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INTERNATIONALISM

CURING A SICK WORLD

ADDRESS BY MR F. MILNER. An inspiring and thought-provoking address on . “ Internationalism ” was given at an interprovincial meeting of Rotarians promoted by the Dunedin Rotary Club on Wednesday evening. The meeting, which was held in the Somerset Lounge, was attended by members of the Oamaru, Gore, Invercargill, and Dunedin Clubs. Mr Milner said that the older he became the more he realised the importance of . letting people know the real meaning of internationalism. The man in the street was apt to think that it was some form of sloppy sentimentalism or nebulous cosmopolitanism suggestive of revolutionary propaganda with .no real object in its thinking. What was defined as internationalism was the golden mean between jingoism and that vague humanitarianism known as cosriiopolitanism, but he wanted to make it clear that internationalism was as far removed from rabid internationalism on the one hand as it was from the indefiniteness and mushiness of cosmopolitanism on the other. Nationalism emerged out of the Renaissance, and out of nationalism emerged the dynamic and progressive nations of Western Europe. Then came a periol of nationalism which culminated m the wrong direction in Germany on the one band; on the other hand in what might be termed the ideal nationalism of Italy under Mussolini, and eventually in the vulcanisation of Europe to such an extent that it became a dangerous menace to civilisation. Internationalism would teach the people to take a wider and broader view of the world politically, but it seemed that their statesmen or, he should say, politicians were too narrow in tbe ' r '’ lew Point to envisage the results of the forces at work on behalf-of nationalism, which were so shattering and so capable of the fiendish disruption of everything that they held dear. Mr Milner went on. to say-that Pacific aflairs could, now, to some extent, be a source of optimism. Only a few years ago the late Mr Massey feared that the 1 acihc would be the storm-centre* of the world within three months. The position between Japan and the United States had certainly been . fraught with a direst menace to civilisation; ’ and 50 per cent, or Japana s revenue was going towards armaments. The Washington Pact had intervened; the statesmen of the two nations had met, the possibility of trouble had been obviated, and the pact had been kept honourably and loyally. This pact gave food for thought, for it showed that national antipathy could be eliminated by the wise system of co-operation advocated by the rotarians. , With regard to assertions that had peen made, especially when the proposal to construct the Singapore dock had attracted so much attention, that Japan was regarded with some misgiving by New Zealand and Australia, Mr Milner said he i wri Hen to the president of the Rotary Llub at Singapore, and had received a reply that the statements that the Japanese had purchased large blocks of land in the vicinity of Singapore had no foundation on fact, and that such statements were mischievous indeed. He felt sure, said the speaker, that the majority of people in Australia and New Zealand looked on the . Japanese with a suspicious eye; and were under the impression that they had -designs on these two countries. If they studied the position dispassionately they would find that Japan was in no way concerned other than , x to obtain access to Manchuria to procure raw material.and food. So far as her foreign policy was concerned, Japan was only resenting the spiritual offence offered by America in the Japanese Exclusion Act of 1924. Her idea was not emigration, but, on the other hand, she had to have access to Manchuria. It was entirely wrong to allow the Japanese and Chinese to be designated as “ Chinks ” or: whatever euphonious terms people chose to apply .to them. Such a practice created suspicion, and if they were to have disarmament in the world they must .first of all disarm suspicion, an ( j this could never be done if they did not emancipate themselves from the thraldom of ; depreciating others, and allowing this habit to go on in the schools. To-day, the world was physically sick, first, because of the war, and now as a result of man’s artificial operations which resulted in tariff walls. These huge tariff walls w r ere the curse of Europe to-day, and unless there was a tariff truce, and unless the artificial barriers were lowered, the breach between nation and nation would be widened. >

Disarmament was a -word that was now frequently heard in public, proceeded Mr Milner. On February 2 of next year, the world’s disarmament Conference would be held at Geneva, and the results should determine for a long.time the attempts at international co-operation, and this was a matter that was realised seriously by England and America. The world was at present spending annually £890,000,000 on arrnaments, and of this amount Europe was spending £580,000,00’0; out of every pound England produced.in taxes 14s went towards the payment of past wars, Is 6d was spent in education; and only oneeighth of a farthing went towards world peace. When one thought what productive results could be obtained from this expenditure one could understand why the world was in such a sorry economic mess. '

