COST OF THE WAR

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 57, 5 September 1944, Page 6

COST OF THE WAR

PEOPLE SHOULD BE TOLD

COMMENTS BY BISHOP

O.C. AUCKLAND, This Day. "This is a luxury war,"' said the Rt. Rev. C. A. Cherrington, Bishop of Waikato, in a sermon at St. Aidan's Church, Claudelands, last night. He said that in the last war his brother was employed as a Church Army officer, and, aparf from his uniform and rations, he received less than £1 a week as pocket money. In this war single Church Army officers and V.M.C.A. secretaries received £4 a week, and, if married, £6 a week, as well as uniform and rations. • Many .people wanted to know how the War Expenses Account was being administered, and they were entitled to know. There was no chance of giving anything away to the enemy, and why the people who found the money could not be told how it was being spent he could not understand. A plain, straightforward statement regarding the account and what the war was costing should be given without hesitation. There was a great deal of incompetence in the war administration, as there was in the last war, Bishop Cherrington continued. The war was being fought for freedom, and yet what freedom or liberty existed today? • For instance, what right had manpower officers to direct young girls to nurse mental patients? If he were so directed he would go mad. It was right.that these mental patients should be nursed, but.only trained people should be directed to such work. There, was too much selfishness, incompetence, and self-seeking 'in the world today, said Bishop Cherrington, and if democracy were to be preserved it could only be maintained by. people who were perfectly honest. All conferences and meetings held to consider past-war reconstruction would fail, he concluded, unless those taking part made certain that their deliberations were founded on truth. This was God's world, and no plans for its government would succeed unless they were fashioned in accordance with His will.