GREAT MORAL ISSUES

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 148, 18 March 1939, Page 10

GREAT MORAL ISSUES

Underlying the conflict of political interests in Europe are moral issues of profound significance to democratic peoples. These are worth emphasizing at the present time, when attention once again has been sharply awakened to the sinister possibilities inherent in the complete lack of good faith displayed by Herr Hitler, and the pietensions and designs of the totalitarian States. As Mr. Eden remarked in the House of Commons debate on the German dismemberment of Czechoslovakia, the world today is confronted with a rapid deterioration of international authority, and if these methods are unchecked we will all be involved in a universal tragedy. The last war professedly was fought “to make the world safe for democracy.” Today democracy is in greater peril than ever before, and involved in this menace are fundamental Christian humanities. “We speak,” said the Bishop of Durham .in a recent eloquent sermon, “of wars of ideologies, and there are not lacking those who would beg us at all hazards to avoid them. But they do not appear to understand what wars of ideologies must properly involve. In such wars it is no mere political issue which is at stake..’ And he added: There are political systems which notoriously conflict with the inherent rights of the citizens: which trample on the private conscience ; which prohibit freedom of thought and speech; which repudiate good faith, and bind on the world tyrannies which enchain and darken human life. It is nothing to the point that they are, in all the lower ranges of public interest, extremely efficient.

These matters touch the foundations of democratic life and living. As long as the doctrines and methods which have destroyed personal and political liberty over a large part of Europe, and compelled the dreary and pitiable march of exiles from tyranny and oppression, remain unchecked, human freedom is in grave peril. In defence of it the two great Anglo-Saxon democracies especially, Great Britain and the United States, have a supreme and lasting responsibility. Their peoples have been nurtured in the spirit of freedom. In a progressive degree they have for centuries enjoyed the privilege of governing themselves as responsible citizens through their free institutions. They have fought and won the battle against.the foices of tyranny and intolerance, and by example have led civilization in general away from these evils. Confronting those and other democratic communities today is a retrogression which, in some of its aspects, notably the persecution and humiliation of an ancient race, is simply appalling. “The real gravity of the continuing crisis, declared the Archbishop of Canterbury in a recent address to Convocation, “is that what has hitherto been known as the Christian basis of civilization is in jeopardy. It is not that Christian values and standards are imperfectly attained —this, alas, always has been true—but that oyer a large part of Europe they are deliberately put aside, if not denied. .New idols of race and power and armed force are set up, and multitudes of men are bidden, even compelled, to worship them.” When such political systems gain overwhelming power the higher life of mankind is menaced. Christian humanity in the last resort must depend on the willingness of people to resist, and to make sacrifices, to defend and preserve its existence and its great moral assets. The spiritual fortunes of mankind are at stake. Before peace can be assured, and the higher sanctions of Christian morality universally vindicated, freedom must be made secure throughout the world.