THE UNDERSIDE OF WAR.

Taranaki Daily News, 31 January 1917, Page 7

THE UNDERSIDE OF WAR.

"The croat of tie: wave of war may 1m white with the splendor of sacrifice; but below, in its l.lack depths, dark and dreadful things are astir," writes Professor Scott Holland in his magazine, The Commonwealth "The underside of war is crowded with sickening horrors. "The soldiers refuse to tell ua all that happens in its wake. We dare not hear them. And, anion;;' all the dark infamies that it covers, there is none more revopng and portentous than this awfu! tale of venereal disease.

THIS UPROOTED LIFE. "This uprooted life which war brings about is profoundly demoralising. At evorv centre, whether in crowded town* or in countryside, suddenly populated by those who have been dumped down unawares, the evil horror begins, arid sj.reads, and infects wider and wider circles, and eats, like a curse, into blood and bone. Kach base abroad is a byword. Moral standards in this matter go by the board. It is incredible how low men can sink. and how abandoned girls can be. No one could have believed it, until the eruditions forced on us by war made it too terribly plain. ,r \Vc have, now, got to wage a new uni against this scourge of our sin; and' against the sin which it scourges. H must be a war that is implacable. But the terror of the hour must not drive us mad. We must keep our heads. And, mercifully, wo have our guidance in this' matter given us just in time. If wo cling fast to the experienced judgment o.' the Royal Commission, we can hope to escape the perils and the pitfalls that beset- all action in this hideous concern. "Do we really understand where we arc in the war? Ahead lies our hardest j'nd grimmest hour We know, now, all that oilr united offensive can do for this year. And nothing is settled. We have got to dig ourselves in, and Dur enemies will, do the same. They will pile up fresh munitions and dig dcopiv tmichcs. All the winter their dreadful furnaces will roar and gasp, pouring out fresh shirt'. All the weary winter ours must do the same. And tliey, r.nrt we, shall want our last men, and our last pound. And it cannot stop. And millions and million? will be flung away in waste; and thousands upon ithousands of lives. And still we do not see the- end. "And brain-power will be strained to Us uttermost, to n-.sas anil organise the evil-growing forces. And ships will s : nk at sen; and food will grow scarcer find dearer; and there will be sudden horrors, aiul fierce raids, and cruel disasters before the long, bitter stVife ('.raws to any conclusion. It is a tern- | fying and heart-breaking outlook. We can only survive by drawing together I every dunce of our manhood, and by austere bracing of nerve and will.

■ OUR LAST WORD? "And is it conceivable that, in faci of all this, wo lire still living in reckless wastefulness and still uttering cheap jibes over 'poor Willie'; and sti!l talking our old. silly, arrogant British 'shop/ as it sickens and wearies us ;n our horrible lighter Press? And Is it ovr last word of preparation, before our soldiers go to the awful ordeal of the trenches, that our towns should swnvin with harlotry and -reek with disease? What is the, standard of Our cadets? Where is, the self-control gone of o.u vomen? Where is our purification, our discipline, our seriousness, our reality? Are we going to see it through, with this ominous cloud darkening down over all that mako3 for purity of life?"