Gathering Clouds

New Zealand Listener, Volume 18, Issue 458, 2 April 1948, Page 5

Gathering Clouds

T is difficult to withhold resentment from, those who continue talking about another war. Though the reason in most cases is mere feebleness of character and mind, the result could be a disaster if the habit grew. Sensationalists are always with us, but the man who would sooner have the excitement of rumour and lies than no excitement at all can sometimes be too dangerous to’ be allowed his liberty. Yet there is one greater menace than the man who proclaims loudly that war is inevitable, and that is the man who thinks that it is impossible. Whether he is a Henry Wallace or a Henry Dubb he is a danger to his country every time he adds two and two together and arrives at three. The less most of us say

about war at the present time the less likely we are to discover what it now means; but silence should not end thought too. It is made plainer every day that the world situation is deteriofating, Everybody can see what is happening, and nearly everybody knows why, but. no one knows how to effect a change soon enough to make the world safe again. All most of us can do, and it is much, is to avoid all the little follies that in the end pile up into the big folly of universal suspicion and strife. We can’t directly influence events on the other side of the iron curtain, but we can do something on our own side if‘ we have the courage to face facts calmly. We can keep our heads, to begin with, if we have any heads to keep; refuse to think either that war must come or can’t come. We can work for peace, not by organising resistance to preparation or doing anything else as certain as that to hurry the calamity on, but by abstaining from the folly of provocation in all our public utterances and attitudes,