Chaplains

The Rev. Peter Stuart and the Rev. Fr. Matthias. Anglican and Roman Catholic chaplains to the university, spoke on the general topic "Can Nuclear Warfare be Justified?"

Both agreed that under certain conditions it was justifiable to repel force with force. They cited the traditional characteristics of such a "just war":

• It must be declared by a lawful authority.

• It must be for a just cause.

• Legitimate means must be used

• There must be a reasonable proportion between the good hoped for and the evil to be suffered.

• There must be a reasonable hope of success.

• it must be a final resort after alternative means of settlement have been exhausted.

Legitimacy of means. Peter Stuart asserted, lay in distinguishing between combattants and non-combatants. It is possible to make such a distinction. though it has not always been recognised.

He said that not all citizens participate in a country's war machine (especially children, the sick, and the elderly), and defined a non-combatant role as one which would continue in peacetime. He believed that there was no doubt about the morality of killing a combatant.

Both Fr. Matthias and Peter Stuart agreed that any weapon which could not make this distinction between combatant and non-combatant could not be used morally. If a purely military target could be selected for a nuclear weapon, then its use could be justified. But in practice this is difficult to envisage.

Fr. Matthias stated that until an international authority is established, individual governments maintain the right to defend themselves against attack. But even in a nuclear age there is a wider choice than total pacifism and all-out nuclear war.

The existence of conventional weapons, restrictable to military targets, permits the possibility of a morally justifiable war.