Solved Exercise for Precis writing with Title “Prevention of World War” Precis for Class 9, 10, 11, 12 and Higher classes.

Passages with Solved Precis

People everywhere are deeply troubled by what seems like a fated and predetermined march towards even greater disaster. Many have come to feel that nothing can be done to avert the plunge towards ruin. They are mankind driven on by angry Gods, no longer master of its fate.

I think this view is lazy and superstitious. The misfortunes of the human race, since, 1914, and those much greater misfortunes with which it is now threatened, have been brought on not by fate but by human violation, by the passions of the many and the decisions of the few. But if passions and decisions can do great harm, they can also do great good. It is, therefore, irrational to Jet our hope smothered by a sense of impotence.

In the world today, there are two immensely strong forces. One is the hostility between Communists and non-Communists; the other is the wish to avoid another world war. These forces work in opposite directions and have kept each other in uneasy balance in recent years. In this situation, it is easy to imagine a small, apparently trivial event that might unleash war. It is not so easy to imagine an event that would give added strength to the desire of peace. Yes, I think such an event is possible.

How can it be brought about? Some people pin their hopes to a Soviet change of heart, but I do not, see the rulers of Russia adopting the principles of the ‘Sermon on the Mount’ in any near future. There is not much hope in argument designed to convince the other side of the righteousness of  our own. However convincing such an argument may appear on one side of the Iron Curtain, it loses persuasiveness in passing to the other side. Nor is one-sided appeasement a road to peace, since it only encourages the other side to make continually more outrageous demands until at last a point is reached where resistance is imperative.

 If the danger of war is to be lessened, it must be by emphasis upon something about which both sides are agreed. I know of only one thing about which there might be general agreement on both sides…. and that is that a great war would be as disastrous to the vanquished. If I were an influential statesman, i should advocate a conference of all the great powers to consider this one thing, the destruction to be expected in a new world war. No one as the conference would be allowed to suggest that one side was better than the other, or more likely to achieve victory. The sole business of the conference would be to draw up all statements of the sufferings to be expected among all the belligerents.

The hydrogen bomb must be considered not as an engine of victory but solely as an engine of destruction. No good can come of the wrangles in which both sides at present indulge. “We have the hydrogen bomb,” says one side. “So have we”, says the other. “But we have more”, says the one. “But you present more convenient targets”, says other. There is grave danger that sooner or later the wrangling will exasperate people to the point where they will say: let us be done with bragging and put the H-bomb to the test’. Any such procedure is suicidal. What I suggest is a conference in which weapons of war are considered strictly as leading to utter defeat on both sides. This is the only matter in which the interests of the two are identical, and it is, therefore, the only matter which can be considered by a conference without making the hostile feelings on both sides more violent.

Such a conference might generate on each side a belief that, since the other is aware of the inevitable evils of a world war, it is not likely to indulge in war unless compelled to. If once this belief existed on both sides, a general relaxation of tension, would become much easier. At present, we of the West are persuaded that we shall never engage in a great war except in resistance to an attack; but we are not persuaded that such an attack is unlikely. I think that the same attitude probably exists in the Soviet Government. It is this mutual distrust which causes the difficulty, It might be dispelled by having both sides to make it clear that they will fight only in defence; that neither the governments and the peoples of the West nor those of the U.S.S.R. and its satellites could survive the shock of total war; and the hope of victory in war has become illusory.

I do not wish to see such a view prevailing on one side only, however for them it becomes defeatist-and terrible as a new war would be, I should still prefer it to a universal communist empire. The preliminary steps towards this conference ought to be taken by neutrals, who would draw up a document setting forth the likely results of war. Comments on these documents would be invited from both camps. If the neutrals do their work in the right spirit, it ought to be possible to get both camps to admit the justice of what they say. And if both sides admit this to the neutral, it is a great further step to admit it to each other.

It would be essential for the report of such an enquiry to be received with the wide publicity on both sides of Iron Curtain. The report should emphasize the inevitable harm to practically every inhabitant of a belligerent country. I am not thinking only of such disasters as the obliteration of large cities but of the destruction of crops, the spread of diseases. I believe that this kind of investigation might turn men aside from collective madness; that both sides could be persuaded that nothing is to be gained by war, and that there is no harm in saying so. It would then be possible for both sides to have confidence that disputes would be settled by negotiations.

Mankind might then gradually awake from the night-mare in which we have all been living, and the downward trend of the last forty years would give place to ordered progress.

Precis

Prevention of World War

Human race is threatened with extinction on account of the possibilities of a global war. This situation can be prevented for events since 1940 have proved that none of these were beyond human control. Present international situation boils down to two basic facts. These are enmity between communists and non-communists and a universal desire to avoid world war, strengthening the latter can save the world of the ill-effects of the former.

The greatest problem of the present day is strengthening of the forces of peace. It is difficult to expect any change, in the immediate future, in the outlook of Russia or of the other camp. Further, any laxity on either side may give rise to war rather than prevent it because it can be mistaken for appeasement. War can be prevented only if both the camps realise its dangers and uselessness.

An international conference may be convened by neutral nations. Instead of degenerating itself into ideological discussions attention of all States should be focussed on listing the disaster which may be caused by modem deadly weapons. The decisions of such a conference should be given wide publicity both inside and outside the Iron Curtain. Awareness should be made plain to all concerned that war will annihilate both the victor and the vanquished. Development of such a psychology alone can help to prevent a global war.