The Dominion. FRIDAY, JULY 18, 1919. THE DAWN OF PEACE

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 252, 18 July 1919, Page 4

The Dominion. FRIDAY, JULY 18, 1919. THE DAWN OF PEACE

The celebration of peace to which our nation will add its voice during this week-end is like nothing that has gone before. There have l-ccn innumerable celebrations ol peace since war first visited the world, but no bygone occasion of the kind has ever been marked by such a breadth of inspiration and luting of hope as now stirs the pulses of humanity. Time and again nations have rejoiced in a peace which brought them gains _ of conciuest. It is not in this spirit that the victorious Allied nations are acclaiming peace. The one thing precious they have brought out ol the grim ordeal of the- war is the hope that a better and brighter era lias dawned for all mankind To those who are gloomily inclined such a hope may seem an insubstantial foundation for world-wide rejoicing, lint if it were withdrawn no nation would b'e engaging to-day ■in joyous celebration, least of all those peoples who in 1914 and in later years staked their fate and future upon defeating Germany s criminal ambition of establishing the reign of brute force in the world. It would be foolish to suggest that the victory of the Allies has made the future of mankind secure, N but it most certainly has opened the door on a future of splendid promise. In that fact and in nothing else there is recompense and justification for the price m human lives and suffering at which victory was bought, and good and valid reason for popular rejoicing in all free countries over the restoration of peace. The terms of the peace of justice lately imposed on Germany have been viewed and considered from many angles, but so far as the free democracies which lead the march of human ■progress arc concerned, the peace is essentially one of opportunity— an opportunity ' not of satisfying selfish ambitions, but of regenerate ing their own life and that of the world. The world is not yet made safe, but it is in a very real sense awakened. 'Whether the League of Nations will fulfil tho objects for which it has been created has yet to be seen, but at least the narrow ideal of . national self-sufficiency which held all but universal sway until the outbreak of war has been finally shattered. How far an elementary perception of this great fact by the rank and file of the democracies gives substance to the hopes that tho peace has raised may be an open question. It is self-evident, however, that a deepened sense of responsibility is the thing of all others needed to justify a confident outlook. It is primarily in the treatment of their own internal I.Toblcms rather than in the elaboration of international organisation that the nations to whom the war has brought victory and to some of whom it has brought redemption will show whether or not (hoy are capable of maintaining the reign of peace in the world. It is obvious enough that unless nations arc capable of composing their internal differences the prospect of international peace will speedily disappear. The demand here raised should appeal as strongly to New Zealahders as to the people of any country, great or small, who have an honourable part in the celebrations now in progress. 'W f O i have our part to play also in building the better future-for the' world which the victory of the Allies has made possiblo; and on that as well as on more immediate grounds_ a return to the pettv discords which did so much to hamper national progress' in pre-war years ought to be unthinkable. It is particularly to the point' that in these years political divisions and antagonisms arose and developed which served only to waste time and effort, and were in every way inimical toHhe growth of a national as distinct from a narrow and parochial outlook. In the conditions now created in the world reversion to these childish follies could mean ■ only that New Zealand would drop out of the forces of progress and rank with the backward and inefficient, countries which are a clog on general human advancement. The mini mum standard now demanded in politics, in industry and in every department of public and commercial life and activity is that any man who sincerely desires to advance the national interests shall show himself ready and eager to co-operate with all who adopt the same brqad ideal. In politics particularly such a departure from pre-war methods and procedure would involve a sweeping transformation. The complete obliteration of party lines as they have been drawn hitherto would be only a first fctep. Bui no man can venture to oppose progress in this direction without showing himself not merely indifferent to the essential interests of the Dominion, but, openly disloyal to the ideals which have taken shape in war and in the enforcement of a peace of justice. There is all possible reason for rejoicing to-day, but in order that there may be 'continued occasion for rejoicing we must move with tho times and respond to their' inspiration.