NATIONAL CRISIS

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 188, 6 May 1940, Page 11

NATIONAL CRISIS

Multitude Of People In Quandary CHRISTIAN DUTY Sermon In St. John’s Church “In this country there is no conscription, and that places a multitude of people in a strange quandary,” said the Rev. T. W. Armour, of Knox Church,“ Christchurch, preaching at the morning service in St. John’s Presbyterian Church, Willis Street, Wellington, yesterday. “It leaves them with the burden of a decision which, in my opinion, they should not have, and it leaves some to carry the burden of others as well as their own. We should not judge the individual, but if there are some who are trying to evade their responsibilities they must meet the challenge of Christ's words: ‘And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.’ ” The Governor-General, Lord Galway, accompanied by Lady Galway, attended the service, and his Excellency read the Lesson. Mr. Armour spoke on “Christian Duty in this National Crisis,” his text being Matthew 5:41 —“And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.” Tlie Hosts of Hitler. “We have been living through weeks in which our lives have been agitated and our fears and sympathies roused by the doings on the continent of Europe,” said Mr. Armour. “We have seen the hosts of Hitler sweeping over unresisting Denmark, swimming like rats across the Skagerrak to skirt tlie coasts of Norway and scatter in the fiords to entrench themselves there and multiply. How it has happened—how it has been allowed to happen—is not clear at the moment, but the situation is serious. Desperate and ruthless foes like Hitler have a great initial advantage against those who must pay heed to international law and precedent. It is pitiable to think that disaster lias come on Denmark and Norway, who had hoped to escape' the maelstrom o£ war by maintaining their neutrality. As democracies, they must have been predisposed to be sympathetic with the Allies, and one cannot help but feel how much better it would have been if right from the beginning they had followed the dictates of that feeling. “If the totalitarian, forces succeed, it is unlikely that they will ever again know the mode of life they previously enjoyed. What befel them might very easily have befallen New Zealand, but for two reasons: First, we are not so close to Germany, and, secondly, we are protected by the power of the British Navy. If it should happen that the totalitarian forces are triumphant, then it follows as the night the day that one of the first prizes will be New Zealand. Then we should have to live under a military dictatorship as mere serfs of the invader, not allowed free thought or free speech, despised, rejected and ground under the heel of the conqueror. There would even be an attempt to silence the Voice of the Prophet in our land.” The Unthinking Herd. Some people were asking why they should fight since they had no quarrel with the German people; said Mr. Armour. Those belonged to the unthinking herd who had no knowledge of history. No one in New Zealand had any ill-will toward the German people, but a demoniac something had risen among them, taken possession and been acclaimed among them, and if that survived it would mean the extinction of Christian ideals. The Christian civilization stood for individual equality and liberty—liberty in religion, in intellectual life, in government, in social existence and in the economic order. It bad never been fully realized because, like an ideal, it ever marched ahead. Those concepts and aspirations were utterly denied by the Nazi rule, which made the State everything and the individual nothing more than an inconsiderable part of the State machinery to be moved at will whenever the lever was pressed. Mr. Armour went on to discuss the Christian attitude to war to govern•ment, and to the burdens imposed by government. The government, lie said, specially in times of crises, when it had to make grave and onerous decisions, should have the respect and support of the people. It would stand to the everlasting credit of the Government of New Zealand that, when the goadings of Hitler had roused the old British lion to stand'erect, the first to stand beside the Mother Country had been New Zealand. “We ought in Christian loyalty to give every support we can to the Government,” said the preacher. “Let a quietus be given to all dissension. If there are any doiibts, let the. Government have the benefit of them.”.

In feudal times, landowners were required to find their proportion of men in defence of the realm, and today the Government had every right to make what assessment it cared front the financial resources of the country. There were people who would try to evade their responsibilities. Others would try to enrich themselves out of the nation’s agony. Happily, the last war was too well remembered to let such people go unchallenged, and he hoped that anyone so found would be dealt with as a traitor. “What, after all,” he said, “are the sacrifices of we older people against those of our young men, the flower of our land, who have to give up some of the best years of their lives? We must acccept any sacrifice gladly aud encourage the Government, if need be. to demand more and more from us. Demands On Young Men. “And what about the demands on our young men? I am no recruiting agent, but f am a Christian minister and I must follow my theme where it leads. In this country we do not have conscription, and that places a multitude of people in a strange quandary. It leaves them with the burden of a decision which in my opinion they should not have, and it leaves some to carry the burden of others as well as their own. We should not judge the individual, but if there are some who are trying to evade their responsibilities they must meet the challenge of Christ’s words: ‘And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.’ ” Some there were who had gone more than a mile. They were the volunteers, and he could never meet them without wanting to take his hat off to them. With his whole soul he hated war, loathed and abominated it, and the four years and a quarter of the last war remained with him as a nightmare. The decision was a matter for individual conscience and individual judgment, not for somebody else, but for everybody.