"FIGHTING PARSONS."

Taranaki Daily News, 7 April 1916, Page 8

"FIGHTING PARSONS."

" TWO CLERICAL HEROIC. Speaking in London recently, Sir Edward Clarke dealt with the question of whether young clergy ought to be allowed to go to war. There were, he said, a thousand .young clergyman, clamoring to go into the burraclvyard for three or foud months to practise bayonet exercise until they were capable of killing their fellow-men. t He hoped the bishops,' if they allowed them to go, would never .allow them to return to the.posts they had deserted. A well-known "fighting man," as lie terms himself, gives another of the much-discussed question:— I am a fighting man, alwavs, and to the finger-tips, and though my fighting the fighting I love, and war are ndt synonomoiis,terms, that is'probably why l-ha\e been, invited to ofTer an opinion on the question which has.recently occupied much attention, whether parsons should get. ihto kliakiin' other words, should the cleric, be lie young, fit and fiee, shouldei arms. . f really believed that loflg ago we dis-c-nrded- all "principles'' which made it impossible to do an obvioM dntv, and f am at a loss to'understand why the healthy, keen, Vigorous, athletic clergyman should be exempt from playing "aiii' active and man's part in this war.' Any man, be he ilerie oi layman, who standi aside, and takes'shelter under his professi.on and .conscientious scruples does not appeal to lue. 1 would have none of him.'.. . . .

TIIE BAN OP THE BISHOPS.'. - " The.fact that the'clergyman is bound to secure the permission' of his bishop, before taking himself to the front does not weigh, one jot with ne. 'Participation in this war is a question for a man iiimself. He should not be tied to any apron-strings. He should be his own agent. He should do his own thinking and his own acting. There are, of course, many parsons at the front,/many of them my friends, and I know that every one is playing the part of a hero, and the boys just lov.o them. Listen*—this is what a youth, whose home is in the unlovely East Lnd, told me. 'the other day. , Tie is hack- wounded from Loos—only a "scrapper" in times-of peace, but what a man! _ "Gawd. Mister Corri," he said, "next time you dpes an article, give the parson a word; a little 'un, he is, but what a good 'un! ■ He ain't over there to slip one acrost nobody, but lie went to hell for us at Loos, and there warn't one ot 11s that day—it was, I fink; the first of October—who didn't, believe that he was an anger. ' Alit he Would go, mailing here and rushing there, nah taking water, nah helping, coming up to tliem what had ken ahted and bringing them in. He was arsking for it, I.give you mv dicky bird, guv'nor, but he dodged- 'em all. The angels was \vi' guv'nor. I can see him nah. Tired, stony-eyed, his chivy chase as white: as chalk," but he was made of little -t eel girders and lie never thought abaht (i knock-out, not him, A champion he Was. ACROSS OPEN GROUND TO THE WOUNDED. "There was 'is parson's collar; he looked as if he were-straight from the pulpit, But he didn't come it wiv 'Let us pray'; he just 'opped it acrost open ground just to see .what lie could do for us blokes who had stopped a fourpenny ■one. Only lis knew wlmt he did. He aint! the feller what would tell, but look 'ere, guv'nor, tell the' tale 'abaht the little parson what was wi' the 47th Division at Loos. .-."Gawd bless 'Un! That bloke is the onily bloke what's made me cry. And you know, Mr. Corri, 1 have been hammered pretty well in ine time, and ought tcr have cried afore." ° I ■Would like to give the name of the man angel at Loos, but if I did I know I should make bad fronds with a gentleman who would wither under publicity. I mention him because I "feel he is only what every parson would or could be if he were at the front. Only men count in these days, and if the clergy who remain at home could but realise what a tremendous power they will he able exercise upon the youth of the country when this war is over by reason oi their having taken a place, m the battlefield, my view is that there would be no hesitation about getting into khaki.

THE REV. HULTON SAMS. I .take my stand in declaring that clergymen should be like any other man by the side of the Rev. Hiilton Sams, whose first lights when he was a boy .at St. Paul's I refereed, and whose later battles at the University 1 also officiated at. He has gone now. "He died in Northern France, like the great, fearless fellow ht was when he used to put the gloves on and light until lie dropped, it happened that lie was never beaten in the ring, at least not to my knowledge, but if he liad been beaten He would have gone down as lie went il. . a, before, the (jernian guns. This war has begotten many nervetingling stories. But if I cay that Tlulton. Sams stands out high 'among the inn ny heroes I do not exaggerate. At Paul's school he was the champion boxer at his weight; at the 'Varsity no one could stop him; lie gloried in a good, honest fight, revelling in taking punishment, glorying in giving punishment. And there is .nothing in the realm of sport that tells what an. ISnglislmtan really i s as the little symposium that follows nn inter-'Varsity boxing eontwt. "lack eyes are mere details; puffed lips are fashionable, for with the 'Varsity boxer it is ding-dong frotn the moment ('•" getting into the »jng. And so you will see a youngster with d. gorgeous-col-ored. half-shut eye making merry with the fellow who presented it io him.

Tlulton Sams u*od to hammer liis men with gusto, but lie was their best friend. When he left the 'Varsity, and after his ordination, lie was in the Midlands for some time, and then went to Australia, where lie attached himself to a mission whoso work was among the "tuffs,'' Tfnlton Sama fought his way to the he.-irt-s of his (lock through the medium of the boxing-gloves. He was "olio of them"; he was loved/'ho Wa.s worshipped; lie was known as the '.'fighting parson" throughout the Commonwealth. Then eame tho war, .Straight away without analysing his conscience, refusing to ponder whether it was right for a gentferhan of the cloth-to go to war, and only feeling that (Wmitny must bo thrpttlod, he returned at once to England, After being refused an Army chaplaincy he enlisted .as a private in the. Bedforfehires. Quickly he became a corporal; flirther promotion soon came, amd in France, in the biggest fight in_ all his strenuous career, : giving " weight as we boding people jaj,, he was killgtl, It has been set on