Wirarapa Times-Age SATURDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1939. CHRISTMAS AND WAR AIMS.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 December 1939, Page 4

Wirarapa Times-Age SATURDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1939. CHRISTMAS AND WAR AIMS.

NOTHING at a direct view could be more incongruous than the Christmas spirit of peace and goodwill and the desolation of war that now extends over or affects so great a part or the world. As Queen Wilhelmina of Holland said in a pre-Christmas broadcast: — Never within the memory of man has there been such an indescribable contrast between the beauty of God’s promise and our torn, disabled world. It may be as well to recognise that in words like these there is an indictment not only of aggressive dictatorships, hut in a measure of humanity in general—at all events of every nation that is or might be in a position to play a great and influential part in world affairs. Peace, where it reigns, docs so not only in virtue of the resolute and vigorous suppression of lawless aggression—necessary though that suppression may be —hut is accounted lor in a greater degree by the development and application ol nobler standards and upon the response these standards are capable of awakening in the human heart. The Christmas message oi peace and goodwill was and is and will be to the end ol any time that humanity can know the challenge of a new order “to men to bethink them of their common constitution _as members of the one human family of God.” Men may (lifter vastly in their conception of the Divine, but a perception of the supreme distinction, to be drawn between an order oi life that, is noble and one that is base is common to all men save those who are in some manner besotted. In the world we know today the very fabric of civilisation is visibly in danger of being torn asunder in savage strife. Men ami nations to whom the Christmas message is a common heritage are lavishing labour and wealth on the terrible task of destroying one another, while the relatively slight resources needed to sustain, for example, the League of Nations, are being cut down almost to vanishing point. It may appear that in a world thus tragically disordered, the Christinas message has become a mockery, 'i et Ihe vitality and persistence of the message are still apparent. As a lestixal of kindness and of hope, Christmas certainly has lost nothing of its appeal in lands like our own. or even in those that are directly touched or menaced by war. It was reported Irom Paris the other day that British soldiers are patrolling no-man’s-land on the Western Front with one eye on the enemy and Hie other on supplies for Christmas. “AH,” it was added, “are in excellent spirits.” Combining in kindly festivity, simple folk, whether clad in the uniform of the soldier or in civilian garb, are carrying on in no unworthy way the spirit and message of Christmas. In a larger outlook the Christmas message in all that it implies of future hope for humanity is being served well and faithfully by all who aspire to build a better world in which tragedies like the present war will be unknown and unthinkable. For our own nation and those that share its aspirations and ideals it is the redeeming feature of this war that the Allies are fighting with no predatory aims, hut in the hope that justice and goodwill may be made supreme in international relationships. In one of the latest references made by a British Minister to the peace aims of the Allied nations, Lord Chatfield said it was desired that a Europe should be created in which nations like Poland could not be torn asunder, nor another Finland be attacked by a covetous neighbour. Amidst all the tragedy of the war and in spite of the misdirected aims from which it took its rise, the hope al least is beginning to appear that men may find in co-operation on the greatest scale not only an alternative to war but a realisa--lion°of what is best and noblest in their nature. It has been said with .justice that a Europe organised on a basis of close co-operation could provide peaceful and constructive opportunities for those elements in Germany and elsewhere which have plunged the world into war. The old solution which lias failed, a writer in the London “Times” observed not long ago on this subject, was a series of military alliances. The new and still untried method which now lies to hand, ho added, is the increasingly close combination, ol those hjiiropean nations—including the civilised elements in Germany—which are prepared to turn to “a concerted effort to develop world resources by finding a bonelieent outlet for the constructive energies of all peoples.” Aims and ideals like these, by no means entirely fanciful even in these days ol terrible conflict, are in accord with the spirit and message ol Christmas to which so much ol humanity continues to cling in spite of all disasters and discouragements.