CIVILIAN OPINION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 April 1940, Page 2

CIVILIAN OPINION

MAKING A BETTER PEACE. Opinion is never static —it is still, for all our country's stern resolution, sensible, reasonable and free from hate. But once the war becomes intensified and the real horrors begin, our mood will change, writes Mr Arthur Bryant, the historian, in his new book, “Unfinished Victory.” Civilised opinion will inevitably undergo the same imperceptible but unavoidable mental deterioration that 20 years ago culminated in the Khaki Election and the Treaty of Versailles. Dr. L. P. Jacks has warned us that “the conditions for a good peace deteriorate with every day the war is prolonged.” And it may be prolonged a very’ long time. If the peace wo hope .to make is to be worthy' of the men who are fighting to win it. its foundations will have to be laid now. They will have to be laid in our minds and wills. We must prepare for it in advance in the same way as we have prepared for war. Last time as a result of vast efforts and sacrifices we won victory. But wc did not win peace. We failed because we never look enough trouble to do so. With the tragic example of 1919 before uf we cannot afford to wait until the puotic has become too embittered even to try to think objectively'. Because of that failure, mankind has returned for a second time in a generation to the shambles. To some of us who fought in the last war the events of August. 1939, brought a spasm of torturing bitterness. For it seemed for a moment as though the sacrifice of a million comrades had been in vain. We were again at war with the same defeated enemy, and for the same ends. After the greatest victory of modern times our elders had lost the peace. This time a younger generation has to bear the brunt of the battle. And through their courage and endurance it may be for us to make the peace. Shall we be able to frame a better and more enduring one. and one worthy of their sacrifice?