“FIFTH COLUMN”

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 June 1940, Page 6

“FIFTH COLUMN”

ACTIVITIES IN DOMINION

WAIRARAPA PRESBYTERY RESOLUTION.

DEMAND THAT MENACE EE ENDED.

The bi-monthly meeting of the Wairarapa Presbytery was held in Knox Hall, Masterton, yesterday, the Rev. J. Davie (moderator) presiding. The Presbytery recorded its thanks to the Moderator for his special services rendered the cause of missions throughout the parishes visited by him. The Rev. A. A. Armstrong was thanked for his work, as Moderator of Pongaroa, and sanction given for the local arrangements made in carrying on the church services in that parish. Remits from Assembly dealing with various amendments t 6 church law and procedure were considered ts required. A letter from the Assembly’s Committee on International Relations was received. It was decided that in view of the facts recently revealed the Presbytery could not agree with the second paragraph relating to action in relation to disloyal refugees and other members of the community working in the “Fifth Column” activities in New Zealand. The Presbytery passed the following resolution: —“The Presbytery of Wairarapa deplores the presence of the ‘Fifth Column’ activities in New Zealand, and urges that strong action be immediately taken to end this menace in New Zealand.” The Presbytery decided to give heartiest support to the action of the Assembly’s Public Questions Committee in its efforts to awaken the people generally to the pernicious influences of gambling in national life, and especially in its protests in relation to the widening of gambling facilities for the raising of Patriotic Funds. The Presbytery appointed a committee consisting of the Revs. Mann and Keenan to draw up a report, upon the allocation of parish quotas for the Mission and Assembly Funds for the ensuing church year. The Presbytery agreed with the statement issued by Assembly through its committee that the call coming from the present terrible conflict is for the nations to return to the Christian revelation of God and that personal good living which comes from the faith and service of Jesus Christ in the church and the world. The Presbytery believed that prayers for victory would be answered and that out of the great sacrifice would come religious revival, the reconstruction, of human life and social and political order on a better Christian plan for the world.