GLOVES OFF!

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 244, 3 July 1918, Page 6

GLOVES OFF!

0 CHAPLAIN'S FIGHTING ADDRESS

DISLOYAL BRITISHERS SHOULD BE SHOT STRAIGHT TALK TO THE "SAVE YOUR SKIN" MEN If it is wrong that we should send out men to die on the Western froSy, then it was wrong that Gold Almighty should havo sent His onlr begotten Son to perish 011 tho Cross. They go to die as Ho died—for humanity. If the extremists of the A.L.P. think that we returned soldiers are going to stand their insults they're under a great misapprehension. If they think they are going to tear down liie Union Jack they're living in a fool's paradise. . . . Unless they stop slandering tho bravest hoys in our country you must not he surprised 11 ivn b.iud together and determine that, if the Government of the' country can't manage theiu, then by God we will! If they . . . are deluded in the belief that their organisation can withstand ours then they are sadly mistakon. Within the wide compass of those declarations (says the Sydney "Telegraph") did Captain-Chaplain Wilson range in an address delivered to close on 2001) people in the Lyceum Hall under the auspices of the Contral Methodist Mission. Deliberately devised as a counterblast to tho recent speeches in the Domain, the function developed into 60mqthing more than that. It became a passionate appeal for a clearer and a more sympathetic appreciation of the issues at stake in the war, a revelation of what the spirit of the returned men stands for, and further than this, a protestation of the nndying faith that possesses one man at least in the valour and wisdom of the racf. With the Gloves Off. Tho time had como, said Chaplain 'Wilson in opening, to remove the kid gloves and speak out the truth, whatever the 'consequences. In asking tho question—Are we going to lose the war? he had in 'mind- not so much the military situation as our own internal condition. The war might bo won on the Western' front and lost in Australia, as it had been lost in liussia. if wo did lose it the cause would be the samo as it had been there—Bolshevikism. It was the cause of Gordon's death, .*'nd of the loss of Khartoum. It was the cause that oonsisted in the existence within tho gates of 'tho city, of certain men prepared to receive their prico for opening the gates to the enemy. (Applause.) "11 tlie extremists of the A.L.P. get their way,". 110 said, "then Australia will lose this war us Eussin, lost it. . < . '-These men aro the traitors within the cates. At the same time it must not ho thought 6uch men represented 'the Labour movement as a whole. The suggestion" was that we should outer into peace negotiations with a nation that had never altered in one detail its original determination to Prussianise the world; with a nation that had nevor kepi its pledged word from the moment it trampled Belgium under foot to its more recent treachery to liussia. "Those who make the suggestion," said tho speaker, "are lunatics, and their mouths must be stopped." He then told/his hearers th 6 story of a canary employed by tho Miners' Battalion to betray the presence in the drives of foul gas. _ Escaping from its cage, it flew into No. Man's Land, and there threatened to reveal to the Germans the fact that tunnelling was in progress at. that portion of the line. The bird's freedom that in ordinary times was a most natural affair undei the special 1 circumstances prevailing became a matter not to be So it was with the Domniu orators. Under normal conditions they might air tlieii vapid vapourings until eternity. "Bui wo aro at war. They can't go on. They shan't go on even if we have to get vio of them, as we did of the canary, bj blowing them up. (Cheers.) If tho extremists of the A.L.P. think that we returned soldiers are going to stand,tlieii insults they're" under a great misapprehension. If they think that they're going to tear down the Union Jack they're living in a fool's paradise. ...

Germany's Crimes Against Labour. "I myself am the son of a workingman. At 12 years of age I was on the roadside with pick and shovel helping my widowed mother. But . . . I've seen with my own eyes what Prussianism is. and what I saw turned me into a soldier." The men who spoke of brotherhood with the Germans, added the chaplain, must be considered as condoning the worst crimes ever committed against the working classes on the Continent, and if the extremists were prepared to endorse "this damnable outrage on humanity . . they certainly ought noi to squeal if they get what our follows call stoush." A disloyal German should be interned. A disloyal Britisher should be shot! (Cheers.)

"I have no sympathy with people who close their eyes to the fact that this wai is for the character of the world. . . .

Wo could almost thank God for a thunderstorm of war to clean up the dirty world where .people loving pleasuro mon than God wore destroying their own kind. . . . When we get peace it must be a, vastly different sort of peace to that which obtuined before the war. That peace wilL be won and paid for in bloou by men who fought amidst a burning iron hell, and not by men who lived in safety and slandered their saviours." It was the "save your skin men," ho continued, who presumed to dictate to the world what it should do. These were they who had the damnable cheek to call tho returned men "six-bob-a-day murderers." "Unless they stop slandering the bravest boys in tho country," he said, "you must not be surprised if we band together and determino that jf the Government of the country can't manage them then by God we will! If they are deluded in tho belief that their organisation can withstand ours then they are sadly mistaken." (Cheers.) In the whole of history lie felt that never before had men. so mistaken the spirit ot their countrymen who were anything but hollow-hearted and emptyheaded. In tlie hours of strain wo should find tlie truest gold. In our pain, our heartache, and our sacrifice wo should find tho courage to go on with the strain, but wo could not afford to negotiate with Germany. When the latter had been chastened by defeat then only might we deal with her. Until tliat moment had arrived he personally must remain the soldier he had become in 19M, and go on fighting tho foe at home as well as abroad. "Denizens of Skunkdom." The men who spoke in the Domain demanded that tho A.I.F. should return home. To that ho had this to say: "You can't do it. They wouldn't come! They forget that. But, God helping, we'll make them remember it. The manhood on thb Western front is a vastly different affair from the manhood in the , Domain. (Cheers.) These are the men who knocked down a boy with one leg and smashed the bandaged face of another boy. God pity them if the A.i.b'. did-tome back, these tiddly-wink-ing denizens of skunkdoni." (Prolonged cheers). Captain Wilson concluded with a defence of his conduct against the charges of thoso who declared that his clotli should not countenance bloodshed. Ho was an old man now, in his fitty-fourth year, and with boys of bis own lighting. His answer to such charges was this: "If it is wrong that wo should send our men to die on the Western front, then it was wrong t'hat God Almighty should havj sent His only begotten Sou to perish on the Cross. They go to die as He died—for humanity." (Cheers.)