SERIOUS THOUGHTS ON THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 199, 11 May 1918, Page 7

SERIOUS THOUGHTS ON THE WAR

CALLOUS INDIFFERENCE TO GRAVE ISSUES . • THE "CALL FOR SACRIFICE '■'.'.'' Two thoughtful fpeech.es were delivered at the annual meeting of tho Otago brancH.of the Navy League. Mr. J. A, Johnstone, "one of the, founders of the ' branch, replying to. a. presentation to him of the Navy League's Special Ser- ■ vice /Decoration, made ait appeal for ■ "serious thinking about tho great issues at stnke in tho great v;ar. He was quite certain that .we in New Zealand were lagging behind in ihe race of life, for we were too much centred upon ourselves and upon those things that .did not count in the building up of the character ana .attainments of tho typo of men and women who had made our- nation what it was—the' leader of. tho. freo peoples of the world. Already, this war should have taught us that if, we did not tako more serious vhws of life, aiidifwe faiicd' to apprehend thhtMtizenship of the British Empire involved Ijoth effort and sacrifice, w? should be in grave danger of losing the. great inheritance bequeath" edto.uSiiis a result of. the labours and sacrifices' of our ancestors. A second matte he wished to refer to was the al- . most callous'indiiterehce'to the' fact' that our nation's life was in jeopardy, shown not only by the people of the Dominion and'of the Commonwealth of Australia,' "but- ak> by' a certain section of tho British public, and their failure to. realise that, so far as w'o knew' at -present; tliirissuo was just trembling in the balance. He thought the time had t arisen when' we. ought to ask our rulers and ourselves: Did thev and we understand the- position? He was convinced that .neither, they nor v;e were plaving .the part we should in this crisis, ii' wo were, it.would'be impossible for the Government to permit tlje extravagances and wasteful expenditure that were'goin» on in our midst. It .was clear to demonstration that it was the political aspects, "i 1 . a 1 ■ tIID necessit «s of the-case, that chiefly weighed with ohr rulers, mid as far as the people themselves were concerned it might be said without exaggeration (is regards the' majority that ..their.mam object in life was to have what they called, "a good time." Apparently they saw no reason why they should not do so. He was an optimist,' •and his confidence that tho Allies would w:m hail been unshaken since, the commencement of the war up till now; but we could only expect to win a great and lasting victory if nil of us placed ourselves, n nd all that we possessed if it were required, at the .service of the Mate. No one of us had a right to live . and spend for. his personal stratification, •as was done in pre-war times, and until jye , had all learned these facts and ■ brought into practice the lesson convoved 'he did;not believe that wo could hone to attain tho objects, for whicll the Allies had entered tho war. Mr F. Milner, M.A. ;,f »ho Wniein B ° 3 f ?>gh School), said that one leason why the subject of naval history and its relation to tho building up ofthe Empire appealed especially to the young nund was because of the . high spin, o! duty; and stern discipline prevailing m our Senior Service. Those Ic?ons were easiest learnt in youth, and in-later Ine would prove good corrections to the selfish and narrow-minded spirit «) prevalent in Australia and elsowhero. A leading secondary school teacher frorfl 'Australia had told him that such teach-' ing as was carried on by the leaguo in New Zealand was. absolutely unheard of .in where even pupils in the great grammar schools never heard mentioned such topics' ns, thanks to the league here, were known throughout the schools.in the.land. Was it any wonder,, then, that the present attitude of Australia towards the war and'international policies has come to pass? The Labour Party in Australia were blind to everything outside (heir selfish interests, aiiii madly shut their eyes even to the danger- threatening in ih'e Pacific, which would be the storm centre'of'the world later on. Never 'before' in Hl''our history have we needed so. sorely all" the . .brains,..the imagination, thc..tu'ltu.i;c;'the trained ! 'the. sacrifice' and patriotism of every one'.of our citizens, as. wo shall, need them' when this war, with all its decimation and destruction shall be ended, and it is to the rising generation that we shall have to look to mako'good all the wastage going on during the present one. Wo must seo to it that education' is not stinted—wo must find the money—the reforms needed- .will, cost niuch, x but this war, lias thown that money can be found when necessary, and it will bo vitally necessary lo provide generously for the. liberal education of our future citizte. It is high time to put an end to mawkish and sloppy sen-. "timentalism iin connection with our schools," aud ho would consider it a national calamity if tho birch ivere to be' banished' from our schools, as is proposed. He certainly did not hold that the birch should'be used indiscriminately, but he said that there was so much obstreperous animalism in certain boys that the.fear of tho birch at-any rate was needed-to restrain and correct such tendencies. He was tired of- all this sen- . .timental talk of moral suasion and .such. ; things, and he reminded-.his hearers that' in' this war we- had had to get rid of many of our sentimental ideas and get back'to hard" things..' It was lime we did so ,in connection with educational discipline/for "by discipline alone .could, we get efficiency,- and this war had found US inefficient, and'after the war we should require every ounce-of .efficiency, from everyone in 'the community. .• ' "With" regard to the present war/' he continued, "the work of the British Navy is known-but'.in outline, for, unlike the . land service, which is always in tho limelight and issues its' daily reports,' pur sea service goes silently on, but none the less wonderfully and effectively. The British Navy' is responsible for the sweeping off the seas of over 61 million tons of German shipping and for depriving Germany' of more than i£1,300,000,00fl worth of trade every year. Day in, day out, our vessels patrol the seas and keep open the liquid pathways of the world- for ourselves and for our Allies. A short time ago the British. Navy had safely convoyed over 13,000,000. persons to and from the battlefields,.and had carried over 300,000,000 torisof stores.'. To France and Flanders ■ alone we had convoyed- over .50,000,000 . tons of munitions—shells, bombs, etc;and every:day at least 10,000 officers and men are safely- convoyed across tho Channel. Then, too, we must never forget the work of the auxiliary service, whicili day and night in nil weathers patrols • the vast area of-the North Sea, keeping it clear of mines and submarines so far as may he. Just-think, of it—every 24 hours the 140,000 square-'miles of- tho North Sea are swept and dragged by the 3300 mine-sweepers of the'auxiliary service. The personnel of; the Navy has ■been raised to over 400,000 souls; and where in the world could one find more devotion to duty and greater- self-sacri-fice iihan" is to ,bo found among these men and boys?. ' .

