PEACE VERSUS WAR.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 316, 1 June 1911, Page 8

PEACE VERSUS WAR.

To the Kd:'tor. Sir,—.lf that ancient but obviously unsound maxim, *'lf you wish for peace, prepare for war," be altered to "If you wisii for peace, lie friends" (to which miyht he added, "The best way to secure friendship is to show friendliness"), we shall then have a maxim possessed of some measure of the truth. If England wishes to be friendly with (lerniany, she has merely to show (no doubt through a little period of time) a genuine friendliness. Once she is convinced of our sincerity, Germany will of course respond. She cannot help doing so, the /childnsss of nations in such matters being well' known. How well such a process has worked uith our old "natural enemies," the French, and how few of those dangerous war-scare "incidents" have happened since the entente, are matters of history, and are surely arguments in favor of the "friendship I '' method of keeping peace. As with the French, so could the same process be adopted in the case of Germany; but let it be stated that as long as Britons persist in showing bitter enmity to our Continental cousins, talk as Lord Roberts talks, iiiitiate "Dreadnought" crazes, and spend on militarism nearly twice as much per head as does Germany, the chance of an understanding is email. The Germans are generally conceded to be the most learned race on the face of the earth, the British in their turn being the most practical. Wny, then, should these two magnificent nations be enemies? At present each distrusts the other deeply; but if either will osly show friendliness, over a period long enough to engender conviction of sincerity, who is there who doubts that we shall soon be bosom friends? Once friends, the road to an arbitration agreement would be easy. Before eoneluding, I might mention that there is one danger in connection with modern militarism which las been often overlooked. Anion',' the soundest statesmen Jij England o-day is the Minister for \Var, Lord llahlane, who in a recent speech predicted: that the end of our present mad race after militarism

would be the revolt of the masses .against tho grinding taxation. Herein lies a situation fraught with very great international danger, and I submit that it behoves all those interested in the future of the nation to endeavor to secure : 'iternational aribtration bpfore such a cris's arrives. To aid in the securing C"' sm!i arbitration, there is one wav in v.'hieh every man in Ilia Empire can help —that is, by showin < a genuine friendliness e l even affection towards our fine and ii' "lligent fellow-Teutons, the Germans, -t am. etc.. PEACH AND PROGRESS. P.S. n annot '"P see that opinions such iiis must for ever preclude the possibility of international peace? To those militarists who admit that disarmament will come in time, I say, why not endeavor to have it in our time and enable us to enjoy some of the vast benefits which it will bring?—P. and P. New Plymouth, "30/5/11.