A NEW Declaration of the Rights of Man, as fundamental in its purpose as Magna Charta, the American Declaration of Independence, and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man is the aim of a movement in Great Britain as a result of which it is hoped to ensure that out of the darkness of war there may emerge a better world order in which the peoples of all countries will be able to live in freedom, happiness, and security.
THE movement is to be in the form of a national debate and it is hoped that the outcome will be a declaration affirming principles of human liberty in the terms of the modern world, which may form the basis of fundamental objectives and become a guide in the deliberations of the Peace Conference after the war, and will offer to the common people of the belligerent countries the assurance of a decent and just peace.
The National Debate was launched on February 5 by the London "Daily Herald," which thinks that a definition and reaffirmation of the principles upon which human liberty should rest can play a decisive part in pulling together that mass of anxious questing after the foundation of a permanent peace.
This journal says it believes that such a declaration if it is to be of value, must grow out of nationwide, and ultimately worldwide, discussion and debate.
The chairman is Mr. H. G. Wells, the noted author, who has drafted a number of provisional clauses for such declaration in order to stimulate debate ait organised meetings and group discussions throughout the country.
IT is hoped that debates will also be arranged in other free countries and that this affirmation of what the peoples are striving for will serve as a guide to those who will shape the peace, and as a definition of principles to which all nations joining in the economic or other advantages of a new League or Federation can be asked to agree.
A further hope cherished by the sponsors of the movement is that such a discussion, growing out of free debate, may have an immense value in assisting the development of progressive forces within Germany, and thus the shortening of the war.
There should be no confusion in the public mind, it is pointed out, that this is the germ of a peace-at-any-price movement; it is far from that. It also is not one that pro-Russian or any anti-British element can be allowed to insinuate themselves into so as to secure control of it and make it a vehicle for their own schemes and propaganda.
It is an earnest endeavour to ascertain world opinion on what should be the Rights of Man arising from a situation in many countries where there is no such thing to-day. It certainly should give an indication of what representative men, and men of the common people, are thinking of the future of the world as it affects the human race.
LEADING the debate in the "Daily Herald" will be the foremost thinkers of the day, men and women eminent in the churches, in science, medicine, literature, politics, philosophy, history, the industrial movement, and in fact, in almost every avenue of human activity.
These will include: Mr. Bernard ' Shaw, Professor Archibald Main. D.D., Moderator of the Church of Scotland; the Earl of Lytton, former Acting Viceroy and Governor-General of India; Mr. J. B. Priestley, novelist and playwright; Mr. C. R. Atlee, M.P., Leader of the Opposition; General Carpenter, Head of the Salvation Army, Mr. Harold Nicolson, M.P., the author, critic and diplomatist; Professor Lancelot Hogben, F.R.S.; Professor J. B. S. Haldane, F.R.S.; Miss Rose. Macauley, novelist; Professor J. A. Ryle, M.A. M.D., Professor of Physics, Cambridge; Mr. Arthur Greenwood. Deputy Leader of the Opposition; Professor Ernest Barker, L.L.D., Professor of Biblical Science. Cambridge; Mr. Herbert Morrison, M.P., Leader of the London County Council; Professor C. E. M. Joad, head of Department of Philosophy and Psychology, Birkbeck College; Mr. George Lansbury, M.P., Dr. J. J. Mallon. Warden of Toynbee Hall and former Governor of the B.B.C., Sir Walter Langdon-Brown, M.A., M.D., eminent physician: Mr. Will Lawther, president of the Mineworkers Federation; Rev. Sidney Berry, D.D., Secretary of the Congregational Union; Mr. George Gibson, member of Trades Union Congress General Council; Professor Harold Laski, Professor of Political Science; Mrs. Barbara Ayrton Gould, chairman of the Labour Party.
Simultaneously discussions have been arranged to take place at meetings and group gatherings all over Britain under the auspices of national organisations which are co-operating in the enterprise. The results of these discussions, with the letters received by the "Daily Herald," will be passed on to the Drafting Committee.
The ideas emerging from the discussions will be considered by an authoritative committee which will include: Mr. H. G. Wells (chairman), Lord Sankey (former Lord Chancellor), Sir John Orr, F.R.S., (leading authority, on social problems). Lord Horder,(distinguished physician), Mrs. Barbara Wooten (distinguished, woman economist); Sir Norman Angell (Nobel Peace prize winner), Mr. Francis Williams (editor of the "Daily Herald"), Sir Richard Gregory, F.R.S. (president of the British Association), and Mr. Ritchie Calder (secretary).
SEE THE DRAFT DECLARATION DRAWN UP H.G. WELLS.
