We Want Peace!

New Zealand Listener, Volume 34, Issue 873, 27 April 1956, Page 18

We Want Peace!

O said Margaret Garland in her 2YC talk on the hydrogen bomb, I am inclined to think that these three words, spoken by Mrs. Garland in a deep, sincere, and impassioned way, are the most eloquent I have heard for a long time. There it was, simple and profound: "We want peace!" Millions of words are written and spoken about the bomb, some’ of them barbarous, some of them intelligent, but if, underneath the verbiage, we could always hear these words, "We want peace," spoken, as Mrs. Garland spoke them, from the heart, the main issue would always be kept clear. For "we" are not pressure groups, blocks, or constellations of power, "we" ate people everywhere, with minds, bodies, hearts, capable of dignity, capable of love. Mrs, Garland summarised the arguments which view the bomb as a deterrent to war, admitting that its existence would probably prevent war for a little, but not, in her view, for long, since the busy scientific intelligence of the age will soon be able to fashion an instrument of destruction which will not recoil on the user, She gave a splendid example of the futility (continued on next page)

of modern, atomic-backed warfare. When Dien Bien Phu seemed about to fall, the French requested President Eisenhower to authorise an atomic explosion in Viet Nam "to save the honour of France, and preserve the flower of her army." The President, to his lasting honour, refused, and Dien Bien Phu fell, but far from being extinguished the honour of France was vindicated, even rose, and the flower of her army was saved. Finally, therefore, the bomb is pointless and achieves nothing that is claimed for it. It all comes back to the same crystal simplicity; "We want peace!"