PEACE OF WAR?

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 562, 17 July 1909, Page 10

PEACE OF WAR?

Sir) —In your leader yesterday, on, the above topic, you approved of Bishop Walhs's saying that''we 1 must bo prepared to make sacrifices for peace, but it seems to me that you overlooked the fact that it is those who alb"so anxious to maintain peaco who 'really make sacrifices to secure and maintain that desirable state- The peace-man yields no whit of what is_ right or true, but docs, and is*" ready to, yield what may appear somo material advantage so as io keep the peaco On the other hand, the party that stands for what is euphemistically called "a vigor- ' ous foreign policy," defending national rights, privileges, etc., grouped under the , headings of honour or glory, is the very | prty most unwilling to make any sacrifices for peaoe, though quite willing that the nation shall make great sacrifices for war. Tuko an example. The historic Alabama case The peace party said, lot us arbitrate and 'not fight uitli America over this dispute, with the Tesult that war was averted and Britain „paid; paid what is bow known to have been fai too much money, yet tho peace party ,'did not object, and the warliko section now'jadmit that it was a better' Way than any war, however .glpriousj could have been No war ovenjp tllo_ conqueror, what it cost j and if"those who are for "my country, right or wrong,,",, and are willing to make sacrifices 1 for war would onjy be wUhng to make sacrifices for peace, war would gonorally, I might say always, be avoided. t . t Tien,, bum tho c tenor' of' the' latter v part > x , ..

tho. of your artjclo is, briefly The federation of tho world ig unattainable, wo aro unable to nso above this mere animal stago of existence, in which everything is settled by might Is thero no hopo for humanity? iCan you otter, no higher ideni th.in Dread- , fnoughts i »an4 compulsory military training P Is thero "nothing highoi than patriotism to which to point our bojs ? Suroly thero is, and to attain it means saonfice, perhaps tho sacrifice of our own personal ambitions, or of our ovorgrown nationalism, which is in theso hst diys called imperialism. Why not point to the ideal of Burns "When man to man tho world o'er, ■Shall ■brothers bo for all that and all that"? —I am, otc , GEO H. MAUNDER. Masterton, July 11, 1909.