"KEEP ON KILLING GERMANS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 169, 28 April 1916, Page 4 (Supplement)

"KEEP ON KILLING GERMANS.

MR GEORGE BERNARD SHAW ON FATHER VAUGHAN'S DICTUM. THE BEST WAV TO WIN THE WAR. Xo I'ttle public attention has been to the recent utterances of Father Bernard Yaughan that the best way to win the war u "to keep on killing Germans." Critics asked whether thi* contention was "tin.' output of patriotism or religion," and in reply Father Yaughan w rote :- - What queer questions some cranks do put! Inm not a quick-change artiste, but a Catholic Englishman all tlip time. . . Some oddities seem to be under the delusion that our troops have cone to the front not to kill, but to get killed. They have to 1 c dece.ved. I still feel it my duty to remind my fellow-countrymen that if our troops in camp are not training to kill Germans they had better com J home at one.', and stop making fools of themselves and us. To a London journalist Mr. Georgo Bernard Shaw expressed his views on Fatlur Yaughan'* utterances, and at the s;.me time made some remarks on the question of reprisals. MR. SHAW'S VIRWS.

" Keep on killings Germans! Of course that is o:ie way of ending the wai. Another equally effective way i« killing Englishmen. It is an old English saying that 'stone dead hath no Fellow.' The extermination of the human race is the one certain cure for war; and every German killed, every Eagliohmim killed, every human being killed, fs a contribution towards that completely catholic solution of the problem. "So Father Yaughan is quite right there. But he is equally right, and much more amiable, when lie suggests that-the soldiers Tad better come home at once and stoo making foo's of themselves. If Father V aughan can bring al I the belligerents to that point of humanity and common'sense, he will be a greater Churchman than St. Peter. "Hut they did not listen to me when I gave them that advice; and I fear they will not listen to bun. They like war. War enables men to exercise their natural pugnacity and to show that they are not a bit afraid of the other fellows. and that's all, except to strengthen powers of Kings and Rulers. THE END OF IT ALL?

"And so we khall keep on killing until we all tfo I) ankrupt; and then we shall nettle our differences by talking across a table, which we might just a& well have clone six months ago. "Father Vaughan has always interested me, Some years ago he and Mr. H. M. Hynclman published their reminiscences almost simultaneously. The contrast between the essential Christ■•mty of the revolutionary Social-Dem-ocratic avowed sceptic and the Prussian paganism of the Catholic priest was very striking. "But 1 must not be understood in a sense uncivil to Father V'aiignnu > have on occasion shared the platform; ant! my recollection of these moments of co-operation is altogether pleasant. IIKPKISALS.

"You ask mo to talk about reprisals.. Well, reprisals are not war; they are only -unabiding. We have many worthy suburban people who conceive the was as a squabble between England and Germany, to be conducted just ns| they conduct squabbles with their next-l door neighbours, making nasty remarks intended to be overheard, and throwing « dead cat, or whatever they happen to be squabbling about, back and forwards over the garden wall. "What (haute do these people suppose we should have in the field if our General Stall' changed its strategy every ten minutes to satisfy the ire of M>\ Smith or Mr. .Tones when he ■ .ars that :t bomb has fallen on Ramsgate, where he spent his last holiday? The enemy could play with us if it could put ofT our game by such exploits. "It is in the courtesies and sentimentalities of war that reciprocity is practicable. It either side refused to give quarter, the other side would have to follow suit. If either side ill-treats prisoners, reciprocal action ensues, and generally cures the aggressor of an «k

cess of in<<lP. • - ]J;it these sup not reprisals, theyl are alterations in tlio rules of the game: and they do not interrupt strategy or deflect tactics. A commander-in-chief accessible to suburban clamour for reprisals would be worth an army corps to the eiu my. A TiXY SA.Mi'I.K OK IT.

"We in thus country have never known what war means. We hayo talked about war, suns its in prose and poem -clamoured for it. Now| we've got a tiny sample of it. We have had it m London. They had it in tit" Midlands the other week, and they do not i.ke it. That is natural, hecausft war never has been pleasant, and ne\or will be. When we see children blown to pieces with bombs we cannot believe that our bombs haw li'own many little children to pieces. In my village tne\ compliM that the Germans are 'very spitef.d.' They think that our owi shells .ue earmarked to kill only exceptionally cruel German soldiers, ird to rdop only on barracks and batteries. •• Personally, I hate to hear of the deatlis of soldiers and sailors; .-.nil when I hear about the deaths of civilians 1 hoar it very philosophically, as it gives them notion of what the soldiju's they have sent to the front are Mlfflfring! I do not like Zeppeljn rafcfs, because my house is just th.> v mark that a bomber aiming at the House of Commons would hit: but as an old municipal reformer 1 cannot forget thai .f a rain of bombs were to come and wipe out about a" third of London, it would bo a most life-saving exploit for us if werebui't our capital sensibly."

A gentleman who had lons sua- 1 p?2tct h's coachman of <i'inking more than wan good for him found lt-n in the stable-yard one morning in his i-jual muddled condition, .ind gravely charged him with the fact. The man protested, and said ho. v.. .ild do anyihing to prove that he wan not the wore lor liquor.

Taking him into tho stables, thel master applied an old leal by < r.iwlngj .-'. chalk lino along the floor and| ( :ial!i nging the man to walk it. The man looked at. it a moment, and then gravely mid: "No joke • now, .master! Which of Iheni two I'ne.i do yen want mo to walk en "