Universal Peace.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLVI, Issue 16, 18 October 1911, Page 6

Universal Peace.

Colonel Allen Bell, officer commanding the I’oMilh-Regiment (Waikato), .who is also -a_.camji.date for the new Raglan seat at £pe forthcoming general elections, had sonmflhrHg interesting to say at a gathering’of territorials amt citizens at Hamilton im lAwaday. regaiding the universal trainiiigi'-gFlienfe. An agitation, he sajd.'lind been started in the cities againFt military training. This, lie felt sure, was largely through misunderstanding as to the objects of the new .system. - When the. people.-of the Dominion ■ recognised that the. great object was the moral And physical improvement of the and tire- development of patriotic ideals, he felt Bure thkt i large amount of the opposition now being shown would cease. He felt that ba wan current in aaying that everjr

one wished to see universal peace. Nobody, who had seen the horrors of war, ever wished to witness them again. But they all recognised that it was impossible to get the nations to agree at the present time, and it behoved them all to lie prepared; The greatest factor in putting an end to war would be the spread of the labour and Socialistic move-* meats throughout the world. The leaders of these movements were antagonistic to war, and when the workers were federated throughout the world, war would eease. The whole power lay in their hands, as they would refuse to carry on the work of transport and other services without which war could not be carried on. Those who had followed up the reports of the late strike in England could see that the federation of the workers throughout the world had begun. When ships were loaded in England by non-strikers and went over to Germany, the German wharf labourer refused to offidad them. In connection with the era of universal peace, this was a most significant faet, and probably that era was not so far off as' most people imagined. However, until that ' happy time arrived, and until the world's great nations put a stop to tlie present idiotic competition for powdr, they would have to be prepared for war, and for this*, and other reasons he“haa mentioned, the universal training scheme hh'ottM receive ojpvertal support.