Power Of Constructive Thought As Force For Peace Of World

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 36, 9 April 1948, Page 5

Power Of Constructive Thought As Force For Peace Of World

Whilst it was folly to suggest that Rotary could actually bring about world peace, if could "help a lot by the power of constructive thought and the spreading of the spirit of goodwill, District Governor Reg Gambrill, of Gisborne, told Whakatane Rotarians on the occasion of his first official visit to the Whakatane Club on Wednesday night. The battle that was going on at the moment, that had been going on in 1914 and 1939, was a battle of good versus evil, right versus wrong. That battle had jumped national boundaries, so that the struggle the world faced today was not one of nation against nation so much as one of ism against ism. Peace, true peace, must be found first in the minds and hearts of men. *

Keynote of Rotary’s programme jfor this year was peace, and the prospect at the moment was not very encouraging, Mr Gambrill said. Just now, two fears dominated the thinking of men—the fear of war, and the fear of starvation. Both were very real. Was peace on earth a thing impossible? Was there no middle course between selfish Capitalism at its worst and totalitarian Communism denying men even the right to think? There was another way, Mr Gambrill averred with sincerity. He believed thought was a real force, and that we must fight for peace while the battle was yet on the mental Jplane. Real enemies of peace were wrong thinking, selfishness, fear. We must fight them with constructive thought, prayer and goodwill. Thought was the greatest force on •earth. Goodwill was a practical and useful energy which was the foundation of peace and started with the individual. It was the duty of every Rotarian to show an active and constructive goodwill, but not necessarily to dake the pacifist line of peace at any price. It must be realised that the changeless standard of good and right, if accepted as worth living were, then, in the last resort, worth dying for. On matters of politics, Rational and international, the speaker adjured his hearers to think in terms of narrow nationalism, hut of the oneness of humanity; to give thought to the needs of the masses of humanity, not one State, one class; to spread goodwill in the conduct of their daily lives; consistently to think rightly, thereby making full use of the weapons of constructive thought to wage and win the war for peace.

Men Of All Creeds And Races Meet In Goodwill At Assembly

Calling it one of the greatest experiences 'of his life, the District Governor amplified the goodwill theme with discussion of his reactions to his direct personal contact with Rotary International through his attendance at the Rotary Assembly at Sun Valley, Idaho, and the legislative convention at San Francisco. At Sun Valley, he said, there had assembled 168 men of 45 nationalities, 67 countries and he could not say how many religious creeds. The spirit of goodwill bound them in a fellowship that had satisfied him that Rotary was a great power for good throughout the world and a movement to which he was to belong. One made some wonderful contacts at an international gathering such as that, Mr Gambrill said. One met. people of all races and creeds, some of them with names internationally renowned, and felt one had known them all one’s life. The exchanges of points of view were most refreshing and educative. Racial prejudices were swept away in the atmosphere of goodwill.

kjr Gambrill said he was amazed at the number of fellows who would say just what they pwed to Rotary in the opportunities for service it had given them, and the satisfaction they derived from lives enriched thereby. Discussing the Americanism in the organisation’s headquarters, the speaker said one had to realise today that America was the foremost nation of the world, both economically and militarily, and, if we couldn’t get to understand her people it would be a pretty poor look out.

Most of the foreign delegates at the Assembly had stressed in their private fconversations the necessity for friendship between America and Britain. Without that, they said, “the lights in Europe would go out.” The experience, one of the greatest of his life, proved it was possible for. people of different creeds and races to meet together in goodwill. If that were so, then it should not be impossible for the races of the world to live together in harmony. All that was needed was the spread, of the spirit of goodwill such as Rotary engendered.