The Road to Peace
HE road to peace is proving long, but not longer or rougher than we should have expected. It would have been long and rough if the victors had been united in all their purposes and not merely in one. But the only major issue on which there was unswerving agreement from the beginning was the defeat of the axis powers. Nothing that our enemies could do while they were on their feet divided us or confused us, but the moment they collapsed we ran inevitably into collisions among
friends. If it is depressing that these are continuing, it is certainly not surprising or alarming. But it would be alarming to be complacent about them; to think that we shall somehow or other muddle through; that the world has no stomach for further fighting; and that things will necessarily get better because they can’t get worse. In fact they could get worse in a day, and almost in an hour; so horribly worse that provocation of any kind just now is an international crime. But it is not provocation to face the facts squarely. It is provocation not to face them -not to see, and not to say, that what is holding up progress on both sides is deep-rooted suspicion
about the future. There can be no lasting agreement while Russia believes that Britain and America are trying to manoeuvre her into a "safe" position from their point of view and while Britain and America believe that Russia is determined to make herself so safe from her own point of view that she will be able to snap her fingers at the whole world, It is not so much a case of making material concessions as of reaching a state of mind in which concessions can be Ciscussed without these paralysing doubts. Time is on the side of safety if we use it properly, but irresponsible writing and talking have never been more dangerous. *
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 14, Issue 362, 31 May 1946, Page 5
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327The Road to Peace New Zealand Listener, Volume 14, Issue 362, 31 May 1946, Page 5
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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