CANONS AND CANNON

Radio Record, 10 June 1938, Page 14

CANONS AND CANNON

By

GORDON

MIRAMS

"T° HIS story of how

Mr.

Peter

Packs

* went to church is a fantasy, but there may still be those who will see in it an argument that all the expediency in the world cannot answer.

. PETER ACKS was oing to Ile was an ordinary little man who always wanted to do the

right thing quite as desperately as he wauted Old Bovs to wipe the field with Marists next Saturday. He was going to church partly because he had always gone to church, and partly because he really enjoyed going sud got something out of it. But lately it had been different-ever since Christianity had been taken over by Fighting. Parsons in the interests of Defence. It dated from thut famous speech made by the Rev Canon A. H. Norris to the Veterans’ Association in ¢ ‘hristchurch on May 28, 1938, when the venerable gentleman had said : "To-day is the day of the Army, Navy, aud Air Foree," and had apparently forgotten to mention anythiug about God. That, of course, hud buppened some time before the

Canou bad had bis range in creased by an appointment as Big Guu of tbe = Drillshed Church-the most wilitant aud most popular church in all ‘the South, Mr. Packs fell into rank With the rest of the congregation outside, A trumpeter was doing the work the ‘bells had done in the old days Theu the congregation formed fouts with great precision and marched inside. WS, there had been a lot of changes in church, sighed Mr. Packs. There was a de: fensive machine-gun on the altar, a defensive old trenchmortar that had been converte ed into a font... There: were stacked rifles. in the pores where once you had put your umbrella, . decontaminators at the head of each aisle, combination gasmask hassocks ™ each pew, and battle flags and recruiting posters on the walls, "Phes had tuben the Bible away from the lectern, Deeruge tt was gy diflivult for uoyonue

to read it without misinterpreting such obviously symbolic texts as "Thou shalt not kill" and "Do unto others .. ." All that was used of the Bible these days were

a few contradictory passages from the New Testament: aud the more wrathful passages from the Old. Far more prominently displayed on the lectera were the Manual of Arms und the Regulations for Air Raid Precautions, The military band in the old organ loft struck up 4 stirring march aud the cungregation stood smartly at the sulute while the Chaplain-General attended by severa: cunnon and prominent members of the Navy League, Defeuce League and Veterans’ Association, deployed from the vestry. FNO-DAY, sumehow. Mr, Packs found his attention kept wandering from the service. We kept thinking abour old times, and, as his eye roved round the chureh, he ‘noticed something he had uever ueticed before. Apparently the

redecorators of rhe ehureb bad also overlooked it It was a picture of Christ, and it hung be{ween two battle flags in a dim angle of the walls. Mr. Packs wouldn't have noticed it, if was so much . in the shadow, but for a beam of sunlight = thut ‘ struck through « high win- { dow.on the opposite wall and lighted it up. It seemed to Mr. Packs. that the face of the Master was very sad. ITH an effort, the Little man brought his atteutio back to the service. Greut hombing planes! (thought Vr. Packs). How time bas pissed! The sermon is just beginning! For his text, the Chamlainu(reneral chose the beantiful . words of Canon Norris’s. Christehureh speech : "Beethro, he snd, "Posday is the day at the {Continued en page ge.}

Canons And Cannon

(Continued from page 14).

Army, Navy and Air Force. We don’t hear much of disarmament today. It is forgotten. Even at the time when it was talked about there were people who realised its utter futility, ..." Mr. Packs had heard this speech many times, but he had never quite got over the feeling that itt was a rather strange speech to have come from the mouth of a man who had followed the Prince of Peace. But then Mr. Packs was old-fashioned. ... Of course, everyone knew that disarmament was dead. But Mr. Packs wondered in his muddling little mind if it would not be still alive if so many people had not been convinced all along of its utter futility! It was all far too difficult for an ordinary man like Mr. Packs to work out. It was better left to clever people like parsons. T was queer what a lot of contradictions there were in the world, thought Mr. Packs. For instance, here was this speech from a parson; and recently he had read about a huge recruiting poster on the walls of Chichester Cathedral in England. It had been put up by the Air Raids Precantions people. and it said: "Your Country Wants You-NOW !" Yet not so long since some degenerate pacifist fellow had stuck up a little notice advertising a Peace Meeting on the War Memorial at Auckland, and the public and the newspapers had shouted "Sacrilege" and "Blasphemy," and some of the Important People who bad been going to speak at the meeting bad backed out, because it was such a scandalous thing to have d@ne, and an insult to the honoured dead, who had given their lives in the War to End War, lor the life of him, Mr. Packs couldn't quite see much difference hetween a recruiting poster on a Cathedral and a peace poster on a Wur Memorial. Still, he supposed there were wiser people than he who had excellent reasons for appreciating the difference. ., . "THINKING about Canon Norris, Mr. Packs remembered a canon of obsolete model-Canon "Dick" Shep-herd-whose Peace Pledge Union had made 100,000 Engliskmen take the gutless oath that never again would they have anything to do with war. What had happened to the poor fools and their silly, ‘insidious idealism? Canov Norris had sald it: "The day of the cpnyinced pacifist, if ever there were any, is over!" And if, by any strange chance there were still 100,000 pacifists left, even stupid Mr. Packs knew what would happen to them when Britain had once again to fight for peace. Prison and castor oil-and even perhaps a firing-squad-for not having the courage to bomb the women and children of those Mad Dogs of Hurope who threatened so heautiful and just a civilisation, Even Mr. Packs knew that defence came first-and the only way to defend yourself these days was to hit first. And yet... and yet... Somehow, for all the thunder of the Canon, Mr. Packs could not find it in his heart to hate women and children he had not so much as seen. ... Did this make him a traitor, a snivelling

Utopian whom the whole Church would sneer at? And in his deep bewilderment Mr. Packs glanced up, furtively, to that dim corner in which the forgotten picture of Christ still hung, expecting to see a frown. Yet, somehow it seemed te Mr. Packs’s quaint imagination that there was a comforting, understanding smile on the face of the Master. ‘THEN Mr. Packs came back to earth with a start. The chaplaingeneral had finished his fighting sermon. Moved to a bright-eyed consciousness of their great heritage, the congregation stood stiffly to attention, waiting, steady as the red-coated squares at Waterloo, for the sharp word of command that would begin the hymn. To-day it was "Land of Hope and Glory." As the first, swelling, bloodstirring bars of the great anthem rang out in the old church, Mr. Packs felt his weak little back stiffen and the doubts drop from kis mind like the shameful clothes of a slacker discarding them for the King’s uniform... . His heart was great and full of bursting pride as he sang, with all the power in his weak little lungs :- Wider still and wider Shall thy bounds be set, God, Who made thee mighty, Make thee mightier yet! The congregation marched out with a jingle of medals and a chink of polished spurs. As he stepped smartly into a blank file at the end of the last platoon, little Mr. Packs stole one last, ashamed glance at the forgotten picture of Christ that had so sadly confused him. The face of the Master was turned to the wall.