MOMENTOUS ISSUES

Evening Star, Issue 22449, 21 September 1936, Page 11

MOMENTOUS ISSUES

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —Even the word momentous ” does not sufficiently describe the gravity of the issues which confront society and its weak instrument, the League of Nations. These issues are vital and fundamental for the human race. The present period is undoubtedly a turning point in history. Superficial thinking and the consequent tinkering with mere effects which characterise the activities of our economists, publicists, and politicians are worse than useless. Only the fearless application of the scientific and analytical method of thinking to qur social and economic life and institutions can save civilisation. There is a terrible responsibility resting upon teachers, writers, ministers of religion, and all .others who have the capacity and opportunity to influence public opinion by these means, and who have to a great extent failed in their duty. It is futile to go about wringing our hands over the horror and imminence of war while obstinately closing our ©yes to its real causes and incentives, Millions of people throughout the world have relied upon the League of Nations to prevent war. Why have their hopes been frustrated? Why has the League failed so lamentably to preserve peace,, in China, in Africa, in South America, and in Europe? In the light of clear, logical, and unprejudiced thinking the answer is plain. The League is a League of Nations in name only. The masses of the people everywhere, who hate and fear war, are not adequately represented. The League is, in effect, comprised of small minority groups in each country. The minds and actions of these groups are governed by their own special material interests—interests which are opposed to those of the people as a whole. They are impelled to use every form of sophistry to justify their antisocial abuse of authority. They seek to inflame popular prejudice and to exploit the higher emotions of the people for their own miserable and short-sighted ends—short-sighted, because it never was so true as now that the immediate and apparent interests of these privileged groups are in complete opposition to their permanent and ' fundamental interests. Then political activities tend to wreck society, and thus to bring themselves down in its ruins. Therefore, in seek ing to preserve the existing immoral basis of our social structure and in obscuring and confusing fundamental issues, they and their ignorant apologists are their own worst enemies. There are stupendous forces in the world to-day—forces of production and forces of destruction. Instead of controlling these forces, society is being controlled by them. The production of wealth can be stopped, and devastating war can be launched at the whim of a madman or a fool. There is safety for none while these giant forces are in private hands. They must he brought under social control or civilisation is doomed. The instinctive urge and trend of society is toward this social control. It represents the dynamic force of human and social necessity. It may be—and is—checked or retarded by ignorance and stupidity at the cost of terrible human suffering, but it cannot be defeated, because the continued existence of humanity depends upon its ultimate realisation —either forward to the complete democratisation of our social and economic life or backward to barbarism and extinction. The civil war ip Spain is an object lesson to the people of the world, bringing into sharp prominence the truths enunciated hero. In Spam' there is a progressive constitutional Government similar in nature to our own Labour Government. It lias undertaken the reconstruction of the national economy—the economy of a people rendered desperately poor by’ centuries of vicious class tryanny and mismanagement. Is this constitutionally elected Government permitted to fulfil its peaceful‘and bcncficicnt inaction unmolested? No, it is immediately set ii.oon by the armed forces of Unprivileged class—the feudal lords of whole provinces and their lackeys, the financial and industrial capitalists, the commissioned officers of the army and navy (there is one of these gentlemen to every six men), and the bureaucrats in State offices. All these form a parasitic class that strives by- hook or crook to maintain itself in power They invoke the prejudices of religion, and import Mohammedans from Africa to slaughter their fellow Christians for the glory of God. One would have supposed that the Spanish Government under those circumstances would have

received the moral and economic support of all other democratic countries in its ‘struggle fob democracy against Fascist usurpation. On the contrary, and while the rebels are receiving active and material assistance from all the Fascist countries, the legitimate Spanish Government is penalised by a non-intervention policy that is in effect economic sanctions against it. insidious propaganda from Germany and Italy has probably prejudiced some ignorant people 1 against the people’s Government of Spain. They should realise that victorious Fascism will not bring peace or stability to Spain or any country. It will be a prelude to further and more desperate struggles. Fascism represents an old dictatorship that has been forced to adopt a fresh disguise. It is the negation of democracy and the destroyer of popular freedom. Consequently ir is the antithesis of Communism, and any attempt to place these two opposite political movements in the same category signifies the most culpable ignorance.—l am, etc., . September 21. '■ A. B. Powell.