RUMINATION 0N WAR

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20989, 16 December 1939, Page 13 (Supplement)

RUMINATION 0N WAR

Source of Power

IN THE COMPARATIVELY brief interval between what we all refer to as the World War and the present conflict, a new generation of readers, commentators and observers has grown up. Emotional reactions, in the present crisis, seem to vary somewhat according to the fear, the hope, the dread, or the abiding faith in the ultimate outcome, felt or expressed by those who read or listen to the printed or spoken comments on the progress of the conflict overseas. Those of the generations of men and women whose Emotions Were Stirred So Violently in the years between 1914 and 1918 perhaps* see in what is taking place today what they hope are but the convulsive and more or less involuntary and unavoidable readjustments which forecast eventual quiescence and imposed, if not entirely a dignified, peace. To those somewhat more susceptible and impressionable because of inexperience, the picture may take on the dignity of a crusade in which all the powers of right and justice are arrayed against their traditional enemies. It may not yet be apparent that the legions engaged, on whatever side, no matter who commands or who directs, do not, under whatever banner or flag, represent complete right or justice. Gradually, it may be, but finally we may come to realise that the promise often quoted—the battle is to the strong—gives no assurance that victory will come to those of greatest numbers, larger weapons, faster and more powerful ships of sea and air, or greater stores of the munitions of war, but to those whose strength is in the right. There is no other invincible strength or power. As we read or listen, hoping for a word of reassurance that out of the present chaos and confusion, destruction, suffering and wantonness, there may come a word upon which we may rest our faith that Reason and Sanity may be restored, the ever-changing kaleidoscope confuses and discourages us, unless it be that our vision carries us on beyond to what is less suggestive and more literal. In this clearer view we realise that the promise will be kept. The battle is to the strong. Men and women, boys and girls, shall not be obliged always to suffer in defence of mistaken concepts of what is right

(Frank L. Perrin)

The Eternal Verities

or what is wrong. Impatiently, weary because we seem to have waited so long and so hopelessly, we demand a sign that we may be reassured and encouraged. That sign has been given. To the discerning it ever appears. It is not on the battlefield. It is not on the seas. It is on the invisible banner of Peace which is the emblem of no single nation, or country, or race, but of the people who have learned or are learning that the way of war is Not the Way of Right or Justice. Because of this same impatience we clamour for a greater show of force, for united action against aggressors who are accused of imposing injustice by superior strength or arms. Lasting injustice cannot thus be imposed or established. By war’s misfortunes the reverse seems sometimes to be true. Taking the record of the centuries of human progress as it is written it must be admitted that by logical and explainable processes of readjustment, progress, and understanding, wrongs have been corrected and right has prevailed. We become confused and alarmed by the seeming, the transitory, the unreal. The immutable does not change. The eternal court of justice is not rocked or swayed by concussions of human warfare. And yet the temptation is to say that this is all right in theory, and that it is possible, perhaps, to realise it on the shore of an ocean which separates a nation from the scene of conflict. But if it is true in America it is true everywhere. It is the Eternal Verities that Count. These know no favoured or unfavoured locality. When war comes it brings its confusion of values and its inflation of the boasted power of wrong. It is because of this that we are swayed in our sympathies and prejudices when we concern ourselves undul/ and inflame our thoughts by too much listening and reading in times like the present. Everywhere there is the thought of war and too little thought of an honourable or lasting peace. Would that we all might console ourselves with the realisation that the chaos which human ignorance and greed engender is not in the plan by which we must all learn to live. Too long have we looked through the glass darkly. The light is not distant. Let us open our eyes and 3ee.