INTERNATIONALISM.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 June 1922, Page 6

INTERNATIONALISM.

HOPE IN LEAGUE OF NATIONS. Internationalism and the League of Nations was the subject of the evening address 'by the Rev. A. H. Collins in the. Baptist Church last Sunday- The preacher said it was three years since the peace of Versailles was signed and the League of Nations formed, and though something had been achieved, the nations were still hostile and jealous. A halt had been chlled in building Dreadnoughts, but the submarine continued. Professor Pringle, of the Otago University, had said that during the last three years more discoveries in poison gas and deadly munitions had been made than during the previous 100 years. People were talking of the next war, though it promised to ibe a war of extermination and modern civilisation would collapse, and moral leadership might pass from the white man to the. black and yellow races. The one hope lay in the League of Nations becoming a passion in the heart of the nations, and not simply an ideal in the mind of a few. The root cause of the present situation was the spirit of nationalism instead of internationalism. Instead of thinking and planning for the world, we think and plan for ourselves. In politics, and even in religion, we are sectional and parochial instead of catholic- There used to be a popular toast in England: “My country, may she always be right; but,right or* wrong, my country.” It was bad politics and worse religion. It could not 'be the will of God that nations should dwell in hostile camps and chronic antagonisms. Plainly the people of the world should be neighbourly, friends and helpers, not rivals and foes. Instead of my country against the world, the Christian position was, my country for the world. But you cannot drive a locomotive with a foot-warmer, or light a city with a rush-light. The marriage of thi nations would be celebrated at God’s altar. Other methods had been tried—fiscal policy, education, science, diplomacy—and had failed- The only hope lay in the frank adoption of Christ’s law for national as for private relations. Was it too much to hope that from yonder murky island in the cold, grey North Sea, there would yet arise statesmen to lift the banner of international union and co-operative life and service, fnstead of racial jealousies and devastating wars? In this new spirit all should combine. We should stop the use of insulting speech of other races and cultivate a spirit of courtesy and peaceableness and Tinselfish service.