TOPICAL. READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10055, 28 May 1910, Page 4

TOPICAL. READING.

THE MILLENIUM. | In the face of the many extraordin- J ary things done at Home, it is no wonder that outside naticca frequently jump to the conclusion that John Bull has been seized by the eccentricities of old age. For example, nothing could be more incongruous than the programme arranged for this year's Royal Military and Naval Tournament. From the very nature of the demonstration one would expect a display in the highest and new - est branches oi the art of war. But while, no doubt, military science has been allowed some scope,the principal portion of the programme was to bear the delectable title of "The Milienium," illustrating the dawning of the time when nations will beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Four huni dred lusty warriors were to sing odea extolling the virtues of peace. The ode, entitled the "Peace Hymn," was also to culminate in the troops laying down their arms in the centre of the arena, the audience betimes joining in the vocal exerciser One can imagine the frame of mind in which 400 picked fighting men from the Arnyr and Navy would enter into such a puerile example of the most undiluted bathos. All of their energies and all of their thoughts have been sedulously directed to the intensive cultivation of readiness for war, and at a moment's notice they aie called upon to betray their carefully nurtured instructs and to embark upon a display of what can scarcely fail to prove the broadest farce, There is something deliciously ironical, in the face of hugely increased army and naval estimates, in solemnly directing soldiers and sailors to sing such doggerel, ?nd call upon them to lay down their tools of trade with the assumption of a virtue they cannot possibly be expected to cherish. Most people will readily agree with the explosive sentiments of a choleric critic who heaps scorn upon the whole incongruous idea, and declares that it is as useless to try to imagine French or German troops doing justice to these "odes" as it would be to speculate on the probable volume of a chorus of licensed victuallers hymning the advantages of total abstinence, or to think of a company of butchers and graziers giving three rousing cheers for vegetarianism.