The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, AUGUST 23, 1917. THE POPE’S PEACE PROPOSALS

New Zealand Tablet, 23 August 1917, Page 25

The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, AUGUST 23, 1917. THE POPE’S PEACE PROPOSALS

ITHIN the past few days we have had in MuVM the daily P a P ers the Pope’s Note pray4\Vyy \W/nt * n § * or peace, and so sundry comments >a|i, thereon. When we remember what tender solicitude for the interests of the Hol Y '^ ee the Freemasons who rule France have shown in late years, and how very present a help to the Pope in his hour of need England was, we are not disappointed if any move from the Vatican meets with scant favor in either of those quarters. It was, therefore, not much in the nature of a shock to learn that the French and the British, press received the Papal Note without enthusiasm ; and even the delicate description of it by a London morning paper as “a frost” surprised nobody. Nor do we think certain other comments were in the nature of a surprise when one considers the source from which they proceeded : thus, we are told on the one hand that the Pope was inspired by neutrals, who— with great reason indeed— sick and tired of this war ; and, on the other, that the Note is a frank pro-German move on the part of the Vatican: as who should say, “The voice is the voice, of the Pope, but the hand is the hand of the Kaiser.” And, on the whole, the press succeeds in displaying once again an ignorance concerning Koine and its ways quite up to the usual standard. If people are so blind to the history of the war as to be capable of making such statements, to try to show them that the Pope is, was, and will be strictly neutral, were as futile as to fight with a shadow. When, however, it is said that the Pope displays in his Note a lamentable ignorance ot the state of feeling in the Allied countries we beg leave to doubt the assertion. Rome is proverbially slow and sure: it moves not without deep consideration; but when it does, move it is usually justified, From a mere temporal point of view alone, the Pope is the head of the grandest organisation in the world, and to a man who knows how perfect that organisation is, and how well informed the Vatican must be, such a statement as we have referred to cannot but appear absolutely ridiculous. The press talks of the Nuncios and hints that they were misled. Apart from the fact that the Nuncios are not the sort of men who are misled in a body, it is worth remembering that the Catholic people, the priests, and the bishops of a country, are surely in as good a position to know the sentiments of the population as the reporters of the press ; and they are also more likely to tell the truth about it. We may dismiss as ridiculous the conjectures to which we have alluded. The inspiration

was not pro-German, or pro-Ally; and the Holy Father was not deceived. As common Father of the people he has spoken out; and his inspiration was the love' of God and mankind. * ' * ' The Note reviews the sufferings of the nations during the past three years, and goes on to tell how vainly the Pope has appealed in that time to the various belligerents. It dwells on the awful prospect of the continuation of all the trials and hardships of war, and asks, “Must the world. become a field of death, and Europe speed to her own suicide?" Then, in the name of duty to God and His people, in the name of His suffering flock, in the name of our common humanity, once more the Holy Father appeals for peace, and invites the Governments to deliberate on the following points which seem to form a basis for a permanent and abiding agreement : —• The primary fundamental point ought to be the substitution for the material force of arms of the moral forces of right. There should be an agreement, or a simultaneous and reciprocal reduction in armaments, according to rules and guarantees, to a degree regulated by the necessity of maintaining public order in each State. There ought to be erected a court of arbitration providing for concerted action and penalties against a State refusing to submit international cpiestions thereto or to accept its decisions. Once the supremacy of right is thus established, rules could be fixed securing the freedom of the seas and opening to all new avenues of prosperity and progress. ' Foxeconomic reasons it is unthinkable that the carnage should much longer continue. Immense benefits would result from disarmament, and a mutual liquidation might afford a principle for the solving of the question of reparation and payments. In order to promote peace there should be a reciprocal restitution of occupied territories, and the various nations should examine territorial questions, taking into account the aspirations of the people, and co-ordinating special interests for the general good of society. The Note expresses the conviction that the acceptance of the foregoing points would prevent a recurrence of quarrels and prepare for a solution of the economic question. * It is quite obvious that the Pope never expected that the text of the Note should be taken as a completesolution of the problem, although some of our papers discuss it in that light. It is put forward as a basis of agreement, as a mere outline of a scheme, affording a point of departure for discussion. No man nowadays accuses President Wilson of being a pro-German. But how much there is in common between the views of the Pope and those of the President ! It is not so many moons ago since the President of the United States said that the war ought to be ended by an honorable peace, “A peace without victory.” And then what a storm of ridicule and abuse burst over the head of the President ! In the same speech he advocated the formation of a League of Peace after the war, founded on equality of rights, and based on a plan of independent autonomy, with full freedom foxsmall nations, freedom of the seas, the limitation of armaments. These were not the words of an obstinate pacificist. They were the measured sentences of the greatest living statesman, and, haply, the strongest, man in public life to-day. And anyone can see at a glance that there is no great distance between the terms of the Pope and those suggested earlier by President. Wilson. Again, are not these terms practically identical with the formula of Russia, “No annexations and no indemnities,” and is not that formula,repeated to-day throughout the United States, proclaimed on a thousand platforms, and re-echoed by tens of thousands at mass meetings? To those who read the English papers we leave the question how far the same formula finds favor with the ‘British people. At axxyratg the old talk of dictating terms in Berlin has gone out of favor, and there is a strong demand for the Government to declare exactly what terms are essential. Was the

Pope misinformed then ? Was,- he as ignorant of the opinions of the nations as we have been assured ? What' of President Wilson’s words? What of the Russian declaration What of the voice of thousands in Great Britain ? Believing, as we do, ! that he was not misinformed, we hope and pray that the end is in sight, and that the wish of the Holy Father for a peace that will endure may be fulfilled in the near future. * To our readers there is no need tf? point out that the Pope is strictly neutral. But One had the right to say, “He that is not for Me is against Me.” Only in His sex-vice is neutrality impossible. But we know how many say the same'thing with no right or reason whatsoever. To argue with such people is worse than waste of time. To find fault with the Note because the Pope did not explicitly condemn the atrocities of the Germans is proof enough of the absolute'incapacity of the critics in question to understand what neutrality means at all. The Pope already condemned all violations of the divine and the natural laws. The Note was not the place for such condemnations. As Lord Hugh Cecil said, there have been atrocities on both sides : and the Pope is in a better position to judge of their extent and enormity than any of his critics. He is also more capable of estimating what it is. fitting to say, and what to leave unsaid, in an appeal to all the belligerents for peace. The fact that the German papers declare the Note unfavorable to the Central Powers is sufficient answer to the foolish statements we have been reading for the past few days.