The Hope of the World

Waikato Times, Volume 114, Issue 19125, 9 December 1933, Page 11 (Supplement)

The Hope of the World

THE UNKNOWN WARRIORS who lie in their tombs stand for those ten million men whose lives were broken In the war; but the names are known of those who, having Peace and Justice In their hands, threw both away. The Unknown Warriors fought and died to end war for all time; the Known Politicians talked and lived and brought the world to this. The world is what it is through the failure of the Peace Conference to set up a Just Peace. Is it for ever to be thus? Is there no Great Peace, after all, for the tolling millions of mankind? The answer is with the peoples of the world—at the moment with tho Governments but in the long run with ourselves, who set thcs.e men to rule over üb. Tho Hope of the World is in tho continued existence of the Englishspeaking democracies scattered about the ea rth it is in the British Empire and the American Republic. The nations in the grip of despotism and dictatorship cannot save us; their way is the Shadow- of the Valley of Death. France Jn the grip, of fear, Germany in the grip of hate, Italy steadying down but afraid -of both, Central Europe in chaos and confusion, have no word of hope; it is upon the English-speaking peoples that our salvation depends. .We must save our Parliaments, for It is through them that our power is spread about the world. If they fail us it is for us to make them strong; not to let them perish in weakness, not to allow Governments to treat them with contempt so that men weary of them and despair. A people indifferent to Its public affairs •will have a weak Parliament. A weak Parliament will have an arbitrary Government. An arbitrary Government will lead to a dictatorship. A Dictatorship Is tho Destruction of all the Englishman's world as he knows it, llie end of liberty and ail tilings. ’]t is that danger that is before us. Die danger of a tendency to let things go and let tncm happen. II is easy for great ins.du- { to* break v.p. Wo have sect it a gam ami again. We have seen a humbvd tli-ngs a, stiong as Iho Bank of Engl in.l < rumble In our time. AVe have seen kings become beggars and rich men poor. We have seen great newspapers in a day. vast enterprises collnnsr in ruin, thrones and dynasties perish, countries wiped off the map. Nothing that seems impossible to-day is Impossible tomorrow. There is not an intilulion in the

English-Speaking Democracies.

(Arthur !Mee In My Magazine.)

world as safe as the Rook of Gibraltar. And so it is that all men of goodwill, all those whose faith is not yet dead, must stand together and exercise eternal vigilance. It is possible, by the simple process of being wise In time, to save ourselves from irretrievable catastrophe. Nothing is more humanly certain than that if Mr Gladstone had been allowed to have his way Ireland would now be a contented land. The peace and prosperity of Ireland was cheap in 1885; now, after a generation of bitterness, No Price Can Buy It In Our Time. Nothing is more humanly certain than that If France had been more reasonable and Briand and Stresemann had been allowed to have their way Germany w-ould now be a contented land. The pcac-o of Europe was cheap ten years ago, now- it is In tho hands of a crazy little host, and no man knows what may happen. . . . Christianity Is 150 times as old as the League of Nations, and it has not succeeded yet. Men have been trying to free the slaves for 100 years, and they are not free yet. Men have been fighting Ignorance 500 years, yet it Is still enthroned In high places. We have been trying to people the British Empire for a century, yet half of it. is empty, and most of tho other half is ill-developed. It took hundreds of years to open the door of a university to a nonconformist; It took a century to give our people votes, and the League of Nations, with the stupendous task before it of converting all nations, all peoples, and all creeds, Is not fifteen years old. It Is an everlasting wonder that it has succeeded so far. Those w-ho would save the word must save it through the League, and the surest hope of the League Is In the Hearts of tho People. It has no friends in dictatorships. It has n,i friends in autocracies. It has no friends in militarisms, lls anchor is in tho Eng-lish-speaking race, whose sacred duty it is to save it. Though not of it, America Is with il. and will not willingly let it go. II is for our Parliament to insist on saving this one bulwark of the. freedom of mankind, and it can do it only if we ourselves save Parliament. II is for every one of us to hold fast to Parliament and make it slrong, to purge it of ils weaknesses, to increase, its efficiency, |o keep small men out and pul great men in. whatever they believe, if only they are true In Die highest within them, pursuing the Kingdom of God and Ills righteousness and believing that all other things shall be added unto us.