The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 1928. DENOUNCING AVAR.

Hokitika Guardian, 21 January 1928, Page 2

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 1928. DENOUNCING AVAR.

' The frequency with which war is being denounced by those in TiigTi places, gives more than color to the hope that ( its ultimate outlawry is nearer at 5 hand than sometimes appears to bo the case. A United States Senator is the latest to raise his voice, and it is ’ good to see the sentiments voiced from so influential a quarter. The United States lias exceptional power to contribute towards tho peace of tho world. Senator AVhecler passes strictures regarding the undeclared war by the United States on tho Republic of Nicaragua, but be might with greater force as affecting the world peace, have been as severe on the President . and his advisers in regard to tho United States attitude regarding nnI vul disarmament. On that question j when Great Britain, the United States and Japan met in conference, tho I United States took up an attitude j which was so uncompromising that in the end tho meeting dispersed w.itli 1 matters at a deadlock. Since then tho j United States has plunged for a big Navy on paper, and the country ap- ! pears predisposed to go on with tho j programme. Great Britain is still temporising with its naval problems hoping American action will create loss and loss effort on its part to magnify its naval preparations. A friendly gesture is needed from America on this matter, and given, would do more than anything to assist in allaying alarm as to the hidden designs of Uncle Sam in his desire to roam tho seas with a mighty armada. It is in these circumstances that Mr AATieeler verbally castigates those responsible in tho United States for the display of force in Nicaragua, and his leanings generally apply to the growing attitude of leaders of political parties towards war. It is only a little more than a couple of months ago since Field-Marshal Sir AA'illiam Robertson was moved to make a. striking address at Home on tho futility of war. His speech was suggested, he said, by the fact that considerable space was devoted in the newspapers to talk about the next war. Personally, he considered it sheer madness to consider another war from any point of view. He pointed out that in England where Britain partiepnted in the victory, there was following the late war a million unemployed and tremendous taxation. Tu the course of a trenchant attack on war, lie spoke of the economic side arid pointed out the British artillery cost in three of the main battles of the Great AVar was fifty-two millions for missiles alone. Enormous quantites of munitions were blown away in a few days. Methods of warfare like everything else have changed with the times. Mechanical devices and inventions have changed the whole aspect of war. The barbarities practiced in such a wholesale way ns is now possible, have made war n horror. The glory and glamour which appeared to l>e attached to war a half century ago have passed, and whirling death and disaster alike to victor and vanquished are now the requital. So trenchant an attack must carry weight with the public nind. AVar is surely stupid and useless and palpably cruel, and before resorting to it as the final arbitrament, the civilised nations mir-t surely show greater sense than was displayed in 1914, when the wertd went pell mell into something not realised. The experiences are too recent to be forgotten, and the knowledge gained should be a lesson for all. If there has been national understanding along right lines, and we may hoj>e tlier has been because of the facility—with which many now denounce war, then there are grounds for faith in the future of the world and its peoples. Surely it is difficult in the extreme to believe anything else regarding the world realisation of what a modern war means, not only to the present generation, but those i coming after. <