PRESIDENT HARDING

Hokitika Guardian, 13 October 1921, Page 3

PRESIDENT HARDING

LETTER TO PRESS ('OXOItESS. REVIEW OK WORLD POSITION,

AUSTRALIAN AND N.Z. CARLE ASSOCIATIdN.

'Tteceivcd Tliis Day nt 8 ri.m.)

WASHINGTON, Oct, II President Hiuding Ims despntelied n letter in connection with the opening nf the Press Congress nt Ibnynii, snying if your deli lio r:i t inn s si in! I inspire m huger, better nml more Immune view of 11 io eieinents entering into the problems of pence and niensuiuMe disarmament, and if you can encourage the ideal of a world permanently at peace, then you will have given a vast impetus to the elforls of the statesmen who will presently consider tkose problems at Washington. The I’aeifie ought to he the seat of generous, openminded competition between the host ideals of Pastern and Western life. The President issues a warning against propaganda and adds that democracy has come to its great trial and the verdict will depend largely upon the capacity to make men think, lie hopes the Washington Conference will result in the maintenance of a world pence. Concerning the Pacific. thu letter

said we have l.caid much in recent years of the piuMoni of ihe I’acilic, whatever that may he. I take it to be merely a phrase cf the universal problems of the race ol men and nations. Whatever they are. it is hard to imagine justifications in this day and age. especially in view of the World’s late unhappy experiences for armed conflict among civilised peoples anywhere. and especially aiming peoples so witlelv separate as those on the opposite borders of the Pacific. They represent dilferent races, political systems and modes ol thought. Thoie inn well he between them and their widely varying systems, amicable competition to determine which community possesses the better and more effective ideas for human advancement, but that warfan’ should interfere is almost unthinkable.