"We Have, much to do yet in order to win. t Wo .must shed much of our apathy; and in this' connection may I say that I regard it as nothing short of a, i positive disgrace ' that the Government in New Zealand paid no heed to the recommendations' of the Efficiency Board they themselves set up to give them advice. I do'hot refer, to the prosent emasculated board, but to the original one,, of., which Mr. Hunt and Mr. Gunson, men of pre-eminent business ability, were members. , What did this board recommend? The absolute prohibition of the importation of expensivo luxuries, a drastic curtailment of racing, and that the State, should take over the control of the liquor trade, with compensation' to its owners, so that- no one should bo undnly hurt as a result of ■this reform;. Hut the Government refused to do any of these things, and Mr. Hunt and Mr.. Gunson, who ilinil given up their.hours and days and time to the consideration of these problems, resigned, stating that they could not remain on a, board to whose recommendations the Government paid no attention." In fact, said the speaker, this board was created purely to cover up the many deficiencies, shortcomings, and chicaneries of the Government. But if its advice had been taken wo should have been far more efficient, and wo should have ,nad none ,of the disgraceful saturnalias of racing, extravagance,

arid riots of drunkenness so prevalent hero •and' 1 in Australia.

Mr. Milner said that one other mattor htid been suggested to him when the Mayor read Sir James Allen's message to the meeting. That was the question of Js'ew Zealand's share, of responsibility in tho maintenance and staffing of this great Kinpire Navy of ours—this Navy under whose aegis our scattered and sea-girt Empire has grown and prospered. For some years now New "Zealand has paid the paltry sum of =0100,000 per annum as n naval subsidy, and since the presentation of the battle-, cruiser Noiv Zealand we have paid tho interest •on the sinking fmid--perhnps about ,£200,000 in all. But this, is the merest bagatelle, and is but a small in-' surance premium to pay for the safo carriage of an overseas trade worth between ,£50,000,000 and ,£00,000,000 per an-hum-to «s. . But peilhaps even before the war is ended a proper policy for New Zealand and the other Dominions will be formulated by tho special Admiralty Committee set up •by the lifitish Government to report on the question of the'creation and maintenance of an Empire Navy. Difficulties which were in tho way of such a scheme up till the present tinio have melted away, in the fiery trials of this war.