II.

Is there, then, no hope for the future peace of the world? Is there to be no end to this "bloody and puerile sport in which the partners change about from century to century?" Will men for ever allow themselves to be blindly led to the shambles by the skilful use of some catch-cry—some phrase—some word? We cannot say, but of this I am certain: that unless we descend from the repetition of amiable generalities about war, and cultivate a readiness to oppose not war generally but this war or that war; unless we realise the hollowness of what has been termed "Fairweather Pacifism," which says, "War is against the will of God," and substitute an active Pacifism which will say, "This war is against the will of God," at the moment when this war is in preparation or action, then indeed we are doomed. "Amiable generalities and attitudes," declares the "Nation," "do not carry the requisite elements of faith. Not do they commit those who utter them to any concrete conduct. . . . Our Bishop's statement that War is against the wll of God' and that 'Peace on earth has been the message of the Christian Churches from the beginning,' is not likely to be challenged. But then the reason why these principles are so innocuous and unhelpful is that there is, properly speaking, no such thing as war, but only this war and that war. . . . A peace of lassitude is no substitute for a peace of conviction. How can the necessary conviction, moral and intellectual, be won?" and the "Nation answers: "We are driven perforce upon the instrument of education." One hesitates to use the word "instrument" because it rather suggests the very subservience of education to ulterior purposes, which is already defeating the ends of peace as well as perverting the purpose of education; but, passing that over, it is undoubtedly true that our problem resolves itself into a problem of education in the wide sense. It is not now seriously questioned that a pre-requisite to any reform in the matter of international relationships is the democratic control of foreign policy, which means the fullest publicity and the opportunity to criticise, but even when this has been achieved, it by no means follows that peace is assured, and unless the people controlling foreign policy are a people well informed in world-affairs, with an outlook that sees beyond the frontiers of nationality, perceiving the struggles of other peoples, feeling their joys and their sorrows, and understand page 43 ing the peculiar contribution that each nation has to make to the sum-total of human happiness, then the old prejudices and passions will survive to be lashed into a war-fury at the first sign of a dispute.

But to consider this wide educational aspect of the question is to consider the whole problem, and space will not permit of that. As teachers and University students, we are particularly interested in school education, and therefore limiting ourselves to this extent, let its consider what practical measures are necessary in relation to the education of the school if people are not to be so readily stampeded into the futility of war.

In the first place, it must surely be admitted that so long as hatred and fear of other nations are encouraged in the minds of a people, so long will war remain a very real possibility, but when these passions are stimulated and developed in the child mind in the very first years of its education, how much more difficult is the task of uplifting the race to a wider conception of a unified world! We must "de-venomise" the text-books that enter the school. An example will make this point clear. The following extract is taken from a text-book entitled "The History of India for Junior Classes" (by E. Marsden, B.A., 1919, page 234), which is known to be in use in portions of the Empire where native populations are being taught:—

"The Germans are indeed a savage and a brutal race. In this war they have broken every law of God and every law of man. They say openly that solemn treaties are mere scraps of paper to be broken at any time they please; they kill their prisoners in cold blood, they torture those they do not kill; they murder women and children, toss them on the points of their swords, and laugh at their screams of agony; they destroy churches and hospitals, they shoot doctors and nurses; they poison the wells and the streams and the air; they cut down the crops and the fruit trees; they lay waste the whole country as they go over it, burning down the villages and leaving the towns heaps of smoking ruins. They are without religion, and in their cruel hearts there is no mercy, no pity, no kindness, no truth, no honour. They cannot be counted among civilised nations, and are indeed more like wild beasts than men."

At all costs all such matter as this must be stripped entirely from every book that enters a school, else this world of men will most certainly continue to be very little removed from the jungle, and all men will indeed be little better than "wild beasts."

We must go still further and eliminate not simply this form of propaganda which so crudely aims at stimulating hatred, but also the more insidious and less easily-detected propaganda which is calculated to exalt one's country at the expense of other countries and to promote the growth of a bigoted nationalistic pride—the suppressions and distortions of history that create the belief that one's nation has always been right and has always been victorious, thereby encouraging a willingness to fight.

