Evil Forces Still Disturb World

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 58, 31 May 1927, Page 9

Evil Forces Still Disturb World

COOLIDGE WANTS PEACE AN UNDERSTANDING SOUGHT By Cable.—Press Association.—Copyright Reed. 8 a.m. WASHINGTON, Monday. President Coolidge, who spoke at Arlington cemetery during the Memorial Day ceremony, in honour of the Unknown Soldier, outlined the programme which would dictate the action of the United States delegates at the naval disarmament conference to be opened at Geneva on June 20. He said: “While we wish peace everywhere, it is our desire that it should be a peace not imposed by America, but a peace established by each nation for itself. “Although we are well aware that in the immediate past, perhaps even now, there are certain localities where our citizens would be given over to pillage and murder but for the presence of our military forces, nevertheless, it is the settled policy of our Government to deal with other nations, not on a basis of force and compulsion, but on understanding and goodwill.” “However much we wish to pursue the paths of peace, we cannot escape the fact that there are still evil forces in the world. We could no more dispense with military forces than with police forces, but we are firmly convinced that it is altogether practical and possible to limit their size by international covenants. “To consent to abolition would be to expose ourselves to the first aggressor and finally destruction. We are sufficiently acquainted with human nature to realise that we are often an object for envy. “It is to protect ourselves % that we maintain a national defence. We have sufficient reserve of resources, so we need not be hasty in asserting our rights. We can afford to let our patience be commensurate with our power.”—A. and N.Z.