“WAR TAUGHT IN SCHOOL”

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 425, 6 August 1928, Page 13

“WAR TAUGHT IN SCHOOL”

LABOUR WOMEN PROTEST PEACE MEETING HELD Protesting against the spread of militarist propaganda, the women’s branch of the Labour Party held a "Peace” meeting last evening in the Strand Theatre, Miss E. Moore presiding. Mrs. M. T 5. Soljak, president of the women’s branch, spoke of "Militarism and the Child,” saying that war was glorified and military leaders lionised in the pro-war teaching of the schools. Those who gave real service to their country, in peace and industry were unremembered. At the Auckland Technical College, she said, boys of 12 and 13 were illegally compelled to undertake the full military curriculum. According to Colonel H. R. Potter military training was for citizenship and health, and not defence, but only the well-grown lads were chosen for its benefits. Mrs. Soljak urged parents to do their duty to their boys by voting only for those candidates who were pledged to repeal the Compulsory Military Service Act. “Women have borne in silence the anguish of war,” said Mrs. E. G. McKay, “but the last war has made them think for themselves. If the women were banded together for international peace there would be no war. Women and the workers must put their heads and hearts together. She had no wish to take away the glory of the men who fell in the Great War, but it was necessary to work for peace. The present system of ecomomics bred envy and greed, and it must be altered.” EDUCATION NECESSARY Dr. J. P. Hastings said that the race must be educated up to the ideals of peace. Religious strife, and snobbery must be avoided. Capital to-day used men, but it should exist for the use of men. The British Empire could do a great deal to promote world peace if its people cleared their hearts and minds of international jealousies, greed and prejudice. The Rev. George Jackson said that the teaching of Jesus led to the abolition of that “madness called war.” War was organised paganism, and to stop it, it was necessary to capture the soul and the mind of the child. The basis of strife was being laid in the primary schools to-day, the germ being sown in the minds of the little boys and girls. There should be an insistent demand that the teaching of history. should be altered and the real truth taught. Waving of flags, blowing of bugles, and talk of glory should be done away with, and it should be made clear that war was a ghastly and ugly thing. Mrs. Wynn played a piano solo, and Miss Gay Corrie gave a recitation.