DAY BY DAY

Waikato Times, Volume 94, Issue 14722, 12 August 1921, Page 4

DAY BY DAY

The harrowing details concerning the conditions obtaining in The Famine Russia indicate that in the work of relief will Russia. be heavy and strenuous. The famine area is wide, and careful and elaborate organisation will be needed in order to effectively distribute the food supplies and minister to the needs of the unfortunate people. The calamity is so appalling that it is imperative that steps be taken without delay in order to cope with the need, and it is a matter in which the dictates of humanity must be given full sway, irrespective of political considerations. Millions of people are starving and scourged with disease; they are unable to help themselves, and unless succour is speedily sent the" toll will be appalling. It is stated that parents arc drowning their children in order to save them from starvation, whilst the population of wide areas are moving from one place to another in a fruitless search for food. Appeals have been sent out to the several countries, and the Supreme Council now in session at Boulogne has considered the matter. America, which has done such noble work in other fields, is prepared to organise relief measures in Russia as the conditions she imposed have now been agreed to. ft behove the Governments of the several countries to act. The need is great, and to be effective it is imperative that it be met promptly. The Dean of St. Paul's, speaking at the Guildhall celebration of Enemies the centenary of the Peace of Society, said: "The prinPeaoe. ciple of the Peace Society is that the ethics of the New Testament were meant to be acted upon, and thai they can be acted upon. Practical men have always said this is absurd. Well, these practical men have had their innings, and what have they done? The war was made, as wc believe, by monarchists and militarists in Central Europe and in Russia. Those monarchists and militarists have committed suicide by going to war. The war was started by Imperialists: now no nation wants new territory except for the purpose of keeping one of hotAllies out of it. The war was approved by the propertied classes, and these classes have been ruined by it. We were told in 1911 that if we did not intervene wc should be left without a single friend in the world. Perhaps that was so. But I have been told lately by two well-informed persons that at present there is only one country in the world in which we arc not cordially disliked. That country is Germany. 11 was whispered by some that although we were not fighting for trade yet still Germany was a troublesome competitor. So she was, and so she will be. But when your severest competitor and your best customer happen to have the same head it is not a good policy to cut thai head off. It was predicted that the war would be a splendid moral lonic, and would bring all (he people together. In spite of that I fear our verdict must be 'The wrath of man workcth not the righteousness of God.' The war has not brought the country together. One doctrine alone has stood the test —that wc ought to be more afraid of wronging than of b'eing wronged. The colossal stupidity of a policy directed by men who were certainly not at all stupid should make us think earnestly about how this strange thing can be. There are no worse enemies of peace than those pacifists who have not the love of peace in their hearts, and who only want to put an end to international war in order lo clear ttie ground for another, and even more terrible kind of war."