EXTREME PACIFICSM.

Waikato Times, Volume 96, Issue 15357, 4 October 1923, Page 6

EXTREME PACIFICSM.

A DANGER TO THE EMPIRE. With the sentiment expressed in a resolution carried at a publio meeting in Auckland to support the League of Nations to "secure and maintain the peace of the world through justictv 1 " we arc entirely in sympathy. The idea meets with te general support of British people because the desire for peace is not the faith of a particular cult but is universally held by our people. At the same time we draw attention to the words "peace through justice" because we have the knowledge that there exists a certain class of extreme pacifists whose cry is "peace at any price," and who would go to such lengths as to leave the British Empire defenceless even whilst other nations arc armed to the teeth.

Lord Robert Cecil, speaking as a leading representative of the League of Nations, has laid it down that "no system of disarmament can be justified unless it is made general between the nations." The League is certainly a great world experiment for peace. It is unfortunately the case that to all such great movements misrepresentation and distortion become attached, i To-day there are persons using tho name of the League and attaching themselves to its branches for the purpose of advancing their own extreme pacifist creed of "immediate British disarmament." Some of these are honest idealists whose emotion and sentimentality outrun their exercise oi .judgment. Their Dlca is "let Britain set the example, never mind what other nations arc doing." Another class of such persons who seek British disarmament do so for. the reason that they consider Britain defenceless would be more vulnerable to the attack for world revolution which is their real objective. Professions of peace from such persons is but a mask and hypocrisy, as they are prepared for revolutions of class dictatorship which would produce the vilest warfare known, that of civil war in all countries.

That the agitation of extreme pacifists for immediate disarmament within our Empire must not be lightly considered is shown in the fact that but recently in the British House of Commons the Socialist Party, led by Mr Ramsay MacDonald, tabled a motion for disarmament and such motion did not suggest limitation of armaments, but complete disarmament. When a party aspiring to be the Government of Britain affirms such a policy it is lime we gave serious thought as to where the spirit of extreme pacifism is leading.*

Britain's Present Example.

On the motion referred to Lieut.Col. H. Page Croft, M.P., spoke as follows :

"Why, one may well ask, was this motion tabled in the House of Commons? Mr Asquith said: "Set an example to the world," and this is precisely what we have done. Our Army is now so greatly reduced that it is smaller than it was in the days of the Peninsular, and whilst responsible for the peace of the largest territory in the world, it is smaller than that of practically every power in the old world, 'and never before, since we counted as a nation, have we held so small a comparative position amongst the military powers of the world. Our Army before its great reduction was admittedly small, but we kept it so because we relied upon sea power and because we believed that our twopower naval standard outweighed the necessity for a large army. We have scrapped our two-Power standard and have now adopted a one-Power standard, and owing to the shifting of naval power it is clear that without Singapore or some similar base we are not now in a position even to defend. Australia or New Zealand from attack. Our Neighbours' Armies. Now let us compare our military situation with that of our neighbours. Our Regular Army and our Regular Army Reserves total just under 300,000. Czecho-Slovakia has an army of 400,000 men, or 100,000 more than we have. . Belgium has' 030,000, more than twice our number. Jugo-Slavia 859,000, nearly three times our strength. Roumania ,525,000, five times our strength. Japan ,740,000, nearly six times our strength. Poland 2,670,000, nearly nine times our strength. France has an active army three times as great as ours and a reserve of four million, which reserve is 40 times as great as our reserve; while Russia has an active army threo times as great as ours, with eight million trained and 111 men behind her army, which is a potential reserve which would be called into being under her conscription policy. , Let me put the position in another way. In 1914 we had six divisions fully equipped, and able to mobilise in a week. To-day we have one division, in a month we might scrape together a second, and we could not raise a third until many months after a war had been started."

A Time to Cry—Halt!

' Instead of indulging in further abstract sentiment is it not a time to cry Halt! As shown above Britain lias set the example and we can see how little it is followed. Our Empire has great responsibilities both to its own people and to those of the world at large. To leave itself defenceless would be to throw away its power and influence as instruments for the peaceful settlement of differences. The call for disarmament should be on the Red Army of Russia, and other nations than Britain, who has set the example. There must be no mistake in this that between the idea of securing peace by mutual agreement of nations, and the propaganda 'of extreme pacifism to render Britain defenceless, there is a wide distinction. The latter class of advocates should not be allowed to use the League of Nations Union through which to spread their false teaching of peace "through injustice" by attacks upon the British Empire. The danger of such insidious teaching, clothed as it is in appeals to emotion and sentiment, calls for the serioiis thought of 'all true ilovers of our country and of humanity. (Contributed by the N.Z. Welfare League.)