Bertrand Russell has illustrated this point by reference to the manner in which the English text-books give the average schoolboy the impression that the Battle of Waterloo was a victory won by Wellington, in which the Prussians played little or no part whatever, while, on the other hand, the German text-books convey the impression that Wellington was on the point of defeat when the page 44 day was retrieved and the battle won by the gallantry of Blucher." If good relations between States were desired," he suggests," one of the first steps ought to be to submit all teaching of history to an international commission, which should produce neutral textbooks free from the patriotic bias which is now demanded everywhere," and one might add that with the creation of the League of Nations, the organisation for this purpose is now at hand.

But all this is negative, and must be supported by some positive teaching if any progress is to be made, and in indicating something of the positive instruction which must be introduced, I can do no better than quote from an address delivered to the Otago Educational Institute by Professor Pringle, in the course of which the Professor said:—

"The ardent teacher will pass lightly over the deeds of physical valour and military prowess. He will pause long and lovingly over the great ideals, clustering round each century, in the progress of our Commonwealth. Above all, he will recreate and infuse the whole with the unfolding conceptions of liberty, which gives value and meaning to the great historic progress. . . . Patriotism in the schools must be supplemented by the teaching of true internationalism. The young mind requires to be taught something of the debt that we owe to other nations. It is all too inclined to accept without questioning the conception that all foreigners are inferior beings. . . You can weed out all this by pointing to the record of great men of other nations who have added to the general stock of knowledge, or diffused poetry, art, and science over the world. . . . Choose, varify, amplify the catalogue as we will, and as we must, no nation or nationality counts alone, or paramount, among the forces that have shaped the world's elect, and shared in diffusing central light and warmth among the children of men. There are kinds of patriotism, the true and the false; but we must never, at the bidding of the false patriot, forbear to teach the true internationalism. Friendliness, brotherhood, co-operation, a quickened sense of international justice, a lessened sense of national vanity, a desire to play the game, and let the other fellow play it, too: These are some of the touchstones of the genuine article. . . . To say these things will occasionally demand courage and clear fidelity to conscience, but in the end the mothers of New Zealand and their sons will rise up and call you blessed . . . Nor should it be. omitted that in these islands, remote (as Lord Bryce reminds us) from the influence of Europe, the appreciation of the part played by other nations in building up our common civilisation is apt to become dim. A series of lessons in your elementary schools, spread over a series of years, on 'What I owe to France, What I owe to Spain Switzerland, Holland, Germany, America,' and the like would prove a marked solvent of international difficulties, without undermining the foundations of a solid and worthy patriotism."

It would be sheer foolishness to suggest that these measures, if adopted, would be sufficient in themselves to usher in a warless world. Education does not end at the School or even at the University, and the teacher is not the only educating agency. But such measures as these suggest something of the direction which our efforts must take if mankind is to catch the vision of a world order that will release humanity from the bondage of war to follow the adventurous paths of peace.

Only by building on some such basis as this can there be created the international mind that will lift the nations above the narrower patriotism's that bid fair to plunge the world into unceasing conflict. As teachers, let us strive for the diffusion of these ideals. "If we only fought for our convictions," wrote Tolstoy, "war would be an impossibility." Let us light for a warless world, remembering that page 45 we fight not against war, "but against "this war." "No idea is so practical," says Bertrand Russell, "as the idea of the brotherhood of man, if only people could be startled into believing it; if only it were inaugurated with the faith and vigour belonging to a new revolution. "No nobler task could be ours than the inauguration or such a revolution. It is the sacred mission of Youth in a world that has too long been given Over to "blood and flames" by old men and old ideas. May the task be grandly fulfilled, and then, perhaps, it may be no vain hope that when next the rulers of the old world call the peoples of this country to arms, the war-drum will beat in vain and the shouts of militaristic politicians will find no response in the heart of the people. Rather will their minds be strangely stirred by the vision that inspired that great French Writer, Romain Rolland, when he penned these words: "For the finer spirits of Europe there are two dwelling-places: our earthly fatherland and that other City of God. Or the one we are the guests, of the other the builders. To the one let us give our lives and our faithful hearts; but neither family, friend, nor fatherland, nor aught that we love has power over the spirit. The spirit is the light. It is our duty to lift it above tempests, and thrust aside the clouds which threaten to obscure it to build higher and stronger, dominating the injustice and hatred of nations, the walls of that city wherein the studs of the whole world may assemble."

J.W.G.D.