CONSTRUCTIVE PEACE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 31 July 1939, Page 2

CONSTRUCTIVE PEACE

DETERRENT AGAINST AGGRESSION.

Even the creation of an effective deterrent against aggression affords no lasting solution of our ills, writes Mr Anthony Eden in the ‘‘Sunday Times.” Other problems remain, and though to warn any would-be aggressor in terms of unmistakable action is an essential preliminary to anj r curative process, it is no more than this. The fundamental evils of the present international situation persist. The competition in armaments continues with ever-gathering momentum; national economies are being twisted and distorted to lend it further impetus. That trend must be checked and reversed, or conflict will become inevitable. Moreover, will not the nations more readily be brought to understand that methods of force must be abandoned if to overwhelming military power to resist aggression be added political reasonableness to solve admitted ills? On this issue there must be no misunderstanding. There can be no question of buying temporary peace nor of making concessions to gain a further uneasy respite. Such moods will not recur. But while a short-term policy must bo based on rigid strength, there is advantage in facing also the long-term problems from which there is no ultimate escape, war or no war.