One World
NCE more the Prime Minister has ‘proved that the world is small when you travel on wings. Although he was away about three months his travelling time in relation to time spent at meetings and conferences was about the same as it would have been if he had set out by rail and road to visit each constituency _in his own country. We hope Professor Cotton will allow us to say that distance has surrendered to science. But we shall not ask his permission yet to say that the world is one. It isn’t. Neither the speed of travel nor the invention of intérnational languages nor * developments in the mechanical means of communication has brought nations any closer together than they were a hundred years ago. Mr. Fraser has given us a hint of the attitude the winners of the war are likely "to take if it is proposed to restore the League of Nations. A League of some kind is fore-shadowed but not such a League as came into being 25 years Ago. And the reason of course is that the world, | instead of becoming more of a unit since that time, has further disintegrated. We may be closer to world unity than we know, but we are not close enough to risk an international, government or to be planning the establishment of anything like a super-state. Unity, after all, is a psychological condition, and it can happen with nations as it so often happens with individuals that propinquity increases the chances of friction. There was not much trouble with Japan when.no one was allowed to enter or depart, or with the Maoris or Red Indians when they lived in one hemisphere and the white races in another; but there have been some incidents since. So, we must assume, it will continue to be in the world at large until nations draw near not because they can’t help doing so but because they wish to. All we can say in the meantime is that unity has been made technically possible. If Mr. Fraser can talk to Mr. Churchill on Monday and to his Cabinet on Saturday, world unity . is no longer impossible physically. But world war is no longer impossible either.
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 11, Issue 266, 28 July 1944, Page 3
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374One World New Zealand Listener, Volume 11, Issue 266, 28 July 1944, Page 3
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