THE FACTS OF WAR.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 1, 2 June 1913, Page 3

THE FACTS OF WAR.

i —«a»i REV. FRANK HALKS AT TilE WiOTHKIUiOOD. A i;kmai::ka!;lk addr!-:.^. One of llii' largest audiences il.aL the Brotherhood has vet yiiLhuruil together listened with interest to Lhe Itev. Fiank Hales yesterday, when, lie delivered a remarkable address ou "The Facts of War." Mr. IS. G. Smith presided. WHAT WAR COSTS. The speaker made no apologies for introducing- such a subject before the ISrotherhood, for if that organisation stood for anything, it surely stood for peace, goodwill, and brotheriiness aiming all

men and nations. Not only, he continued, were our papers full of the war business, but some of our politicians, across the waters, were saying what .New Zealand was prepared to do if some other part of the i'jnpire was attacked. The speaker quoted ligur.es to show that m 1910-11" the cost of the Defence Department in New Zealand was £205,2!i!i; in 1911-12 it was £401,871); and for the year 11)12-13, the accounts for whi'en had not yet been published, £4S 1.4(12. was appropriated., Then to be added to this were the facts that last year's account for armies and navies for the civilised world reached the enormous sum oi £450,000,000; that the ten chief nations maintained in their armies 4,200,000 men, at a net cost to the people of £GO per man; and that last year (Jreat Britain expended on her army and navy £70,000,000, while 13,000,000 of her people stood always on the brink of poverty, and millions of men in English cities were crowded into unsightly homes, homes that would demoralise even the Angels of Paradise, were they compelled to live in such slums! A GIGANTIC FOLLY.

'"ls it not a fact," the Jicv. ilr Hales went on to say, "that war is a gigantic folly. Did war between civilised nations, ever settle the real questions at issue? Xo question is ever settled until it is settled, not by might, but by right. Brute force never has been the measure of right. The issues of right and wrong are moral i.-sues. The problem of Tife in Month Africa at issue between. Briton and Boer was not settled at Magersfontein, or at Mafckiug. it began to be settled when the fire-eaters, the jingoes, the exploiters, and the war fanatics on both sides were swept out of, the way, and Briton and Boer sat down and reasoned in quietness and peace." The speaker went on to say that the moral damage to the nation and to the soldier in that one war was awful, and he illustrated his point from letters \vritten from the seat of war, from Dr. Stewart in the British Medical Journal, and from Lord George Halimton in the House of Commons. And then, he proceeded, there was the further fact of war's irreparable loss, it's waste of biood, and of human protoplasm. The slaughter-time of Rome's choicest sons was the wars of the Caesars. Conscription drove to the slaughter the best of Rome's sons, and ..left behind the stable-boys and slaves; these bred the fop and the dandy, who gave themselves up to luxury and vice, and the Roman Empire declined and fell.

THAT IRREPARABLE LOSS! The Reverend gentleman paused to ask what did our history books tell about Britain? From every part of the kingdom, the best of her sons went out to war, and only the shattered remnant came back.' Every British village had ! its tale to tell. England, through war had suffered loss, why should they won- ( der that "the city slums fill up with' human dregs, and that disease from the barracks and Indian camp life leaves behind the white-faced, the hopeless, and the unfit?" And what was true of England was also true of Ireland and Scotland. Every valley, every moor, every hamlet, every mountain glen—they all sent of their best, and their I best never came back. And look at the United States of America. Why ivas it, he asked, that a young republic iike that was being threatened in the very citadel of her democracy? not by foes from without, but by organised treason and selfishness and graft from within? Had the fact that war cost her more than one million men, anything to do with it ? A million of America's best men in the civil war (Tied and left no breed behind. Lads in their tens and twenties marched out to war and never returned. That was indeed the slaughter of the innocents. The heroes and patriots fell in their youth —the self-seeking, the mercenary, the men who made fortunes out of the war business —they all lived to fatten and flourish and breed the grafters and bosses of to-day.

"THE ARMOUR-PLATE PRESS." Concluding, the speaker asked were there no tokens of peace and were there no signs of a better day? In spite of all that was going on in the war business of to-day, he would answer, "yes!" Quoting from an address recently given in the Carnegie Hall, New York, by Dr. Macdonald, editor of the Toronto Globe, he continued: "For one thing there was not only death to the old notion of the Divine right of militarism, 'but there is also the turning of the searchlight on the activities of private special interest, whose dividends depend upon the expenditure of public money for military and 1 naval expansion. Mr. Hirst, editor of the London Economist, said, commenting on the seriousness of naval competition, that in Britain alone during the past, three years, our naval expenditure has risen 'by £12,000,000. But anything less' would not have suited the 'armour-plate Press.' There you have the ghastliest danger at this moment threatening Great Britain, the war nations of Europe, the United States, and even Japan. In Britain there are six iivmame it companies, representing in share and debenture capital fi'K.OOOi'/10, whoso profit year by year would he wiped out by restriction in, building of armaments by British or Foreign Governments. The lists of shareholders in three of the companies have been scrutinised, and are found to include names of an astonishing number of dukes, baronets, knights, members of Parliament, military and naval officers, financiers, journalists, and newspaper proprietors. There you have the power behind the 'armour-plate Press.'" "Furthermore," said Mr. Hales, "it was coming to be seen that the disgrace of government was not in the absence of military glory, but in the existence of drunkenness, iml purity, and gambling, and .in the haggardness of common poverty for the old and the hopelessness of life for the young. The day of universal peace was coming. It was nearer than liuiuv supposed; the progress of civilisation made it possible; the triumph of Christianity . made it sure. Was he asking too much, when he asked the Brotherhood to hasi ten, by precept and by example, the day "When the war-drum throbs no longer, and the battle-flags are furled, In the Parliament of man, the Federation of the World."