War, continued Mr Milner, had now lost its glamour and glory and had resolved itself into a continuation of horrors. At Geneva in 1929, he had heard Sir Gilbert Murray state that some of the latest gases eVolved were so terrible that if diluted with 10,000,000 times their volume of air they would lacerate the mucous membrane, and one bomb would devastate all life within the area of a square mile. Armaments did not-breed security and in evidence of this it should be pointed out that the countries which were not armed, such as Denmark, Holland, and Sweden, most secure, while the opposite applied to France, Poland, and Italy. *

The danger points to-day certainly did not arise out of Japan’s attitude to other coun'-ies. but out of France's attitude towaids Italy, and vice versa, and France’s attitude towards Germany, The

trouble was that, whereas the French prided themselves on being a nation of realists, that realism was developing into cynicism, and to France the Peace oF Versailles merely meant that Germany was of W Eur a o n n e °f 1 ° f n P^ ty W 4 th nLZns that it T aH t . l , lbe - Everyone knew ’“Possible for a nation of 60,000 000 people, with their devotion to S their facilit y for industry, to be kept down and out. Britain had adopted the right philosophy; she had nn a i k f D ha . nds ' and had a S ree d to forgive ban/ - rK t et ’ to be, P Germany to get back into and function in normal life Erance, whilst pleading that she was unable to pay her debts, Ld lent huge sums to the small ententes, which in turn wete spent in her own arsenals to equip these countries against the bogey of a revived Get many. This attitudF of suspicion and hatred was bound to cause was C admittedtn° n ’ . unless Germany recalcitrant ™J- arity Bhe T uld become «tnnV and rebellious. Britain s stocks m Germany, however were never higher than thiy X at tOWards Bn ’ his wild, flamboyant talk would feadone 14 to ’lB e; vX V s er n^ e,eSS ’ Italian b °ys from wire for r^Ton g 7hat "tht'y tb at ' d tion\na l b a ??? end ’.. ln . ca P ab ie of real’isasacrosanetthatn USBolln .* was infallible and serve world peace *ith TlliTkind of°teachao°n n -Nfv r aT^ h ct d a^afT' 11 Japan to have notfc KTS'TsU did not recognise the unity of nations as a practical factor, Thus, the danger ??n nt i S ln w °rld were what the French and tb r ? allsm > Mussolini’s flamboyancy, and the increase in armaments. ? clucy >

tion* if >U t l h» be a Step tbe right di'reeand to feel that co-operation, and not yar, was the best method of settling in ternational differences. The maehfnerv to ® hou,d be - Properly utilised to bring on a generation with a better twpn broadet V, ? W of tbe relations be r f aCe ik nd race and na tion and / r er j was no doubt that so 5'Si ~J ma,le »»>«»

Sir John Simon at a function given m his honour in New York, bv the Law Association of America, had summed up thnt P fh„ tl °f l • b j s.ay’Uß that he hoped that the friendship and- goodwill engendered by the gathering would not wn 3 k. ay 7i, and tbat some thing deeper would be the outcome of the meeting He trusted that j n the future the cordial t l bat t ? len existed would not be disturbed by points of contact that might arise. After adjuring his hearers notw give way to emotionalism or, through ™^ d -J ?nOrance l ’ to hurry their states--M +hm- tO War l be a r sked them to be true n r gre ! at Profession, to weigh and reHiM f e , vlde f nce dispassionately, and so ? the f U nd am ental and spiritual peoples. ° f tbe great English-speaking He would ask all Rotarians, Mr Milner said in conclusion, to take Sir John himon s remarks to heart, and they would then realise the fundamental grounds of the humanism that runs through the world. Mr Milner was accorded a hearty vote of thanks at the conclusion of his address.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/OW19310630.2.215

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Otago Witness, Issue 4033, 30 June 1931, Page 59

Word count
Tapeke kupu
1,597

INTERNATIONALISM Otago Witness, Issue 4033, 30 June 1931, Page 59

INTERNATIONALISM Otago Witness, Issue 4033, 30 June 1931, Page 59

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