NON-CONFORMIST MINISTERS AND DEFENCE

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 277, 19 August 1919, Page 6

NON-CONFORMIST MINISTERS AND DEFENCE

Sir,—When I see a soldier the street with one, or two, or three short stripes upon his left arm, they recall to iuo 11 Scriptural verse: "The chastisement of our peace was laid upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed." The sacrifice of our soldiers in war saved us from Hun domination, and reading the report of the Presbyterian ministers' meeting, and' the passing of a fulsome and inconsistent resolution, 1 come to the conclusion that some of tie more intelligent of our people havo failed to realise what would have happened lo this country if we had failed to win the war. Probably a debt of five hundred millions sterling- would have been imposed upon us; the higli offices of State would hove been in the hands of tho Germans; receivers would havo been in our Customs and Treasury Departments; income and land tax would nave been levied by German officials; receivers would have been in our banks; and our cities would have been controlled by German officers. It was the chastisement borne by our soldiers and their stripes that saved our civilisation and made it possible for tho continuance rtt alt those civilising and religious mlltiences which have so far been unaftected by tho war. It is a God's providence that tho greatest military Power on earth lias been brokeu. . For forty years slio had trained her people to arms in anticipation of "tho day," but her nine millions of men in arms have been decimated and dispersed. The German empire is broken to pieces; her people deluded and drugged with dreams of success and plunder are in_ despair. loverly and starvation have incited th cnl "> wild excesses, and scarcely 80,(XXV can now bo found to help or to maintain order within her borders. And he who was so wanton and so sacrilegious as to assumo a partnership with the Almighty has cowardly lied from his Empire and sought shelter on foroign territory, the clergymen of Germany lauded the ac, lions' of the German junkers and declared that as tho Gentians wore tho chosen people of the Almighty, the subjpel ion of other notions, their persecution and their destruction, was nart of I lie Almighty's scheme to mako German religion and German culturo of universal adoption and rule. _ The League of Nations is tho hope, rs the Hon. Lloyd George says, of the civilised world, but the League of Nations, unless supported by militarily trained peoples, cannot !« maintained if a sin- I »lo Power and its confederates belonging To the League of Nations, say, can defy Hie aggregate strength of other Powers in the League and tho whole of tho fabric of tho Leaguo of Notions is condemned to impotence. If that Power breaks away from tho League, what _ authority is there strong enough to punish its re-

alcitrance? Tlie ultimata resource of his most pacific Loaguo of Nations must do armed force, and if our young manlofltl is not trained and disciplined, " 01 *' is the Britisli Empire to maintain not >nly peace, but tlio guardianship or the iberties of tlio world? . Sir Douglas Haig is a man determined to do his utmost to prevent any recurrence of war. Ho was given the other ■jay the Freedom of the City of Glasgow, and in his speech on that occasion lie said: "My message to you and through you to the Empire is to set up i strong citizen army on tcrritwias iinos, and be prepared to keep the peact! ind prevent war." Twelve or fifteen fears before the outbreak of the great ivar, Lord Roberts pleaded with the people of Great Britain to double the Av.tJ ind institnto that very system of miliary training for winch Sir Douglas Saig to-day pleads. Lord Roberts said: 'If wo are prepared for war, we can keep the peace of Europe." Lord* Roberts's ldvice was unheeded, and it is the conviction of thousands who are not militarists and havo no love for a military System, that if Lord Roberts's warning ind been acted upon, this war, with its sacrifice of soma thirty millions killed md wounded, would not have taken We sympathise with the ideals of [\ou-conformist clergy, but their protests igainst militarism, in so far as the training and disciplining of our youths are soncemed, are utterly impracticable. In jrder to keep the peace within our bor j ders as a country we maintain a police force, and it is essential in the interests of tho moral and physical development of our young manhood that our sons should ho ■ disciplined by that measure of compulsory military training which Hie Honourable, tho Minister of Defence, lias laid down. If we are goine to give our sons the benefit of a military course, then for the sake of tho efficiencv of our people, and for the sake- of helping to maintain the peace of the world, t-int military training, within its limits, must be thorough. Such military training will supplement our education system. It will supplement out technical education and it will inspire loyalty, patriotism, and devotion to duty, which must rank as tho highest of moral qualities in any people. Much was said about chaplains aad their usefulness among the l'orces. i havo the best authority for saying tha„ with a few noblo exceptions the chaplains wero what soldiers called <l"<b in the Army. The conscientious objector, the anti-militarist, would have lost us the war if they had had their way The feeblest in the community, -from a ■ moral point of view, were tho wnscientious olriectors for the most part, and the anti-militarists. Some fathers who were conscientious objectors and anamilitarists endeavoured to keep their sons out of the war, or if they were comnelled to enlist, to find for them nonTaman& that Presbyterian ministers should seek to desboy, to undeiinine, and to slur .the corfhnuaace of a system which inspired our noblest sons to give themselves up for the salvation of civilisation. Thev fought for wha; the. British Acs stands for, i.e., liberty, equalitv, and justice, and fought to preserve to continuance of these, high moral attributes in operation in this DomTh°e?e is no necessity, ond there is no fear for the creation of a military caste in a democratic country likelSewZealand, and there is no necessity to incur unduo expenditure on a system of compulsory military training,, but it would be a disgrace to our civilisation, it would "be an affront to, the 6oldiers who have suffered, and are still 6uffer "Jf tho result of. this war, if we do not do all that is necessary and essential by way of the militarv training of our sons in order, as Sir Douglas Haig has said, to keep the peace and prevent wa.r-1 am, 6t<s, . * J. D. 6IE WRIGHT. August IS, 1919. J