The Wanganui Chronicle. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1942. CHRISTMAS DAY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 86, Issue 303, 24 December 1942, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1942. CHRISTMAS DAY

r J"’O-3IORRO'\V will be Christmas Day, ami the significance of that day is not lessened by the fact that a world war is in progress. To-morrow will be a good day on which to take stock of things on the widest possible scale. Here are some leadingthoughts for those who desire to engage in that exercise:— The world is- at war as it lias been before. It is passingthrough one of t*iose periods of pain so that it shall have a new birth. Pain is not necessarily helpful, but it may be so. Pain can, in fact, be the great educator. What lesson is now to be learned ? The first and obvious lesson is that, taken as a whole, this world—or rather humanity—is actually moving forward. It is struggling, and when an organism is struggling it is overcomingsomething. It is something to be thankful for, then, that humanity is struggling to-day. The second obvious lesson to be learned is that the pursuit of nationalistic objectives cannot go forward with the same vigour that characterised that movement during the last century. Then there was an urgent need for men to light for the free expression of nationalistic cultures. Small groups of men were protesting and fighting and dying in order that the cultural groups to which they belonged should have the right of self-expression. Political tyranny was rampant and had to be challenged. During the war of 1914-18 the fight for Libei ■alism may be said to have readied, its culmination point. Self-determination as a nationalistic principle was elevated into a front-rank place in the scheme of things, and a very determined endeavour was made to accommodate that principle in the statecraft of the time. There can be no doubt but that this success was worthy of the effort despite its obvious failings and limitations. Where the world failed in the interregnum between the two wars, was that men and women were asking for a kind of peace to which they were not entitled. It is a false hope to look forward to a peace which is based on indifference to the rest of the world. Possibly it was because too many entertained such a false hope that the period of non-belligerency ended when it did. Peace is not a static condition. It is not a state of affairs to which we can return after the war. It is dynamic; it is ever new because it must be. established inside the framework of a changing world. Peace is the result of ever-changing accommodations to meet, conditions as they alter their form and character. It is a constant activity and must remain so: it is neither slumber nor idleness. The coming year may bring about a cessation of hostilities and the question which must be kept well to the front is: “What arc we going to do with the peace?” Is humanity going to store, up fuel for another war? If it does so, then the probability is that the next war will be a more devastating war than the one that is now being prosecuted. The problem of establishing peace on earth is not just a sentimental urge: it is an urgent necessity which humanity may neglect only to its own peril. Peace can only come when goodwill between mon is established. Goodwill, however, cannot run on a single track. It must be two-way at. least, for it ill-will exists at. one end of the line, then it will seek to destroy the other end. For the assaulted end io accept the attacks of the ill-disposed is for the former to court extinction, and with it out goes goodwill. 111-will and hate must never be allowed even to appear to be profitable merchandise. The man who expresses the Christmas wish of Peace on Eai'th to men of goodwill, should also feel that this wish is of a. compelling nature, thrusting him forward to take upon himself the task of helping to build up the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. Such a task is of tremendous compass: it. will tax human strength and ingenuity, and it will require for the sustenance of the effort needed the deepest and most abnnd nnf nt* incnirnfinnc