Sta.,—The courageous challenge of Dean Matthews to our Arch- bishops
to explain precisely what they mean by their assertion that: " For some, pacificism is a genuine vocation," demands support from those who, like myself, believe that pacificist propaganda was one of the causes of the present war. Had Hitler not believed that Great Britain was largely pacificist he would not have dared to carry out his policy of aggression.
If this view be correct, then, the propagation of pacificism is a real danger to international peace, and all practical lovers of peace are compelled to oppose unflinchingly those who regard pacificism as the genuine vocation of any British citizen. We know from their utter- ances that our Archbishops are not pacificists; they do not believe that war, terrible as it is, is wrong in all circumstances—indeed, they regard the present war as a crusade.
If it be maintained, however, that when asserting the genuine voca- tion of pacificists the Archbishops 'are doing nothing more than claim- ing the right of pacificists to utter their conscientious convictions, even though those convictions be erroneous, the Archbishops, in so doing, are really maintaining that it is a divine vocation to teach what is false if the teacher of the falsehood believes it to be truth. In that
case, we are landed in a situation of religious and moral chaos stir!,
as Hudibras satirises: [When] " saints may do the same things by The Spirit in sincerity As other men are tempted to And at the devil's instance do."
Ripon Hall, Oxford. H. D. A.1\1AjoR.
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