PACIFIST STAND

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 54, 1 September 1943, Page 3

PACIFIST STAND

MR. A. C. BARRINGTON

PLATFORM OUTLINED

"I stand as a Christian man for peace, and peace now. That, I think, is the most important aspect of my Candida- j ture in this electorate," said Mr. A. C. Barrington, the Christian pacifist candidate for Wellington East, in outlining his platform at a meeting in the Presbyterian Hall, Kilbirnie, last night. Mrs. O. E. Burton presided. Mr. Barrington said that-all the political parties and, he believed, most of the Independents, had been, and were now concentrating upon almost purely domestic issues. They did touch i upon the war. and boast of the extent! to which the country's man-power was being given up to .the war; they did boast of the victories that had been won and refer in other directions to the war, but only in terms of a continuation of the war, apparently without cessation, and, of course, with no end in sight. They had no leadership to offer to a, world that needed leadership terribly today. They had only war to offer to a world that was already riven and "shattered by war. COMPLAINT OF CENSORSHIP. Stating that a certain aspect of his peace plan had been suppressed in his paid advertisements "by the person appointed by the Government to censor newspapers," Mr. Barrington invited his listeners to consider whether that was not a very definite interference with their right as citizens to know what a Parliamentary candidate stood for and to decide whether to support him or riot "I stand for immediate famine relief and refugee relief," the candidate continued. "The plight of the peoples of Europe and Asia at the present time is the result both of Axis invasion and oppression and of the Allied blockade. Famine stalks abroad in, the occupied countries." Last January it had been reported that nine out of ten babies born in Greece died before reaching the age of six months. The Prime Minister of Greece had said not long ago that had it not been for a small quantity of wheat; which reached the country Greece, when finally liberated, would have been a graveyard. The plight of Greece had been described as one of the greatest tragedies that had ever happened in the history of the world. , ' "We people in New Zealand cannot afford to ignore the challenge of those words, or we are building up a condition which for "this generation and the next and generations to come can only mean tears and toil and misery, if not in actual warfare, in conditions very like warfare," declared Mr. Barrington. "We know what came out of the starvation and cruelty of the last war. It is that kind of thing that creates Hitlers." Immediate freedom for the people of India was another pla^k in his platform. The conditions in India would not bear examination by those who believed that only in the totalitarian countries there was cruelty and savage repression. Mr. Barrington said he stood also for the repudiation of Imperialism. He opposed the exploitation and domination of man by man and was against totalitarianism or Hitlerism wherever that- spirit was to be found. He stood for reorganisation and reconstruction by Christian social action, and he believed that there had not yet been devised anything more revolutionary than the Christian faith in its full: and true application. BROTHERHOOD OF MAN. Giving his endorsement to the main principles of the Campaign for Christian Order, Mr. Barrington said he believed that the key to all human relationships and association was respect for every human personality and recognition of the Brotherhood of Man under the reign of God. That, he urged, should be the basis for our social and economic-policies, internally and externally. He. believed that production should be for use and hujnan welfare and not for. profit. Every man should be regarded as a person and never as the slave either of wages, or machines, and all men should have some sort 6f stake in the good earth, which was the heritage of. all. Naturally he was against military or industrial conscription, said the candidate. Of the men in the defaulters' camps he expressed the conviction that their refusal to kill their fellow-men should not be regarded as a crime. He stood, for freedom of speech, assembly, and discussion of all opinions for everybody. There was at present in New Zealand, Mr. Barrington declared, a very great denial of the right of freedom of discussion of views. It was a tragic fact that the war seemed to be accepted as a matter of course by a large number of people. Was war to go on forever? Were the conditions that had operated so often in the past always to be with the world? Was it not time for the peoples of the world to cry halt? At the outbreak of the war New Zealand had had a wonderful opportunity of showing leadership in that respect to the rest of the world. She could have said that she would remain at peace even though the rest of the world was intent on war. It would have involved sacrifices and great risks, but similar sacrifices and risks had been undertaken in the war. "I believe that if we had been prepared in a constructive and human w.ay to take those risks we might - have lighted a flame amongst the peoples of the world that would have made war impossible, or would, at any rate, have limited its operation, and we would have been in a position to have gone on building up our nation and showing the world what a people who were intent on that and the welfare of humanity could accomplish," said Mr. Barrington. War solved no problems and brought no security or benefit to humanity; it was always contrary to the spirit and teachings of Jesus Christ; it always degraded the fabric of civilisation;' and, in addition to not fulfilling any of the aspirations for which it was entered upon, it created many more problems than those it had set out to. solve. Was it right that humanity should go on committing universal suicide? THE COST OF PEACE. To have a peaceful world people must be prepared to pay the cost of peace, to risk a lowering of their standard of living in order to raise that of others. It ought to be possible for people. who recognised the legitimate human aspirations of others to say that they would have peace. The peoples of the world had enormous power if they were willing to exercise it. "I am standing in this electorate as a Christian Pacifist on the basis of peace now, primarily. If I am elected I cannot promise to achieve a whole lot of things for you, but I will promise resolutely to put forward the ideals for which I stand and which I believe are the essence of the Christian faith. I would criticise all legislation from that point of view and from the point of view of our necessity as a nation always to keep in mind the welfare of humanity as a whole and to further the Brotherhood of Man und^r the reign of God. I believe there is a place in Parliament for, at any rate, some people who are fearless, who have got convictions, and who have the courage to stand for those convictions against all odds. I know my own limitations, but I know also that I stand for things that are eternal and for the benefit of'all humanity, and I think it is time we began to put first things first, and the claims of humanity before ourselves."