order, of a policy of watchful patience, is not inconsistent with a belief that in the end the right will triumph and that mankind at large will enjoy the blessings of peace and goodwill.