SALUTING THE FLAG

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 August 1941, Page 2

SALUTING THE FLAG

MR C. L. CARR’S STATEMENT

reply to mayor of timaru.

PLEA FOR FREEDOM OF

CONSCIENCE

(Bv Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. Replying yesterday to references by the mayor of Timaru, Mr W. G. Tweedy, to recent remarks 01 his 111 the House of Representatives about the loyalty of teachers, the member for Timaru, Mr C. L. Carr, said he regretted that Mr Tweedy had nor waited the publication of his (Mr Carr’s) reply to the letter of the Dominion Executive Committee of the New Zealand Returned Soldiers’ Association, which letter had been given, like the comments of the mayor - himself, very wide publicity. Mr Carr stated that his plea had been for freedom of conscience. He trusted that there had been no wilful attempt to misinterpret his references to the flag or to those who wished to regard it as the symbol of those liberties for which we were at war. His objection had been to enforced formal observances ,which often lacked spontaneity and even sincerity, and were a poor substitute for the deeper and wider loyalties of the heart and soul. Mr Carr said he would draw Mr Tweedy’s attention to the remarks of the Bishop of Wellington, the Rt Rev H. St. Barbe Holland, as reported the previous evening, that he was “fed up’’ with patriotic talks, and continued: “I don't want to thump the tub about the glorious spirit of England—there’s far ■oo much of .it. It is not a virtue for which we should be proud; it is the fuff we’re made cf and for which, instead of being proud, wo should .umbly thank God.”

Statement by Bishop Holland.

The following statement was issued last night by the Bishop of Wellington in reference to the report cf Mr Tarr’s reply to a statement by Mr W. G. Tweedy, at Timaru, on the question of saluting the flag:— “Mr Garr appears to have quoted words from a recent address of mine to the Royal Society of Si George in support cf his point of view. I should like to make it quite clear first of all that I had not seen or heard of Mr Garr’s remarks in Parliament, and that my words could not have been intended to touch on this particular controversial question. The words which Mr Carr quoted cannot have any real bearing on this issue, as they occurred in the course of a reference I made to the fact that I had been invited to ‘give a patriotic address’ on the spirit of England. My object was to suggest that action is the highest manifestation of patriotism. I had no desire to detract from the value of the part that words or symbolism must play in the expression of our patriotism, but to stress the primary obligation to translate our belief into action. My address went on to suggest that the spirit of England throughout the centuries had been to get on with the job without bothering much to talk about it.”