DISARMAMENT

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 167, 8 March 1932, Page 7

DISARMAMENT

j WORLD'S VITAL NEED ■ SOME ASPECTS OVERLOOKED IN DAILY ; LIFE i EC0N0MIC REACTIONS Preaching in St. Luke's Church on j Sunday evening from the text "Bless- | ed are the Peacemakers" (Matt. V.9) ; the vicar, Archdeacon Chatterton, I showed the burden of armaments and | the efforts now heing made by the | nations at Geneva to find a way of release from it, had a direct bearing ; on the daily lives of everyone of ns. "In the course of sermons which I I undertook for the Sunday eyenings ' in Lent," said the Archdeacon, "the I subject that I proposed for this evening is God's call to His church, through its members, to bring the j mind of Christ to bear upon the solution of our present day problems, and one of the most important of these problems is that which is oceupying the thoughts of the members of the Disarmament Conference now meeting in Geneva. At first sight it may seem strange. to deal with such a subject at a harvest thanksgiving service, but there is a closer connection between the two subjects than at first appears. At a harvest thanksgiving we offer our praise and thanks to God for the good things He has given us in the fruits of the earth, and the wonderful provision He has made for the needs of our bodies. But we are made aware at every turn in these days of ours, that in spite of the Divine provision, suffieient to meet the needs of the whole human race, there

are m^titudes to-day in every country in the world who are either starving, or on the verge of starvation, and how can they under such circumstances have any thankfulness in their hearts for a plentiful supply of food which is beyond their reach to enjoy. "We are bound therefore, to ask ourselves this question: 'What is the j cause of this condition of things from | which the world is suffering to-day?' | and everyone will be ready to say at i once that at least to a large extent it is one of the after effects of the madness that overtook the world in 1914, when it was plunged into a war which produced the dire calamities from which we are now sufferipg, and which all were prepared to say at its close must never happen again. And . so amongst other things a foundation was laid in the covenant of the j League of Nations to secure a more I Christian and less barbarous attitude | in the futyre, which it was hoped | would ultimately enable the nations j to co-operate together instead of | wage war with one another. Fruits of Covenant I "The Disarmament Conference j now meeting is one of the fruits of that covenant, and its object is to make wars in the future less possible, until they are ultimately ruled out. Our thanksgiving to-day is 'therefore right when we think of God's wonderful provision for man's bodily needs, but it must be supplemented by our prayers for God's blessing upon this great and difficult effort to remove those obstacles which our selfishness and want of Christian charity put in the way of our making the best use of God's gifts for the. benefit of all. Selfishness on the part of nations and of individuals is the root cause of the world's troubles, and | this can only be successfully dealt with when the mind of Christ and His dynamic influence prevail in the hearts of men. " 'Blessed are the peace-jnakers,' says Christ. Who of us can put in a claim to this speciai blessing promised by our Lord to peace-makers. The Disarmament Conference is the greatest and most important gathering of the leaders of the nations of the world that has ever taken place. It is faced with some of the biggest problems that any gathering has ever had to face. It has to meet the critieism as well as the sneers of men who have never been able to face a great problcm from the Christian standpoint, and who cannot bring themselves to think that it will ever be possible to stop wars or promote world peace — man being what he is. "TJpon such a gathering our Lord must be looking with speciai interest. The ostensible object of the members of the conference is to be peace-makers, in spite of the fact that there are undoubtedly clashing interests which it will be no easy matter to reconcile. Only through the breathing of the Holy Spirit of peace upon that assembly can the minds of those present reach any satisfactory conslusion. To that end Christian people are enjoined to assist in this great enterprise by their prayers. This will give them a share in the blessing promised by our Lord to peace-makers. Roman View out of Date "For centuries the old Roman maxim Tf you want peace you must prepare for war,' has dominated the thought of legislation and soldiers amongst all strong nations. It seemed the only possible policy in the earlier stages of man's history, when one great nation dominated the world and compelled all other nations as far as possible either to submit to its authority or be crushed. It belonged to a period when there was no thought of co-operation between the nations but each one strove to maintain its own existence by force, regardless of any rights in other nations. "The next stage. was reached when several nations with similar interests agreed to form alliances to assert by force their rights and by acts of aggression regardless of justice to attack those who were weaker whenever it seemed in their own interest to do so, thus completely ignoring the interests of others. "The later stage which belongs. to our own period is only just beginning to emerge, when it is slowly dawning upon the human mind that every nation not only has it rights, but is able to make its own contribution to the race as a whole, and that the highest results can only be obtained by the co-operation of all nations in a brotherhood (as taught by Christ) and that a great truth is enshrined in the New Testament teaching that as in the human body, if one member suffer all the members suffer with it, so in the body of humanity, if one nation suffers all nations will in due proportion suffer with it — a tfuth which is being brought home to us all

