The Wilmington morning star., 1946-11-09
Moral Courage

llS1lt. " Leg WdS -. a. aus VI AN
bourg. She is a slender, erect little woman
with soft brown hair and deep brown eyes
that look straight al you ard beyond you when
she speaks.
She was one of the 800, 900 people Of cou-
rageous little Luxembourg who twice defied
explicit orders of the Gauleiter during the
Nazi' occupation once by writing "Luxem-
bourg' each time after questions as to des-
cent, nationality, and language in a plebiscite,
and the second time by a general strike when
the first youths were to be deported to Ger
many. In the first instance, the plebiscite was
called off when the Nazis saw that these peo-
pie could not be bullied into proclaiming them
selves to be German. In the second, defiance
persisted in face of terrible consequences, with
the prisons overlooking with patriots of all
businesses and professions. and lists of those
to be executed posted daily Cor two weeks.
DR.. Kraus, a teacher, was sent to Germany,
where she was obliged to work six months in
the Rhineland district. Then she was forced to
teach in Germany.
Resistance to Nazi terrorism has given us
the lesson she said, that you must over
come fear, even if the aggressor is 100 times
stronger than you are. In the postwar, we
should not be led by fear - not by fear of a
very strong power, not by fear Of a next war,
not by fear of the atomic bomb.'' She also
pointed out the need for wisdom, compass
sion, and courage" saying: ''When a man
uses these to shape his own life, then he can
lead Others
At the international Assembly there were
many women who had used these qualities in
their own lives, and the direction in which
their leadership will take their countries is to-
ward adherence to spiritual and moral values.
The voice of a new kind of world was heard
as these women spoke from the background
OF their war experiences.
Miss Anna Lea Lelli of Italy who was i'm
prlsoned for six months as an anti-Fascist,
later released and then informed for 10 months
In Tuscany, said she employed her long days
In prison in meditation On human rights and
responsibilities. why" she asked, SHOULD the
precepts we have been taught from childhood
love your neighbor, don't kill, share your
things-stop at national frontiers?"
She called on the women to give time to ex-
tend in themselves the spirit OF love that they
want beyond the boundary OF their nations.
There are thoughts that are prayers,' she
said, land some prayers that are not even
thoughts" She added that she desired to think
OF her land as my motherland."
Hari Matsui, Of Japan, declared her coun-
try's defeat was inevitable because my coun-
try had to suffer to learn to live a new way"
DR.. Woo Tsuen Woo, of China, a nutrition ex-
pert, asserted, "Standards of living are no
longer a national problem but an international
one. Helping your neighbor is helping your
Miss Kyllikki Pohajala, for IS years a men,
Der of the Finnish Parliament, a kind, strong
woman, said: my people have suffered too
much to hate anybody. If we cannot eliminate
hate from our life, when the floods come and
the winds blow, our house will fall and that
fall will be war" Describing the attitude of the
hungry Finnish people, she added: First
comes a little freedom and then comes your
daily bread" Their love of freedom stands
first.
Mrs. Ana de Kanter, of the Netherlands,
told me that she and her husband and their
five children were never afraid during the
occupation, although she and her husband
and the older children worked in the Under
ground. when you seek it," she told me,
you are given spiritual strength, and then
you know what to do"
Mrs. Lima Economou Gouras, representing
the Council of Greek Women's Clubs, said,
If permanent peace is to be established by
the U.N., humanity must be raised to a higher
spiritual level. Moral and spiritual values are
Of the first Importance. 1t was not material
forces the atom bomb - that gave us vic
tory. 1t was the belief that we fought for high
principles without which life is not worth liv-
ing. Although the war is over, we have to
fight evil in the minds of people - this is the
work of women"
DR.. Aasta Stene, who was active in the resis-
lance movement in Norway, and is now in the
Scandinavian Department at the University of
Wisconsin, described the courage of the Nor
in resisting German attempts to make
Nazis of them. "In the last few years." she
said, 'ide-s have come to the fore which are
more important than life itself. In our country
we want to keep the fellowship we have had
during the war"
Building a just peace means as much sacri-
flee as war" affirmed Mrs. Elizabeth Sichrova
OF Czechoslovakia, assistant to the Minister of
Social Welfare in London. REHABILITATION of
war-torn countries must be the basis of a, Just
peace
Nejib Manhood, OF Iraq, a chic. auburn
haired young woman one would hardly guess
had been yelled until a few months ago, de-
clared, I'VE want a world where the spiritual
order dominates the material"
Deploring the materialism which resulted in
the late war, Miss Elsie Solomons Of Ceylon,
asked "Have we learned "our lesson as we
stoop down to build. a new wcrld?"
QUOTATIONS