Fellowship The Key

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 14, 20 January 1948, Page 5

Fellowship The Key

Rotary President On Human Relationships “Did it over occur to you that fellowship is the cornerstone upon which every great moral philosophy the world has ever known has been founded? Gautama Guddha dreamed of it as he lay meditating under the bo tree at the foot of the towering Himalayas. Confucius, in his Oriental wisdom, thought to inculcate it in the hearts of his countrymen. Five centuries later along the shores of the Sea of Galilee, Jseus of Nazareth stressed it as the greatest of his teachings when he said, ‘Another commandment I give unto you—that ye shall love one another.’ ”

Striking as is the foregoing passage from an address delivered by the president of Rotary International, Mr S. Kendrick Guernsey during his visit to New Zaland last year, the development of the train of thought introduced by it is even more so. So impressed was Allan S. Muir, of Gisborne, that he undertook to have, the full text of the address printed and to provide a cpy for each Rotarian in Districts 52 and 53. The Whakatane Club has received and distributed its copies. World-wide application of the Rotary principle of friendship in its broadest sense could have prevented war, Mr Guernsey claimed, and can do so in the future. Space will not permit the full reproduction of his address here, but some particularly pointed excerpts follow: — Had those who guided the destinies of aspiring nations in the fateful 1930’s been imbued with the true spirit of Rotary, which is but another name for brotherly love, there would not now be spread upon the pages of history, the horrible record of aggression and greed, conflict and butchery, with which we are only too familiar. Had the fellowship of Rotary been enthroned in the Council Chambers of Governments dur-

ing this period, the world would not now be shuddering as it beholds the frightful picture of maimed and shattered manhood, of sorrowing widows and pitiful orphans, untold economic loss, and world-wide chaos, mis-information and mis-trust. Let us draw the curtain upon the undescribable picture which would most certainly result from the use o fatomic weapons should the world be bungled, blundered and ballyhooed into another war.

This was the practical, down-to-earth situation with which you and I were confronted as you elected me to be your leader for a few brief months and entrusted to me and my associates upon the Board of Directors or Rotary International th eguidance of our great organisation for this period. It became immediately clear to me that any ambition less than the full utilisation of all of the resources of Rotary in manpower, brain-power, organisation power, and in money, to encourage and foster the advancement of international understanding, goodwill, and peace would be ethically, morally, and spiritually unforgivable.

“Rotary stands today as the leading exponent of unselfish service and the ideals of “do something for somebody else.” “Rotary wants to see that every boy and girl shall have a chance to grow into a good man or woman, and Rotary is willing to share the job woth every good citizen. “Rotary holds that business and industry, when properly conducted, are the things on which all prosperity and progress depend, and that every man should be proud of his vocation in life.

“Rotary stands for a square deal to the employer, the employee, and to the public, and holds that each must be made to respect the rights of the other, and to realise that right ends with the abuse of right. “Rotary believes in, and its members practice, a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work, and it believes that normal times can only be brought back to the world when everybody is willing to work more, produce more, save more, spend less, loaf less, and talk less.”