in a very forcible way in these days, when we are struggling as never before to find some international remedy for the present ills which are afflicting every nation of the world. Danger of Selfishness "The danger which we have most to fear is lest any nation is so obsessed with the old idea that it can adopt a selfish policy and seek only its own things without any regard to the things of others, and fall back upon the old method of preparing to secure such selfish ends by force ond thus end by wrecking the ideals that have been slowly making progress through the influence of the Christian faith together with the triumphs of scientific invention. Science by itself may easily become a two edged sword, but in harmony with the Christian faith it may be, as it should be, a strong Divine means of helping forward the kingdom of God. This, then, is the work which the Disarmament Conference is called by God to accomplish. Its key word is co-operation in the interests of all. Such co-operation can only be secured in an atmosphere of peace — but peace can only be secured if there is a will to peace — a determination to secure peace. The things most destructive to peace is suspicion, fear, distrust, all of which lead to the building up of armaments for seeurity. These at once appear as a threat to other nations and lead those nations also to seek a similar security, until the fatal race in armaments leads to increased fear all round, and every nation loads itself with an ever growing burden which crushes its life and sooner or later leads to disaster such as overtook the world in 1914. i "The old saying Tf you wish for peace you must prepare for war,' is now quite out of date as an ideal — for it ultimately leads under our new conditions to the very opposite of what it sets out to achieve. The new maxim, if it is to fit the needs as well as the ideals of a progressive age, must be Tf you wish for peace you must prepare for peace.' That is the aim of the Disarmament Conference. It knows full well that disarmament cannot be reached in one leap, but it believes that it is high time for the nations of the world to agree to a substantial reduction in armaments, and thus relieve themselves of the heaviest burden that they are all trying to carry. It can not be done by any single nation — it must be done by general agreement all round, as it is in the interests of all. "Think of it. The armies of Europe to-day number three and a half million men. Armaments are qosting the world to-day nine hundred and fifty million pounds annually, nearly £3,000,000 a day, at a time when people of most countries are suffering acute distress. "At the Peace Conference in 1919 a definite promise was made by the Allies to the defeated powers that the drastic reduetions imposed upon Germany, Austria, Hungary and Bulgaria were only to be the beginning of that general reform. What has become of that promise? Is it to be treated as a scrap of paper or not? The honour of all the nations is involved in this. "It may be said, man has always fought, it is his nature and nothing will stop him. If the gospel of Christ means anything it means and has shown itself again and again to be a power to transform human nature — and if anyone thinks it impossible to substitute reason and right thinking for brute force, he is f alse to the gospel of Christ and has not yet realised the possibilities that lie unexplored in it. "It is our duty and our privilige to respond to the appeal made. to the members of our church by the Bishops in this Dominion similar to the appeal which has been made by the Archbishops and Bishops together with the leaders of the non-espiscopal churches in England, to offer our prayers to God in private as well as ' in our public worship for the Divine blessing and guidance upon the deliberations now proceeding in that great conference. We thus take our part with the peace-makers and may claim our share in the promised blessing."