PREPARING FOR THE PEACE

Korero (AEWS), Volume 2, Issue 15, 31 July 1944, Page 30

PREPARING FOR THE PEACE

Employment of the War Generation

By

R.N.Z.A.F.

We publish here the opinions of a serviceman overseas on how we should plan for the peace. We should like to hear what other servicemen have to say on the subject ; but please make your comments in not more than 400 words. Space is short.

Although victory in the field is the essential and immediate aim of the Allied Nations, that fact must not be permitted to throw the present world struggle out of its true perspective. Victory in arms is a pre-requisite to the attainment of the real aim of securing a foundation for a just and permanent peace. To exhaust all the physical, mental, and spiritual resources of the current war generation in the effort of winning the war would be a tragedy because it is the current war generation which must administer the individual national and international affairs of the world during the crucial stages of the peace. Between the last and present wars the crucial stages were the last ten years. At presentas there was during the last war—there is a dearth of youth with clearly conceived and thoroughly enlightened ideas concerning armistice terms and the means of preserving peace. The adjective “ enlightened ” is used because ideas about peace must necessarily be based on —knowledge of the causes of war ; knowledge of the economic, racial, and social structures of the warring nations ; knowledge of their history and geography ; of all the confused jealousies, prejudices, ambitions, and other factors which contributed to the war. During a war there is a tendency for the truth to become distorted and sometimes lost altogether. There must be no mists between the peacemakers and the truth, and prominent among those who make the peace should be representatives of the generation charged with the duty of seeing that the lessons •of the war are remembered and peace preserved, the current or wartime generation, the generation of youth.

The cream of the world’s youth is at present fully occupied in the lighting zones, or mobilized in support of the fighting zones. The best of the physical, mental, and spiritual quality of the war-time generation, those between the ages of twenty and forty, is being employed towards achieving victory in arms. The cream of youth is being poured out as if victory in war were the ultimate aim, as if it were not of any consequence that with military victory comes exhaustion of the resources of the war generation. After the war there will exist in a warexhausted world a great and urgent need for men —young, fresh, and eager men— knowledge and informed ideas about the peace. The thinking world will be faced with immense problems. The limitation of the war generation’s knowledge and the realization that it did not prepare for the problems of peace during the war and pre-war years when peace was not a pressing issue will bring with them a sense of unreadiness fox' the peace and a tendency to leave its problems to others. The war-time generation will not be able to fill the post-war need for men with their facts marshalled, their thinking done, and their peace plans ready. The main reasons for their failure will be :— (a) They will be wearied or worn out by their efforts in the fields of war. (d) They will be bankrupt in both knowledge and ideas because during the war they were preoccupied with fighting and because before the war they had not truly learned that the maintenance of peace demanded a striving not less than that required to avert defeat in war. (c) Economic and other considerations will cause them to turn their attention to the more immediate necessities of

keeping themselves and their families housed, fed, clothed, and warm. The result of this failure of the young, the war-time generation, will be that the generation at present directing world affairs in war must continue to direct them in peace. The average age of the generation at present administering the affairs of the world is sixty years. It is the old generation. It has seen World War II arrive in stages after World War I. In twenty-five years’ time it will have died out. It will not see World War 111. But it has a close and detailed knowledge gained by experience of the causes of World War I and of the factors which gradually but inevitably led to World War 11. Its duty is to pass this knowledge on to the new generation that in the normal course would be fresh and eager to carry on from the point of potential progress reached at the end of the war. The unreadiness of the war generation and the consequent continuance in control of the old generation will result in a hiatus between the old and new generations in the conduct of international affairs. The sides of the gap will draw wider apart as the years go on. The extended period of exclusive control by the old will increasingly qualify them for control at one end of the gap while it increasingly disqualifies the new generation at the other end. The same artificial gap between generations developed after the last war and for the same reasons. The failure after 1918 to unite the wisdom and experience of the old and established generation with the freshness and eagerness of the new had disastrous consequences. The war generation after the last war, divorced from the control of international affairs, grew increasingly forgetful of the bitterly learned lessons of the past. The necessity for maintaining in peace the degree of struggle carried on during war was forgotten. After about ten or fifteen years two events took shape. The generation of the Great War, because of the death and decadence of the older generation, began to take part in world affairs. And still another generation, the war generation of the next war, began to grow up.

