THOUGHT ON WAR

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24424, 9 October 1940, Page 9

THOUGHT ON WAR

TREND IN DOMINION PLEA BY PROFESSOR A plea for vigorous and creative thought on all problems arising out of the war, and not merely on direct means of achieving victory, was made by Professor W. A. Sewell in an afterluncheon address to the Auckland Creditmen’s Club. The speaker discussed two objections to the encouragement of wide-ranging thought in wartime— namely, that .t was a hindrance to national unity and a diversion of effort that should be concentrated on winning the war. The first obiection, he said, overlooked the fact that true national unity was not to be found in regimented thought, such as Hitlerism sought to impose but in diversity behind a single intention and purpose. Thought on sucn matters as peace aims and the postwar world was not a waste of energy On the contrary, if morally founded and spiritually genuine, it enriched the war effort. To discourage it was to risk a stampede of public opinion in directions which no one could predlNew Zealanders, Professor Sewell continued, were n a specially favoured position, since the pressures of war upon them were not concentrated and their lives had not been disrupted. They should take advantage of their shelter to think, and think hard, upon what the war was about. It was an attempt to preserve, for .the world in new forms, the social ideal of which Britain had always boasted as; her own and as a fundamental ideal of life. This conception involved a heauny understanding of society as an association of free minds. In his view New Zealanders were in duty bound to keep its torch burning m pnvate and public life, but he did not thum that they were doing so.