TILT AT WAR

Evening Star, Issue 22149, 2 October 1935, Page 14

TILT AT WAR

MR M'DWIGALL ELOQUENT [From Our Parliamentary Reporter.] WELLINGTON, October 1. In very characteristic fashion Mr M'Dougail (Mataura) in the House came to tile defence of the Presbyterian clergymen whose letter to the Prime Minister on the subject of war had been criticised by the Hon. A. D. M'Leod. Mataura’s member gave credit to Mr M'Leod for being a good Presbyterian, but bo wont on to declare that he could not agree with him. “ Presbyterian ministers are not there for the purpose of preaching destruction of people, but peace and goodwill to all; not to send poison gas and ironmongery at people they never saw before, or knew anything about.” There was, he added, a great deal of difference between the man who would not defend his wife and family, and the man who was asked to go 14,000 miles to upset another man’s household and destroy his goods, when that man had never done him any harm. He remembered the Egyptian War, the Boer War, and also the last war, when we were going to hang the Kaiser and do wonderful things—but the Kaiser was living in luxury, and a happier man than when he was on the throne. Wo were going to spend the last man and the last shilling. “ I said it myself on the platform,” continued the speaker—“ a stupid thing; and then, when the men came back, with bands playing and everything nice, they thought th'ey were all right, though the Government gave them very little consideration.” Mr M'Dougall assorted that the soldier who got a favourable pension recommendation from a committee of the House was turned down by the Pensions Board, though three reputable medical men declared liis condition due to war service. He was an absolute wreck and was turned out of his little homo and had to live in a hut. “ The last man and the last shilling! It makes a fellow mad when he begins to think about it,” said the member, who then roundly condemned war generally, as being due to the fact that a munition contractor wanted trouble. “ TKere’s no getting away from it,” he said, “ that the Boer War and the last war were Capitalists’ wars.” Labour Members; Oh! Oh!