"BEHIND THE GUN"

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2429, 7 April 1915, Page 8

"BEHIND THE GUN"

TWO LECTURES. Two lectures were delivered in the Municipal Concert Chamber last evening to raise funds to swell the Relief Fund. The Mayor of Wellington (Mr. J. P. Luke) presided, and there was a fair attendance. The lecturers were Messrs. B. E. Murphy, M.A., LL.B., of Feilding, and Mr. H. H. Cornish M.A.. LL.B., of Wellington. "The Power Behind the Gun" was the title of Mr. Murphy's address. Napoleon the First, he said, was the creator of modern Europe. Prior to Napoleon the nobility had special privileges Wore the ,law, and there were all sorts of caste distinctions; but the steam-roller of France, engineered by Napoleon, went across the old system over and over again, and wiped it from the slate. A new system—a commercial system—took its place, but after a century of diplomacy we had the nations of the Holy Alliance battering one another to pieces. Thiß led one to think that there must be something wrong with diplomacy, and it should be profitable to ascertain the defect. It was said that the nations fought for honour, but they might as well have it frankly that the causes of war were materialistic. Behind all great movements of recent times was a material interest: ■ behind almost every international clash could be traced some question of trade and commerce. If this was clearly seen by the publics, and understood, international conflicts would be far more likely to cease to occur. His opinion was that the present war could not have been avoided by sucli an understanding, because there was less material and more racial trouble, behind the disturbance than was behind other wars. However, it was the duty of all peoples to assist in the obtaining of an understanding that would tend towards the abolition of war. Mr. Cornish told a compressed Btory of the nineteenth century. He began at the Conference of Vienna, 1814, which he said made the error of ignoring nationalism, particularly in regard to Italy and Belcium. He mentioned the formation of the Holy Alliance or Quadruple Alliance, and credited that combine (whoso policy was "intervention") with retarding liberal movements to a remarkably groat extent. The year 1848 marked the growth of a forward liberal, movement in Europe, and one of the chief events of that year was the election of Louis Napoleon to the Presidency of France. A few years after his election Napoleon made himself Emperor, and his great idea that, notwithstanding the decision of the 1814 Conference, peoples of the same race should not be kept disunited, was probably one of the chief causes of his downfall. The years 1870 and 1871 saw tho completion of the unification of Italy and Germany. The- lecturers were accorded a vote of thanks.