Peace; Or War By Proxy The Unending Struggle

Before that time the Conference had from time to time, through its contacts with the British Conference, been able to fill the gaps. Now they turned to their Australian neighbours and a large number braved the journey across the ditch and served this Methodist Conference very well.

Two of these were William Beckett and Samuel Prior. It so happened that each was stationed at Masterton. When Beckett went there in 1924 he received significant support from Dr Prior, the son of the other immigrant, who was now himself a significant part of Masterton society as a local general practitioner. Samuel Prior had not long returned to Aotearoa and was to spend his days, as did his son, serving the people of that Wairarapa town.

In 1924 the New Zealand Methodist Times in October reported on a public meeting that had been recently held at Masterton, whose focus had been on the urgent need for the establishment of a committed and lasting peace. William Beckett moved, ‘“That this meeting of citizens of Masterton New Zealand send fraternal greetings to similar gatherings now being held throughout the world to express abhorrence of war and militarism and join with them in declaring it to be the duty of all people and governments to strive for universal disarmament, and calls upon the New Zealand Government to pursue a policy of international cooperation; to support the strengthening and enlargement of the League of Nations; to urge the settlement of International disputes by consultation and judicial arbitration; and to support the convocation of an international conference to achieve these purposes; and that a copy of the above resolution be  forwarded to the Prime Ministers of New Zealand and Great Britain.” Dr Prior, a member of the committee of the Masterton branch of the League of Nations seconded the resolution which was carried.’

That the Church’s newspaper should give space to this local meeting is no surprise. The editor, Percy Partis, was an ardent supporter throughout his life of peace initiatives, and his career, like that of Ormond Burton, has been the subject of earlier contributions within this series. But neither Paris nor Burton could have imagined in the 1920s that the development of armaments would be so massive and far-reaching that all traditional ideas of war would be changed. The idea that national boundaries afforded some measure of internal security disappeared with the emergence of long-range missiles.

There is no safe place in the modern world. The quest for peace, therefore, takes on a totally different meaning. President Putin warns that the use by Ukraine of ‘munitions’ supplied to it by NATO represents an international threat – while all the while Russia accepts similar assistance from countries within its orbit.

This is not the place to argue such issues. But we face as never before the challenge to search for a genuine peace based on mutual respect. To advocate such a thing is not playing politics. The Christian churches, despite their differences, and (it should now be said) because of their awareness of being just one expression of the way in which people express their faith, must follow their Master. It is that aspect of the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth that must be our chief focus in these threatening times Ours is a small voice but it should be heard.