ATTITUDE TO ARMS

Hawera Star, Volume LIII, 17 June 1933, Page 11

ATTITUDE TO ARMS

Consecration of Force

mip: Archbishop of York, in a letter to “The •4r: ; Times,” offers some observations on the principles that should govern British international policy. “If ive could start from the proposition that it is wrong to have anything to cib with war the issues would be much simplified ” he writes. “But most of us, though respecting those who accept that proposition, are'unable to accept it ourselves. We believe that the'Christian objective is the consecration, riot tW elimination, of -force. We think it Whtilb. be' wrong for our nation to disarm by itkeif; because it has its part to play in the general enterprise of subjecting to law the refatibns between' national States; and it is possible'that force may be needed in service of that end. .... '“•Certainly there is, and for long will be, police work "to be done on-the frontiers of civilisation and on the high seas. If the national navies were abolished piracy would certainly rfeviVc. ''My submission is that our primary principle should be that of acting not so much with as ihrough the League of Nations. . . . The League Play be disappointing, dilatory, and timidf 'blit that only reflects the mind of the nations composing it; and the one way to strengthen the League or to stabilise peace is to/work through the League and to support its ■decisions even when we hold them to be mistaken. If we put this principle first the others will' more easily fall into place in subordination to it.” i O' X ti .