The Cordova daily times., 1923-03-23
By J. RAMSAY MACDONALD, M. p. Leader of the Opposition and Chair.
 man of the Labor Party

l LONDON, March 23.-Pacifism, in ternational justice, the Parliament O
 Man, and all such expressions of hu man sanity, must remain as pious yearnings until the nations feel secure against each other.
 Apprehension and fear, now aris ing out of nations consciousness o it's own misdeeds, now out of a knowl | edge of neighbours evil designs, are the sole cause of armaments, and ar maments, in turn, are the sole req l son why no nation is willing to submit l it's claims and grievances to an i'm l partial court.
 Describes Three Periods of Transition At no time has the vicious circle ir ] which nations that trust to ornaments for safety move been more clearly dis played than since 1906. Since then we have lived through three well-defined periods.
 The first was the attempt to ward off war by a feverish watchfulness lest a possibly hostile power might ! outstrip us in military resources. At that time we fondly believed that we were securing peace by preparing for war, whereas events showed that these preparations not only made war in evitable by their increasing burdens, but prevented the continuance of peace by making a peace policy dan gerous.
 Then we had the years of actual fighting, when, with the minds of the nations concentrated upon military se- curities which an absolute military victory alone seemed to offer, the war was fought up to exhaustion point, and all the political securities for peace were regarded as the masks under which treason to the State mas queraded.
 Finally, we have had the years since the Armistce dominated by treaties drafted by men who had the minds of soldiers and the labels of statesmen, accompanied by economic and politi- cal policies animated by purely mill tary considerations.
 The sole idea of these years has been to make the enemy weak, and keep him weak lest he should again put up his fists.
 Less Secure Now Than Ever
 And yet at the end of it all we are baffled. The economic life of the na- tions is miserabIy starved, their politi- cal life was never less secure; we have just managed to preserve the signs and the symbols of national ex- istence. Great Britain remains, and Czecho-Slovakia has been created but the meaning and richness of that eX- istence have been obscured and i'm poverished.
 Security has fled rather than ap- preached, and under pressure of ap- prehension we are pursuing the self same expedients which were but broken reeds in 1914 so far as the maintenance of peace was concerned. Like a man lost in mist, our nerve has deserted us. We have lost our sense of direction and aim, and we walk in a circle.
 It may be that nations are incap- able of avoiding war, and that the best they can do is to drag on a pre- carious existence by military opera tions. If so, armaments and poverty are their lot; but then let us stop talking, or thinking, or dreaming of peace. A confusion in thought and aim at this point will, sooner or later, bring disaster upon us.
 If war be inevitable, to talk of prep arations for war being securities or peace is not only nonsense but trea- son, because it is weakening the fighting will of the nation and civlliz- ing it out of the Highland clan spirit which then becomes as necessary tc security as guns, battleships. aero planes and poison gas.
 To that point of view, however, nc civilized State will ever accommodate itself, and no decent citizen ever sub scribe. The treason consists not ir rejecting war but in accepting it as | inevitable.
 Says Arms Are Bound to Produce Wal | We have first of all to take a griI
 of the fact that arms and military alliances threaten security and nevel have and never can promote it.
 An armed nation has in the end tt
 fight, and "the end" comes within ;
 period of half a century.
 All we have been doing since 1911
 has been to create so many insecuri
 ties as to make preparations for thu
 next war inevitable. The supreme
 national duty since August, 1914, wa
 to create will to break with pas