PEACE AND THE FUTURE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 8, Issue 97, 14 August 1945, Page 4

PEACE AND THE FUTURE

WITH the Japanese capitulation the greatest and bloodiest war in human history will come to an end. Co-incident with the great pronouncement has come the epoch-making discovery which has harnessed the atom, the tiniest microscopic component of which human intelligence is aware., The im : mediate work of relief in the war-torn zones becomes the responsibility of the victors, and for years this heart-searing toil must go on, until happily,, the blighted masses of Europe, and of Asia have been restored to something resembling orderly living jand moderate prosperity. The question confronting the world today is three-fold; dare we risk a repetition of the same ghastly folly in another twenty years time, dare we risk the reformation of the League of Nations which failed us so utterly in pre-war years, dare we risk a further clash between the already fast-diminishing white races. Each of these aspects address themselves to us both nationally and as individuals. ■ Japan has taught us, the rapacity of the militarised Orient when once drunk with power; Germany has taught us the futility of forbearance in the face of aggression and arrogance. Lest we forget either, we should be permanently mindful of our past weaknesses in setting up the international machinery which will be dedicated to the maintenance of futui'e world peace. Twenty million lives, humanity's finest and b'est have been lost by the military forces alone in the latest convulsion. Millions more, of innbeent civilians have been butchered in cold blood. Obviously if the united opinion of humanity were possible, it would be unanimously in favour of the abolition of war and its mounting frightfulness for all time. In answer to the first point, we dare not risk a repetition of the past five years of Rightfulness, lest the very sanity of the race be imperilled. To the second,, as to whether our trust should be once again placed in an international organisation resembling the League of Nations the reply is firmly in the positive, providing only that thesame unanimous voice which made the formation of such a body possible, made also an international policing force possible, pledged and sworn to its service, in the interests of maintaining peace. The third point strikes closer home. The past two wars have been suicidal for the white races, who apart from their own alarmingly declining birthrates, have revelled in the process of racial elimination by the most painful and disgraceful methods of war. Well may the future inhabitants of the globe point to the fateful year of 1914-18 and 1939-45 and say, 'from that point set in the gradual decline of the celebrated white races.' Has it ever occurred to the average individual that proportionately the white races number only approximately one-eighth of the world's total population; that the combined populations of India and China (700,000,000) alone outnumber them nearly three to one! These facts make for sober reflection as the exhausted world once again stands on the threshhold of the new era of peace. Humanity, like the proverbial spoilt child has ever required to learn its lessons by painful experience, by suffering, anguish and by draining the cup of bitterness to its very dregs. The lessons of this last war should surely, be patent to even the peoples of neutral countries., The united voice of mankind at large is required, backed by a wider toleration than hitherto, less selfishness, arrogance and bigotry and international vice in the handling of God-given foods and production. These are the fundamentals, the essences which will stand the new era in good stead if the yearned-for harmony is .to be attained.