THE PEACE SOCIETY.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1690, 21 July 1879, Page 3

THE PEACE SOCIETY.

The 63 rd annual meeting of this society was held on May 20th ; Mr J. W. Pease, M.P., in the chair. There was a very large attendance, and on the platform were Sir Wilfrid Lawson, M.P., Mr Lewis Pry, M.P., Mr A. M. Sullivan, M.P., Mr G. Palmer, M.P, Mr H. Richard, M.P., the Rev. John M'Carthy, the Rev. Mark Wilkie, &e. The report, which was read by Mr H. Richard, M.P., referred, among other things, to the outcome of the " spirited foreign policy" of the wars in Afghanistan and South Afrioa, and described at length the efforts made by the society, through public meetings and lectures, to expose the injustice of those wars. It also recognised the aid rendered by auxiliary associations, the efforts of Mr John Gill among Sunday schools in the West of England, and the valuable co-operation of the Workmen's Peace Association. Alluding at the close to the reproach cast upon the society of having failed in attaining its object, the report maintained that in many instances the society's principle of settling international disputes had not failed, but had been eminently successful in averting w»vr, and asked, in return, whether the principle of its opponents, embodied in the axiom—"if you wish for prepare for war " had not proved a far more complete and conspicuous failure. The following resolutions were carried : " That this meeting, while cordially rejoicing that the peace concluded at Berlin brought to an end one of the most destructive and brutal wars on record, cannot but deeply deplore the policy of menace and military preparation adopted by our own Government before going into the Congress, a policy which was productive of no appreciable advantage to countervail the warlike spirit which it provoked at home, the ill-feeling it bred betwean us and other countries, the hewy cost it entailei upon a Buffering people, and the imminent peril of war into which it brought the nation." " That this meeting approves the course taken by the committee of the Peice Society in sending a deputation to Berlin to bring the question of arbitration before the Congress of the Great Powers assembled in that city to negotiate the terms of peace; and, while rejoicing that the principle embodied in the Protocol of Paris of 1856 has been reaffirmed, regrets that some further steps were not taken by that august body to recognise in a more distinct and authoritative form the duty of civilised nations to have recourse to peaceable means of settling their disputes, instead of appealing to the sword." " That this meeting desires to record its solemn protest against the wars in Afghanistan and in South Africa as utterly incapable of justification on any principle of justice or humanity; and feels all the more called upon to condemn these enterprises, undertaken by no right but the right of the strongest—not merely as leading to widespread slaughter and misery, but as tending to corrupt the national conscience to dishonor the national character, and to obstruct the spread of Christianity in the world."