PACIFISM NO PASSIVE DOCTRINE SAYS FLETCHER

"Christians who go out to kill" was the scathingly paradoxical characterization of those who participate in war, made by Mr. John P. Fletcher, a prominent English Quaker, in an interview on Saturday with a CRIMSON reporter. Mr. Fletcher, who is now head of the Friends' Relief Work in Germany, was a member of the group of noted British pacifists who were imprisoned during the war for their opinions.

"To me as a Quaker," Mr. Fletcher said, "it is impossible to believe that Christianity supports war. Most people try to think of war apart from the killing, as a means of defense, or even of saving life. They should rather put war out of their minds as a possibility, just as murder is put out of decent people's minds today.

War No Cure for World's Troubles

"War is a useless method of solving the world's difficulties. Sooner of later, the real difficulties between men have to be settled by reason. War, even war in the last resort, merely postpones that reasonable settlement."

Pacifism, not merely as negative non-resistance, but as a positive, active, doctrine, is the conception which Mr. Fletcher outlined.

Pacifism Not Refusal to Fight

"Pacifism doesn't mean just refusing to fight when war comes," he said. "It means that in peace-time we must make real friendly contacts with all people; it means that we have got to get into human relations that make it quite impossible for us even to think of killing a German, a Frenchman, an Englishman, or an American. We pacifists failed before the war in that we had not produced friendly relations enough.