PULPIT VOICES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 98, 28 April 1930, Page 3

PULPIT VOICES.

ATTACK GN WAR BOOKS. r V#i SOLDIERS MISREPRESENTED 1 ! $ FORMER CHAPLAIN'S PiMXCEST,!: -'Wl The Rev. W. Walker, who was for* merly a chaplain with the New Zealand 1 expeditionary forces, vigorously attacked, at Pitt Street Church last evening, those war hooks which featured tho ugly side of life at the front. The congregation, which was a large one, included Brigadier H. R. Potter, O.C. Northern Command, and Major E. Puttick, staff officer. "Some Outstanding 1 Qualities of the Anzacs as I Saw Them"was the subject of the sermon. Mr, Walker said that the spirit of self-sac-rifice and devotion to duty wthich characterised the men should he turned to account in dealing with the problems confronting New Zealand to-day. He had no desire to portray the men of the forces as if they had been angels. They were not angels, but they certainly were not the devils they were painted. They were only human and deep down within each one was something that was really goo'l. Mr. Walker said the time was coming when some person would have to show the better side of the men. He added, "There is too much filth, and too much: of a horrible nature being published in books concerning the soldiers in tho Great War. For the sake of selling books, the nauseous and repellent incidents, which were few and far between,are brought out and amplified. If you read these war hooks, believe me,_ the men were not such as they are described. It would he a similar case should a visitor to Auckland see a drunken man in Queen Street or go into any of the unsavoury spots which are part of any city and then' write 'This is Auckland. The preacher said that devotion to duty had been one of the characteristics of the men at the front, and duty was to-day calling people to mould a better social order in New Zealand. It was urging the people to wage a a unceasing warfare against ignorance, disease and evils of national life. There was to-day a clear call to people t/live a sacrificial life in overcoming the natiou's difficulties. Just as needful, at present, wag the spirit of comradeship and good cheer which had permeated life in the trenollcS.