"ALMOST ASHAMED"

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 229, 27 September 1935, Page 8

"ALMOST ASHAMED"

ATTITUDE TO WAR.

CHURCHMEN CRITICISED. PRESBYTERIAN'S OUTBURST. (By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, tliis day. "If I over felt sorry I was a Presbyterian it was when I read tha letter to the Prime Minister from clergymen protesting against war," declared the lion. A. D. MeLeod (Government, Wairarapa), in the House of Representatives to-day. "Three Presbyterian ministers signed the letter, but I am sure they did not represent the opinion of 1 ner cent of the Presbyterians of this Dominion," lie added. Mr. MeLeod said he know tlio history of Presbyterians and where they sprang from. He knew what they had had to do to defend their rights. "I have never yet imagined that Presbyterians would get down to tho position when they were not prepared to fight in defence of their women and their young," he declared. "It makes my blood boil to read the letter." Mr. W. E. Parry (Labour, Auckland Central): That means something, then. Mr. MeLeod: In my life, which has largely been an outdoor one, I have beon able to study animal life as well as human life 'and I have found that animals .defend their yoting. Even a skunk, which represents the lowest order of animal life, will fight to defend its young. When I hear Presbyterian ministers, or so-called ministers, saying they will not fight I am almost ashamed to be a Presbyterian. Mr. MeLeod added that while the people of New Zealand hated war ho was convinccd that if war camo they would fight.