OUR SOLDIERS

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 957, 28 April 1930, Page 14

OUR SOLDIERS

NEITHER ANGELS NOR DEVILS A PADRE’S IMPRESSIONS “The time is coming when some person will have to show the better side o. the men—the men as they really were. There is too much filth and too much of a horrible nature being published in books concerning the soldiers in the Great War. For the sake of selling books, the nauseous and repellent incidents, which were few and far be tween, are brought out and amplified.”

These remarks were made by the Rev. W. Walker in the Pitt Street Methodist Church last evening. Mr. Walker was a chaplain to the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. There was a large congregation, which included Brigadier H. R. Potter, officer commanding the Northern Command, and Major E. Puttick, staff-officer at Auckland. Several anthems were sung, including the “Anzac Anthem,” recently published in Auckland. Speaking on the subject, “Some Outstanding Qualities of the Anzacs as I Saw Them,” Mr. Walker urged that the spirit of self-sacrifice and devotion to duty which characterised the men should be turned to account in dealing with the problems confronting New Zealand today. He had no desire to portray the men of the forces as if they had been angels. They were not angels, but they certainly were not the devils they were painted. They were only human and deep down within each one was something that was really good. Mr. Walker drew the parallel of a visitor to Auckland seeing a drunken man or going into any of the unsavoury spots which were part of any city and then writing that “this is Auckland.” “If you read these war books, believe me the men were not such as they are described,” he said. Devotion to duty had been one of the characteristics of the men, and duty was calling pedple at the present day to mould a better social order in New Zealand. It was urging the people to wage unceasing warfare against ignorance and disease, and the evils of national life. Willingness to sacrifice their lives was another characteristic of the soldiers. Today there was a clear call to live a sacrificial life in overcoming the nation's difficulties. Just as needful at present was the spirit of comradeship and good cheer which had permeated life in the trenches.