BAY OF PLENTY BEACON Published Tuesdays and Fridays. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1948 WORLD PEACE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 19, 6 February 1948, Page 4

BAY OF PLENTY BEACON Published Tuesdays and Fridays. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1948 WORLD PEACE

Since the last war to end war finished, there has been a lot said and written about world peace and how to achieve it. There have been conferences, agreements, pacts. But the world remains in turmoil. The situation remains explosive. And over all hangs the shadow of the atomic bomb, dark, menacing.

Like a breath of fresh air in the thunder-charge'd gloom comes the address of the president of the Gisborne Rotary Club, Mr Frank Wise, who told Rotarians here on Wednesday that, in the last analysis,' the quest for peace is an individual one.

That is a fact most people would admit, if they did any heart-searching on the subject. It is also a fact that is often ignored in the deliberations of the mighty of all nations. Mr Wise is right, and if he speaks for Rotary as an organisation, Rotary is right. Peace is just a matter of knowing the other fellow and understanding his problems. As simple as that. And as complex. For, when one probes under the surface of that simple assertion, when one asks oneself, “What am I prepared to do about the other fellow’s problems? Am I really trying to understand them?” one finds it is not so simple. No more simple than the practical application to modern living of Christ’s injunction, “Love one another.”

For that is the point this peace question leads back to. How can we, as individuals who allow petty jealousies, petty quarrels, snobbery, class consciousness, divide us amongst ourselves, hope to cope with the wider problems of getting along with other nations?

Two prime causes of most fights, be they private or public, are fear and ignorance. Fear of what the other fellow might do if he got first chance, ignorance of his point of view. Both can be removed by a vigorous policy of informing the public, as Mr Wise suggests, concerning the constructive work that is going on for peace, and the factors that are standing in the way. Public opinion can bring about anything, even peace. But it must be informed—constructively informed—and it must be based on goodwill, not on hatred and distrust. There is no doubt the world wants peace. It is unthinkable that the rank and file of any nation, knowing they have nothing to gain and their very lives to lose, would want war. Unfortunately, the rank and file too often find themselves led blindfold into catastrophe. Mr Wise again suggests the answer. Outlaw not only war but the men who lead nations into war. Punish them for their crimes against humanity—whoever they are, wherever they are —not in any spirit of vindictiveness, but as a duty to preserve civilisation for generations to come.