CAUSE OF PEACE COMMENDED

Hokitika Guardian, 11 July 1931, Page 2

CAUSE OF PEACE COMMENDED

PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

SUPPORT FOR DISARMAMENT

POLICY

TIMARU, July "

“At the present moment, the nations of the carih are spending ’upwards of, £z,000,000: every twenty-four hours in preparing for the next war or, as it is more sophistically termed, in provid.ng lor their security.” This statement "a* contained in a letter read at a m-e.ing of the Timaru Presbytery to-day from tlie Dominion President of the League of Nations Union (Dr J. Gibb). Dr GibD appealed for the support ol ministers and their churches in the cause. of peace. The letter continued by slat- j dug that if the Disarmament Con hr- j enee of February, 1t)32, was not a success, then war of a magnitude and destructiveness hitherto without precedent was certain. With the withdrawal of Germany from the League, which would certainly happen if vhe conference failed, the fatal principle of the balance of power would be revived and a race of armaments would set in, to be followed at no distant date by a catastrophe of unimaginable horror and desolation. As the British League of iNations had said ; <<r lhe conference must succeed. ’’ >

After a short discussion a motion commending the aims of the League to ministers and their congregations was carried.

CLIMAX APPRO A CIIING. The letter stated that the problem ot disarmament, with which the whole world was mow confronted, would reach its clhnax early next year with the Disarmament Conference at Geneva in February. Even it the conicre.'ice achieved all that was expected of it, world war might again conceivably take place ; but if the conference failed to secure, at the very least, limitation of armaments, war without precedent would certainly take place. There did not seem to be the slightest doubt of this in the minds of the leading statesmen of Great Britain, the United States and 'Europe. Jf the conference failed, Germany would withdraw from the League. For ten years she had waited for the fulfilment of the promise that her compulsory disarmament would be followed by that of the victorious Powers. The efforts of the League, while conspicuously successful iri the economic and humanitarian fields, had till now failed to achieve, outside of Britain, even the slightest measure of disarmament. For the success of the conference it was above all necessary that tne representatives ol Great Britain aild her dominions should face the situation with courage ana determination, the leadership of the League WM lavgely ju 'British hands,

INDIFFERENCE IN NEW ZEALAND,

The Prince of Wales had said that the greatest of all crusades was, the crusade for world peace. jNew Zealanders were not crusaders. There was amongst them a widespread desire for peace, but it was not a steady and fixed determination. This indifference must end if New Zealand was to pull its weight in the deliberations of the D.sarmament Conference. The issue was in the most vital way a religious one. The letter; urged the Presbytery to inspire the 'C'ivgy and members of 'the'.r churches to play their part in the great endeavour of world peace. The Rev. P. Gladstone Hughes, in moving the motion, which was carried, said that, in dealing with questions ot this kind, they were in an atmosphere ol' passion, prejudice and obsess.on. Armaments led to war. The figure , of Macbeth and the dagger was an instance. With the dagger present was the temptation to kill. So it was wi‘h armaments. The British National Budget was largely a war one. Eleven shillings in the pound were for paying war debts and war pensions, 3s in preparing for new war, 3s for Government and only 3s for social sendee and education. There were war-obsessed minds in Timaru, poisoning the very life of the community. They ■'.'anted to carry on the units so that they could bow down before them once a year. Ten million, men, including 900,000 British sold ers, were laid under the sod in the Great War—was it not time to stop? •In seconding the motion, the Rev. V. .M’Neur said that, in his opinion, Russia had a great influence ,on world peace.' When one bell’gerent nation stood out, the rest were frightened to disarm. If all the churches stood for disarmament, there would be no war. Mr Hughes's motion was th r n carried unanimously.