MEANS FOR PEACE

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 139, 9 December 1929, Page 10

MEANS FOR PEACE

POST-WAR LITERATURE

COLONEL POWLES'S VIEWS

A forceful address on war, and what it calls for in men, was given by Colonel C. G. Powles, C.M.G., D.5.0., at the aunual meeting of the ■Wellington branch of Toe H on Saturday night. Ho dealt particularly with post-war literature, such as tho book, '' All Quiet on the Western Front," and the play, ".Tourney's End," and showed that while admittedly there was a very dark sido to war, there were many redeeming features, and there wouia always be men ready to fight for a cause they [considered just.

"One is very much struck by the Toe H ceremony of light," said Colonel Powles, "with what it symbolises— '"Wo will remember them.' Nothing you have ever read or heard about the unselfish uess and the cheerful courage with which the soldiers did everything can have been exaggerated. As the war went on, and I had under me men I had trained as boys before tho war, I felt that nothing I could do for these young New Zealanders could be enough. "Recently we have had a lot of discussion on 'All Quiet on the Western "Front' and 'Journey's End.' The man tvho wrote 'All Quiet on the Western lTont' is a man who, if he was in Wellington, and saw a drunkard, would follow him home and note everything that he did; he would follow a Chinaman down his alley; he would go to Porirua and inspect the inmates of tho asylum; he would view all that was wretched and sordid in the city, and then he would write a book ou Wellington. He saw only one side of it, and that not the best.

"Then wo have that splendidly-acted play, 'Journey's End.' It upset many who were at the front, but again, it is only a question of type. "It is like seeing a man knocked out in a football match given a nip of brandy to pull him together, and then writing a description of the game from the aspect of that one man. "People say no one would go to war after reading books like that. It is the dangerous side of things that appeals to everyone. No footballer would think of giving up the game because of its dangers, and the fact that one or two trampera may get lost will not stop men' from -walking over the Tararuas.

"We did our best in the last war, and the next that comes along is going to be your job. What are we going to do? Are we going to get people to read these books, and then refuse to fight? No, there is another way. Get rid of the spirit of hatred, and spread the spirit of friendship. The tragedy of the world, according to one writer, is that men are strangers, and you in Toe H, by making friendship, ' are paving the way to a lasting peace."