Peace Crusade Lecture

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 104, 26 January 1935, Page 9

Peace Crusade Lecture

Sir, —May I, through your columns, express my humble appreciation of Or. Demarquette’s brilliant lecture under the auspices of the Youth Peade Crusade. He not only gave those present a clear insight into the present state of European affairs, but also gave some profoundly sane suggestions as to the way out. He wholeheartedly condemned both capitalism and communism as being merely different aspects of the same thing, a bourgeois outlook which regards human beings as productive, pleasure-loving animals without desire for culture—as “economic men.” Yet he offered an eminently sane solution in advocating that the reason men tire alive is to live; that production is for consumption, that food is to eat, not as an end in itself,'' but as a means to developing personality, or in other words, producing human beings. His sane outlook ou patriotism is a refreshing change from an overdose of nationalism and of its opposite extreme —a vague internationalism. He regards patriotism as a noble sentiment —as a power for justice and peace, when it is subordinate to the moral law, when it willingly recognises ihe cultural contribution that each contry has to offer to the progress of civilisation. Let us hope that Dr. Demarquette’s efforts will substantially aid the cause of world, peace. Our good wishes must go with him; indeed they must also go with the Youth Peace Crusade. —I am, etc., B. J. BARNAO. Wellington, January 25.