EMPEROR’S HONOUR.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 50, Issue 128, 12 March 1930, Page 6

EMPEROR’S HONOUR.

BELL AT COLONGE. The Rev. T. Rhondda Williams, as chairman of .the British Congregational Union, speaking last montly on the death of l)r. Stresemann, said : “Before the war there was a hell in Cologne Cathedral bearing the inscription: ‘I am the Emperor’s bell I proclaim the Emperor’s honour.L It had been made out of cannon captured by the Germans from the French and they evidently did not think it derogatory to God that it should proclaim in the church honours worn in the war. “When I went into the Cathedral two years ago I missed the belt, and asked the janitor wfiafc had become ol it. ‘Oil/’ lie said, ‘in 1918 we had to take it down aiul melt it to make munitions.’ What irony ol history. War material melted to make a bell, and after proclaiming for more than forty years the Emperor’s honour, the bell’ goes back to make fighting material once more. So much for the honours that can he won in Avar, and the empire that can be built with the SAVord. . “ ‘But,’ said the janitor to me, ive haA’e a neAV bell now, and a better one. Let us hope that the iioav hell in Cologne Cathedral is a symbol of iibav ideals and aspirations, proclaiming, as it should in a church, only the glory of God. I* aapuM remove all the Avar trophies from churches, and indeed from everyAvhere and put old tanks and guns in the earth or in the sea beyond reach and sight. . “When the late Dr. Strcsmann said these Avords at Geneva: ‘A real progress has been made in tlie reconciliation of peoples. Those who deny it are blind or pretend to be blind. The her oism Avliich aliA'ays manifests itself on the field of battle must, in future manifest in the conflicts of life, Avliere the true heroes are those Avho facilitate better relations among men,’ I thought I heard Germany’s neiv bell.”