WAR AND MORALS.

Taihape Daily Times, 28 July 1919, Page 2

WAR AND MORALS.

PRESENT DAY LAXITY.

A JUDGE’S -INDICTMENT.

An iu'dictlnent of the ‘post wiir morals of the people “of England was made by Mr. Justice Darling at the Old Bailey recently.

“In nothing,” he said, “has the war done Inore harm than in the relaxation (in morals) on the part of the women of this country. It has now reached a point Where it can be seen in a walk along the stréet that we differ from the width of heaven from What our mothers were.’

The Rev_ Dr. Meyer, who is one of the nlost prominent members of the National Council of Public Morals, expressed his agreement with Mr. Justice DaTlill.g‘S’s statement.

“I think,” he said, “this this state of affairs arises partly from fhc fact that the employment of girls ill Government service has thrown them together with men on the basis of commdeship, and that has broken down the old-time womanly restraint which had been a woman’s safeguard.

“It is impossible for men and Women to meet on an equality of occupation without a. certain coarsening of morals being set up. “Another cause is the flooding of the country with an immense number of unmarried men away from the re-strain-ts of home and more open to the appeal of girl life than under ordinary conditions. i

' “It is very diffieult to phrase corBrectly all that that means, but obviously a great laxity of morals, oc’curs when, in the hazard of war, life is uncertain and a girl gives and a [man takes liberties which woura hardfly be thought of in the more prosaic lcurrent of pro-war conditions. “I cannot but dread the effect or the modern competition between ‘men ‘and women for the same jobs. I am certain that a woman’s nature cannot stand the fret and strife of modern life without losing its balance, and in a moment 01 excitement many a girl will say and do things which are utterly alien to her true nature. “How We are to put the clock back is to me an almost insoluble problem. If a solution is to be found, I think it will be in diverting women’s labour into the avenues of col'lntry life, where the tending of flowers. forestry, and live stock, and the pursuit of suchlike occupations would absorb her activities.

"The present rush and drive are suicidal in the great n_u-3:-ztion of the futz;-«-e of womanhon-:1.