FALSE GLAMOUR OF WAR

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 18, 14 October 1937, Page 4

FALSE GLAMOUR OF WAR

fMU U...8ll^P ■ IW Christianity Between Nation and Nation THE ONLY S0LUTI0N "It seems almost a mockery to talk of* peace with civil strite raging in Spain, which threatena a coiiiiagration iu Europef, and a rutliless vvar being carried on in China witli a weight of men and armament out of all propottion to any reasons which have been put forwarcl by the aggressors to justify their actions." Thus the Bishop of YYaiapu, when speaking at the opening of the first session of the ^ynod of the Diocese this afternoon. "Such steps as the League oi Nations has been ablq to take seem no more likely to be efi'eetive than tliey wero in the case of Ahyssmia,'' he continued. "What can be done for peace when it is computed that more than twenty millions of persona in Luropa are feverishly toiling to speed up tlio production of the mstrumeuts of death and inutilation, lnstruments which are being turned indiscriminately upon non-combatants, helpleBS women and children?" War, in spite of its false glamour, he said, was ahvays deiestable, inhu« manj and now the applieation oi the discoveries of science had removed even that false glamour, by eliminating as far as possible the personal element, the soldier killod or might be killed by a foe whom he had never seen, and who might actually be miles away. "We may not yet be able to do without war," said his Lordship. "Certain abuses may require to be suppressed by force oi arms, but IS it too much to hope for that .the ethics oi Christianity may yet be applied to regulate the conduct of nation, fco nation, just as they should apply tu that ot man to man? Why should it be thought that the sovereign rigbts of the State override the demands of truth and honesty, unselfishness and love in our dealihgs with another State? ihe natious will have to leam to know themselve3 and their fellow nations better tlian in tlie past." Two important conferences had recently been held- that on Life and Work at Oxford, and on Faitb and Order at Edinburgli. At these conferences representatives oi niauy nationahties, and vanqus Christian "comrnunions had met to study together problems which affect the whole human race. TTh© conferences closed with a united semoe ih St. Paul's, which might be taken as an omen for the establishment of a better understanding between tho nations. Such an understanding, to be lasting and effective, must rest upon a spiritual basis, "In prayiug that this may be brought about we should mould our own lives and conduct upon the pattern set us by Our Lord," he concluded,