Wairarapa Times-Age FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1943. REACHING A JEST PEACE.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 September 1943, Page 2

Wairarapa Times-Age FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1943. REACHING A JEST PEACE.

1— —. MEN and women of goodwill throughout the world, and certainly in all the countries of the United Nations, will be of one mind with his Holiness the Pope in desiring that a just peace should be reached as speedily as possible. A just and enduring peace is the supreme aim of the United Nations and one they are resolved to attain at the cost of any sacrifices that may be demanded and of any efforts of which they are capable. As he was reported in a cablegram received yesterday, the Pope, broadcasting over the Vatican radio, said: — The war seems to be reaching its culmination. People everywhere are revolting against violence and doubting whether the continuance of such a war is justifiable. We say to those whose task it is to promote the means of peace: “Do not destroy or darken the aspiration to peace into acts which stir up hatred and encourage resistance. Give all nations the foundation of a worthy peace. The people everywhere want peace, bread and work.” The people of the United Nations no doubt are agreed in believing, not only that the continuation of the war is incapable of being justified, but that it is a crime that it was ever begun. They are equally united in believing, however, that the only way to end this colossal crime against humanity is io bring its authors to justice and make an end of their power for harm. If stable and lasting peace is to be attained, it must be based upon an appreciation and assertion of spiritual and moral values. A plain distinction must be drawn between the criminals who plunged the world into war and the intended victims of their crime. A large part of the world is at war, not by the mutual consent of nations, but as the result of a conspiracy of murderous brigandage deliberately planned and entered into by three powerful nations, with the more or less enforced assistance of a number of smaller States. Our own nation and all or most of those with which it is associated in the world conflict desired nothing more than to preserve and consolidate peace. They are fighting and will fight until international gangsterdom has been destroyed because it has been and is plain to them that in no other, way can they hope to preserve their spiritual and moral heritage, the ordinary decencies of life and all that makes life worth living. It would be pleasant to believe, with his Holiness, that people everywhere are revolting against violence, but what evidence is there of effective revolt against violence in Germany or Japan ? What evidence is there that Italy, although Mussolini and his Fascist gang have been overthrown, is more than a pawn in Nazi Germany’s hands? It remains the task of the United Nations to break and destroy the evil power of the gangsterdom which has murdered millions of innocent victims, and has barbarously oppressed and despoiled vastly greater numbers. Meantime no good purpose can be served by any suggestion, however well-intentioned, that some easy and speedy approach to peace might be opened by way of agreement between these monsters of iniquity and those they have striven to destroy or enslave. The United Nations are pledged to establish world conditions which shall be fair and just to all nations. They would betray vilely their own good cause and all that it implies in future hope for humanity if they abated a jot of their determination to extirpate international gangsterdom.