SIR JOHN BOYD ORR

New Zealand Listener, Volume 15, Issue 379, 27 September 1946, Page 5

SIR JOHN BOYD ORR

Sir,-In. the latest copy of The Listener you printed a fine appreciation of a very fine man, Sir John Boyd Orr, whose wisdom is being applied in so many fields in the cause of. humanity that it would seem hardly possible that his interests could be extended beyond the fields you mention. However, Sir John Boyd Orr has still another interest and that is Federal Union. In one of the chapters of Federal Union he says: "Science has made the world’ so small and brought the nations into such intimate connection with each "other that there must be either some form of international law and order, maintained by an international police force, or continuously recurring conflict. . . . Some people have contended that wars are inevitable and, indeed, necessary to preserve the efficiency of the race. The truth is that wars are provided by spiritual degenerates and perverts. They destroy the physically fit and the young men of generous impulse willing to sacrifice themselves for their fellow-men. They tend to leave the physically unfit, the profiteers and the cowards to propagate the species. . . . The sooner we realise that the only alternative to federation is a reversion to barbarism, the sooner we will be prepared to face the difficulties and see how they can be overcome. If the peoples of the world believe that federation with the abolition of war is possible, it will come. At the present time what is most urgently needed is the widest, fullest, and freest intelligent discussion by all classes of people." Sir John Boyd Orr agrees with all federalists that we must federate or perish. :

E.

W.M.

. (Wellington).