MODERN NEED WORLD SECURITY

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 83, 5 October 1931, Page 5

MODERN NEED

WORLD SECURITY

ORGANISING FOR PEACE

ARMAMENT FUTILITY

■ "The world muat be organised for poaco as it haa been organised for ■war," said Mr. Arthur Henderson in % recent address. The Foreign Secretary was delivering the Burge Memo;rtal Lecture—established to commemorate the work for international friendship of the 'late Bishop of Oxford— on consolidating world peace, in the old ball of Lincoln's Inn (says the "Manchester Guardian"). Miss Elizabeth Haldano, who presided, referred to Mr. Henderson's1 appointment as chairman of the Disarmament Conference, and Mr. Henderson himself/before giving his lecture, described the Conference as "the greatest opportunity ever presented to the ~world for bringing .about stabilisation and consolidation of world, peace." • • . Towards the end of his address Mr. Henderson dealt with the issue before the Disarmament Conference. Solid progress, he claimed, had been made towards disarmament, but it was progress • "which might crumble unless it could be . consolidated by carrying through disarmament to a successful issue. "Why should not we do so?" he asked. "''l believe we can if those Governments ■'who want disarmament are sufficiently determined that next year's Conference shall not. fail. Of this- I am certain —that peoples everywhere are longing for disarmament. If they could loam i to-morrow morning that by some magic (lio Disarmament Conference had met, , that, it had succeeded, that agreement 'had been reached, that by mutual con- ! cessions we were all agreed upon a plan to mako a progressive reduction •in ■ tlio armaments wo now.maintain,, who (loos not 'believe that in'every country thero would go up a sigh of relief ' and of thanksgiving? Who does' not ■ believe that every nation would feel ; that its safety had increased, that in- '■ temational confidence had been created, that tho xisks of war had been diminished? Who does not believe that that increase of confidence and safety1 would, as President Hoover said so rightly a month ago, do more than, any : other single factor to end the present economic crisis by which the stability ■ of the present-system, is being under-. ■ mined? . . , PUBLIC OPIKION AHEAD. ' "No, it'is'- not on; that side that 'doubts assail my mind. I do not fear ' what the peoples will say and think ).■ about us if wo can but reach a dis- - armament agreement. lam not afraid ; that in this' country or in that they ■ will complain that their'national 'sacri- ' flees' were too great. My dovbts, my " fears, are these: tttat the peoples will '■■ not understand the chance that lies b'e- < f ore theiri, that they will not grasp the I opportunity they have been given, to '■fulfil the purpose which they all desire; :^hat they will not make the Govern■aients understand that their delegations to the Conference cannot be too bold, ; that they cannot go too far to suit \ their nations. , My only fear is that the I; nations will not show the Governments rSn time that they can count upon sup- ■ .port for all reductions, however drastic, to %hich the; Conference may agree. f.!,- "Why am 1 so' certain that the -| peoples!: really, want .'disarmament, and 'want if now? .There are two reasons. ' The fij&gt is this: that in respect of '" every Jir^vardpolicy in the last twelve , years the public opinion of the nations j: ,has always been ahead of what tho :i" Governments were prepared to do. And i' fas >it has been; with ■ moral disarma- .; menti.so^j*timfebny-inced'it will-be with ; physical disarmament as well. The ;; peoples are ready for all, and more .'than all, that the Governments will H!give. :. "And the second reason is this—that ! .whatever may be true of Governments '/the peoples at least are convinced that it: is not by competing armaments that :: peace can be assured. They are.ready , '.not only for the new concert but for i; tho new balance of power as well, not 'only for the nevr institutions of an of- •• ganised community of States, but for , i the new principle of constructive co- , operation for common ends. I: , HIBTQJtY'S LESSON. . .."They have begun to seize the .fundamental truth that no nation can live unto itself alone. They have begun to grasp the lessons which history has to teach, to', see why the failures of their. statesmen led them in 1914 to fields of blood. They are ready for their statesmen to lead them now to a new world where war shall be no more and where the wealth and genius of mankind shall be released foe the betterment of the life of the toiling masses in every land. Let ns see to it that when the day of testing comes next year we shall not fail them." "Terrible as were the figures of the last war," ho proceeded, "what a chapter of horrors can be written of the conditions that must prevail if war involving whole nations should again break out; armies and navies powerJess to protect civilian populations from new forms of attack from the air which will make previous attacks from the air pale into insignificance in comparison with the insane triumph of death, in its most hideous and agonising forms, which science has made it possible, to inflict upon non-combatants. In. the next war innocent, helpless, people will be in the firing'line and will meet death by poison gas, non-combatants who cherish no hatreds or destructive antagonisms towards other peoples. Make no mistake about' it, unless by successive and, it may be, by gradual stages, we can bring about the disarmament Of the world, innocent people will be the victims of a deadly attack from the air." ■