THE YELLOW MIST OF WARTIME

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 190, 28 August 1937, Page 17

THE YELLOW MIST OF WARTIME

World Without ScruDles

rA S I . TURJSED to. come back ..from the lines one evening I saw to the north of Thiepval a long creeping wraith of yellow mist, writes Cecil Levrie. I stared £or a mpment before I xealised; Gas! Then, instinctively, although I. was a mile above the earth, I pulled back the stick to climb . highei', away-from the horror. In the light westerly wind it slid alowly do.wn the German trenches, creeping panther-like over the scarred earth,- ourling down intoc dugouts, coiling and uncoiling at the wind's whim. Mea were dying there, nnder one, from a whiff of it; not dying quickly, nor even maimed and snattered, but dying whole, Tetching and vomiting gutsj.and those "who livecl would be wrecks with seaxed, poisoned lungs, rotten for life. . I stared at the yellow drift, hypnotised. - I can see it at this moment, ae Clearly as I could that day, foT it remains with as the most pregnant mehiOry of the war. It was in faet, * the symbol of'our enlightened twentieth century; science, in the pursuit of knowledge, being exploited by a world -.without standards or scruples, spiritually bankrupt. To-day all- treaties, conventions, all w'ords of honou'r, contracts and obligations ' are evidently worth nothing once. the lus.t for power has infected a nation. "Wxthin twenty years of these days of which -I write, every- country,' nnder a veneer of self-righteous * nationalism, is preparing, with increased ihgennity and deadlier weapons, a greater Armageddon — all the while protcsting their love.of peace. People who cannot learn from their mlstakes are damned — "the state of them WhQ ldve death more -than life." What" have we learned from ours? We are, collectively, the most evil( ahd destractive pf h'uman creatures. "We back np onr- greeds and jealousies -with religion and patriotism. Gur Christian priests bless'the launching" O'f battlcshxps-, our youth is urged to die gloriously "for King and Country." We even-write on the tomb of our TJnknown - Warrior that he died "for God!" "What a piece of impudent and blasphemous nonsense to write in -the H-ouse of Eim whose *greatest saying was; '^This ia My commandement, that ya^QYe one. another.'f " " , The next- war.will see that yellow drift not stealing down into fronf-line dugouts, but aiong London streete. My breed, the pilots, whose war has been more chivalrtius and clean handed' than any other, will be ordered' to do vio- " lence to the civilian population. ' "We shn.ll dxop the gas bombs and poison the-- xeservoirs. "We shall kill the women and children. -Of course the thing is insane; 'but then'if the world submits to' ihe rule of homicidal'maniacs, it deserves to be, destroyed. Eor, intellectually, the problean is not - insoluble, though it is .vast and has been rushed on' us in under a hundred years, that is practieally inslantaneously. ' Science is the iirst eause; but scientxsts wash their hands of it, saying they are bound to advanee knowledge, but cannot control the uses

men put it to. But if there is to bo any safety in the world, dangerous inventions will liavo to be proteeted ns carefully as dangerous poisons. To nearly every modern problem there is an intellectual answer; but that, unfortunately, is not enough, for we have passions as well as minds, and they are more difficult to educate. We are aware, for instance, that the incredibly rapid development of coramunications has telescoped space and timo. We know that prosperity is interdependent, that commerce is international. But only a few (mainly business men whose pockets are affeeted) take all this for granted. They demand, as a matter of comrn'on sense, that international relations should have international control. For the rcst it is an ideal, not an urgent praetical necessity. The general public remains isolationist, patriotic, aware (like Nurse (Javell) that patriotism is not enough but aghast at the problem of co-ordin-ating and controlling the life of the pianet. So vital a division puts everything in Sux. Nobody knows where to pin his faith, so believes nothing. Moral and social standards are confused. Disillusion, introspection, defeatism are the lot of all those who can only live. by the yaxdstick of black and white. The fear of feeling the grouud slipping from under their feet drives whole nations back into medieval despotism. They will submit to anythin'g sooner than face this social rolativity where nothing is straight, nothing constant, nothing sure. Thus the rational solution, as yet unsupported by the emotional drive which would make it a common faith, a cardinal necessity not to be denied, drifts in the doldrums, while the hysterical crew wring their hands and pray for a fair wind, instead of manning the boats and rowing the ship out to the Trades. And all this arises because the ideal remains apparently uhattainable, nebulousj it has not crystallised into a smgle urge. Yet this is clear and simple: World State, world currency, world language. It will demand new . disciplines, new allegiances, new ideals. Probably two or three more world wars will be necessary to. break down the ; xnnate - hostility to- sueh changesj but that is the way it must go. The day will come when the nations, sick of f ghting themselves to a standstill, will ciaim the protection of the International Guard as we claim the right to a policeman. It is a question only of degree. Peace and security are civie v.rlues: those wko distnrb them must be quickly dealt with, and if their offence is serious enough, put out of tho way. It is a fight between intellect and appetite, between the international idea and armaments. The latter will probably win the flrst two or three rounds; but, if civilisation is to survive, the idea . must win in the end. Meanwhile if h few million .people have to die violent deaths, that cannot be helped. Nature is exceedingly wasteful.