“SPIRITUAL GENEVA”

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20735, 20 February 1939, Page 8

“SPIRITUAL GENEVA”

REMARKABLE CONFERENCE MAORI BISHOP’S IMPRESSIONS (By Telegrnnh — p r-..=e <\csor*-'ntinn) WELLINGTON, Monday The Right Rev. F. A. Bennett, Bishop of Aotearoa, returned to-day on the Awatea from a world missions conference at Tambaram, near Madras, India. The conference is held about once every ten years. There were nearly 500 delegates, he said, from 70 different nationalities and the universality of the English language was shown by the fact that they all under-

stood it and were able to conduct the entire conference without the assistance of interpreters. Other New Zealand delegates were Mr and Mrs Mac Diarmid, church representatives, and Mr G. Falloon representing University students. “It struck me that this conference might lead to the solution of a great many of the difficulties that arise today among various nationalities,” said the Bishop. “If the idea of a spiritual Geneva could be established on principles of Christian faith it would help to solve those problems. All the representatives of the. seventy nations at the conference met in perfect friendship.”

He had been very interested to see the harmonious relations that existed between the Chinese and Japanese delegates.

Bishop Bennett visited New Zealanders doing missionary work in India. All were doing splendid work, particularly in the educational field.