In the meantime the root causes of war, selfishness and complacency in theface of wrongdoing by individuals and nations, had begun to assert themselvesAnother war approached, steadily and inexorably. Neither generation clearly saw its approach. Because they had been separated from the lessons of the past,, they were repeating the mistakes of thepast. And then war came —came as the inevitable penalty for the world’s failingssince 1918. Of these failings, one which was avoidable, was the failure to prepare the Great War generation for the peace as soon as peace arrived, the failure tohand on the torch in time, the failure to bridge the artificial gap between one war generation and the next. The first seeds of another war by 1970 have already been sown. The process described in relation to World Wars I and II has already commenced to go round in another cataclysmic cycle towards World War 111. The whole process will inevitably be gone through againstage by stage —unless steps are taken now to prevent it. The general propositions expressed above lead to the conclusion that what isurgently required now is the diversion towards preparing for the peace of a sufficient proportion of the talents of thecurrent war-time generation contrived in. such a way that it results in no unduerisk of compromising military victory. It is therefore proposed : — (a) That the Allied Nations immediately select a group of their best war generation talent and divert its activities towards research into the immense and complex problems of peace and towardsevolving plans for peace by the end of the war. (6) That such group, or International Youth College, should be selected mainly from the fighting fronts of the Allied Nations —from their Armies, Navies, and Air Forces in the field, on the sea, and in. the air— the war generation which is doing the fighting and knows the natureof modern war. (c) That they should include representatives of all the Allied Nations. (d) That the men selected should be approximately between the ages of twenty -five and forty-five. That they

should be selected for their qualities of leadership, for their sound judgment, for their courage, and for their determination to work unceasingly for the welfare of all men and the peace of the world. There should be insistence on the best quality available. In many cases it will happen that young men of the quality required are already holding high rank and occupying key positions in fighting units. In such cases the relative importance of winning the war and winning the peace should be carefully weighed and the men concerned should be withdrawn from their units unless it is established that such withdrawals, either individually or in the aggregate, are likely to compromise victory in the field. (e) That the International Youth College should be located in such central —London, Washington, or elsewhere — will best enable it to have access to the maximum amount of information necessary for it to carry out its task. It should operate in close conjunction with the leading thinkers of all nationalities and ages who have studied post-war problems and should generally equip itself with all the valuable capital on the subject already in existence. (/) That when it has been in operation for a suitable period and can speak with sufficient authority, the deliberations of the college should be given reasonable publicity by all the Allied Nations. Such publicity would enable its findings and conclusions to be critically examined by the public of the world. It would also increase the world’s knowledge concerning peace problems and tend to induce the realization that peace as well as war demands sacrifice and striving by everyone. (g) That selected members of the college should attend the Peace Conference after the end of the war and present, on behalf of the War Generation, their plans — reasoned, detailed, enlightened, unembittered, and completedfor a just and permanent peace. (h) That the college should remain in existence indefinitely as a form of insurance against the disasters which have arisen in the past from the gap between generations and so that the dis-

semination of its knowledge should serve as a constant reminder to the current generation that the maintenance of peace demands enlightenment, striving, and sacrifice by a world which would benefit by it. (z) That after the war representatives of the defeated nations should be admitted to membership of the college, which, although associated with the League of Nations or such other international organization as may arise from the war, will always be so controlled that its individuality of constitution and purpose is preserved. (j) That the high quality of the personnel of the college should be preserved by making membership the highest attainable reward and honour for youthful endeavour and the subject of competition among eligible talent of each nation on a scale correspondingly wider and higher than that fostered by the Rhodes Scholarship in the British dominions and colonies and the U.S.A. (A) That the college should be regarded as a training-ground from which to select after the war men who are eager and able to administer national and international affairs and to spread their knowledge and ideas throughout all the countries of the world. It is not suggested, of course, that men of the old generation as a class should be suddenly disqualified from participating in the conduct of international affairs when peace is declared. The transition process should be gradual and natural. The pressing necessity is to avoid the artificial gap between the < generations which in the past has been both a result of the previous war and a cause of the next. It is submitted that the adoption by the Allied Nations of a plan along these lines would tend to enhance the prospect of an early military victory as well as reduce the chances of another war. In the ultimate, military victory depends on belief in your cause and the will to win. Belief in the cause of the Allied Nations will be fostered by their announcement and resolute pursuit 'of a plan giving further evidence that their aims extend above and beyond the defeat of the enemy.