Pax International is a monthly journal issued at Geneva, (12 rue de Vieux-College) on behalf of
the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. I have before me a copy
of the November number of this monthly which has the following paragraph:
"In Jugoslavia 72 members of the religious body of Nazarenes have been condemned by
the military court of the Save District to ten years' imprisonment for refusing
to take up arms. All of the condemned have already served five years'
imprisonment for the same offence. All friends of peace in the whole world
should protest against these inhuman sentences and demand the revision of the
sentence."
It is a remarkable awakening in the Western world, this peace movement. That ten years'
servitude for the mere refusal to take up arms is possible under a system in
respect of 72 honourable men who follow the law of love rather than the law of
hate which the system promulgates, is proof of its barbarity. Whether the world
conscience disapproves of these savage sentences or not and whether such
disapproval produces an effect on the Jugoslavian Government or not, it is
certain that the system must be at its last gasp that needs for its sustenance
the infliction of barbarous sentences on innocent and honourable citizens. I
tender my respectful congratulations to the brave Nazarenes whom, let me hope,
the conscience of Jugoslavia itself will not allow to lie buried in its goals
for ten long years.
Young India, 14-2-1929