Ends And Means

"Every road towards a better state of society is blocked, sooner or later, by war, by threats of war, by preparations for war."

Recognising this principle, and "convinced that war and militarism are inherently brutalising forces, destructive of all that is valuable in civilisation and human personality." the representatives of the youth of 54 countries present at the Second World Youth Congress signed the New York Peace Pact. Unfortunately the terms in which the rest of the Pact were couched hold out little hope for the elimination of those "brutalising forces" so unanimously condemned.

Binding themselves never to participate in a war of "aggression," the signatories reserved. It appears, the right to use the instruments of aggression in the sacred name of "defence." Through their willingness "to give effective assistance to the victims of treaty violations and aggression." they eliminated the whole spirit of a Peace Pact, reducing the same to a Jumble of meaningless resolutions.

Modern warfare—whether under the name of aggression or of defence—must entail "the bombardment of open towns and civilian populations." How do these idealists propose to "give effective assistance to the victims of aggression" unless they are prepared to "violate the canons of humanity" to the extent of bombarding the open towns of the aggressor? If the end of the Congress representatives is the elimination of war surely they cannot employ these very same means to achieve that end. The Great War has revealed only too clearly the fallacy of such a conception.

The true peace lover would have wished for a bolder, more realistic stand to have been taken by the representatives of to million intelligent young people—a stand advocating total disarmament, the education of the masses in the technique of non-violent resistance and the renunciation of the war method under all circumstances.

We are living in critical days. It is not enough to desire peace, to sign peace pacts, to talk peace. We must strive continuously to live peace.