WHAT THE SOLDIERS SAID

New Zealand Listener, Volume 7, Issue 178, 20 November 1942, Page 5

WHAT THE SOLDIERS SAID

BECAUSE soldiers in camp represent a very special cross-section of society at the present time, we present separately the result of a survey on the Campaign for Christian Order carried out on "The Listener’s" behalf * by "Tam McKinley" in a large North Island camp.

RMED with a prepared questionnaire, I have been busy the last week or two, going around the camp and asking questions of afl and sundry. No particular section of the camp was interviewed. My accosted ranged from a major right down to a private who had just been released from a military prison. He had deserted. Also in the picture were cooks, permanent fatigues, nursing sisters, male nurses and N.C.O.’s. Then, of course, there were some "Other Ranks." You will see, therefore, that I have here a pretty good cross-section of camp opinion. Here is the Questionnaire: UESTION 1: Have you heard about the Campaign for Christian Order? I asked approximately one hundred people this and the following questions. One man alone answered negatively, "Why not?" I asked. "How the hell. do I know!" he retorted. I felt foolish, and thought that here was a man who should know about it. I told him, and left him vaguely interested. UESTION 2: How did you hear about the Campaign? By listening in, by going to church, or just from hearsay? This proved more complex than Question One. Thirty people had heard about it from going to church. This will seem a high percentage for a representative group of New Zealanders. But please remember that in camp, the church parade is compulsory. At that: rate, the other 70 interviewed must have slept in church! Sixty men and women had heard the Monday evening broadcasts. Of these, 42 were definitely interested and listened regularly. Fifteen had accidentally stumbled on to the broadcasts and did not pay much attention to them. The remaining three of the 60 are self-professed Communists. But these men are not inactive, as you will see later. Lastly were the 10 men who’ had heard about the campaign from hearsay or from reading about it. (This last was not mentioned in the questionnaire),

QUESTION 3: Do you know of any: one who is actually doing anything about it?. To this question came a monotonous set of replies. Over 60 people answered, "Of course I have-the Padre!" When I pointed out as tactfully as possible that we already knew that, and did they know of others, the answers were largely vague. "Yes, I did hear of someone the other day-was it Uncle Scrim?" That sort of reply. A few I struck were actually making a study of the Campaign from its multiple aspects, Perhaps at this point some readers will interpret the results laid out so far as being indicative of a semi-failure of the Campaign as far as the military camp is concerned. The reason for this is, that I took pains to avoid questioning the many hundreds of men who attend a weekly Open Forum, at which all the basic principles of the Campaign for Christian Order are very freely discussed. QUESr TON 4: Do you think the Campaign will have any effect on the social and economic order? This question drew all manner of replies, many intelligent and profound, others, unfortunately, unprintable. I will quote some: A Lieutenant; "Most of us in camp have thought about it. I think that most of the men in my unit feel that the great social reaction which will take place after the war, will require some standardising of our morals. There will be a great many of our women without , hope of attaining the marriage status. We will have to think seriously of making some adjustment regarding the birth. rate along the lines of the totalitarian states. But, from the Christian viewpoint, we will have to base our lives on a_ stronger spiritual basis, if home life is to remain the joyous and precious thing it has been. The Campaign will do much to strengthen our faith in God and home life, but only to those with whom the Campaign is in contact." A Hospital Sister: "In the long run, the Campaign for Christian Order will do a lot for the people. The Church

relies on those who have followed the Campaign to spread the good they have absorbed among outsiders. For one, I consider that most of us are looking to the future, and feel that this Campaign will have its effect, if not on everybody, on enough of us to do good." PERHAPS the best, and most representative of answers, came from a young man who was born.in AlsaceLorraine. He said: Question 1 ."Truly; I have been discussing the Campaign for the last three months." Question 2. "I heard about the Campaign through a Discussion Group, sponsored by the Church of England." Question 3. "We all are. Hundreds of men discuss it from all angles and aspects every week." (He is one of the Open Forum men I mentioned before). Question 4, "Purely indirectly, the Campaign will have an effect on the social and economic order. Not so much on the order, perhaps, as on the individual, as far as his personal attitude and outlook is concerned." The Open Forum which meets at the Church Army Hut each Sunday evening, is well attended. There are men there who, in civilian life occupied all manner of jobs. School teachers, labourers, clerks, mechanics, farmers, shop-assist-ants, railway servants, and civil ser--vants are among the discussion group. Each week a different aspect of the task of Christianity is dealt with. Bachelors and’ married men meet and talk about the problems of child education, married life, divorce, the attitude of the Church toward all angles of society, and the best way to reach the masses with the principles of. the Campaign for Christian Order. After the Padre introduces the subject, the men stand up and give their views. There are Christian views, Communist views, agnostic views, and opinions that could only be described as bizarre. At the end of the discussion, the Padre sums up, and tries to answer any questions that have been brought up for his opinion. Therefore, it is clear that the men in camp are doing their bit towards the making of a better and happier world after the war. —