LESSONS OF THE WAR.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 51, 29 February 1916, Page 9

LESSONS OF THE WAR.

DEMOCRATTSATION OP THE | ARMY. RATIONAL .SOCIALISM DEVELOPING. "War and Its Relationship to Social Subjects" was the question upon which the Rev. A. B. Chappell, M.A., delivered a thoughtful address, under the aegis of the New Zealand Methodist Conference in the East Street Mission Ha!l last night to a large audience. The vice-preeident of the Conference, Mr. George Winstone, presided. A strong , choir was in attendance, conducted by Mr. E. J. Gatland. "Rule Britannia' , was sung with vim, after which the Rev. B. F. Rothwell prayed. "Hail to the Lord's Anointed" was sung during the evening, and also "Christian Seek Not Yet Repose." The Rev. Chappell said war was the last of human things to become subject to law. Nations were still more or less free to observe the international law. A war of selfish ambition was now outlawed amongst human projects. Germany had been trifling in the nineteenth century with materialistic philosophy and paganism. There was a better Germany, but God knew that the ingredients with which that nation had played had led them far astray, and in these early years of the twentieth century, Germany had trampled little Belgium, and left Serbia bleeding. Thie war had raised new social problems. It had brought to the notice of civilised communities its unfit units. Many questions would be raised as a result of the war. One of them was the relation of eexes to labour. Avenues once occupied by men alone were now being taken by women. The Suffragist's hands were not now breaking plate glass windows, but busily manufacturing shells. The war gave them new views of the soldier. Some of them had, in their ignorance, termed the soldiers as ranking with the hangman. Now they had repented m sackcloth and ashes. The most noble lessons were being learned at the point of the bayonet. Grades of toil hitherto perhaps despised were recognised to be of importance. It was also being recognised that only he who toiled waji entitled to the rights of citizenship, and that the slackers and the shirkers should have no claim upon that privilege. They would also have changed views upon the functions of a Government. The old Manchester doctrine of individual freedom of action, of hands off trade, was a tiling of the past, it not being applicable to the present conditions. Now the Government had taken such a stand that the right of labour to organise was not only recognised, but the need, qf organising every section of the con,):, niunity wae also considered impetative. The Manchester doctrine taught men o be mercenary. They shut out leaven with the smoke of their cotton actories. As a result of the war the British Government was now taking actidh on economic lines. They were now getting a proportion of socialism introduced into legislation. What he wanted to impress upon hie hearers wa3, that a better, deeper, wider, social spirit would develop. The apotheosis of hate was bringing in the reign of love. They were thinking and speaking in the terms of the nations. Men nnd women were being taken out of their little selves, and thinking of the nation's needs. The ladies were cheerfully enduring discomfort because of the national need. There were vacant chairs in cottagr nnd in hall. Kitchener's Array was welding the various classes together ac they never had been before. The British Army was rapidly becoming democratised. The speaker quoted Kipling's verses, ending with the refrain: "England's on the anvil, being hammered, hammered, hammered into one shape." That, the speaker said, was written for William the First of Normandy, but it was equally true of William the Second of Germany.*