MASS MURDER.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 160, 8 July 1937, Page 16

MASS MURDER.

TATTOOS DENOUNCED. WHITED SEPULCHRES. « GLORIFY FOUL Pl*>T." (Special.—By Air Mail.) LOXDOX, June 15. ! "Glorification of mass murder ,, in the Aldershot Tattoo is denounced by the Rev. C. G. Holland, vicar of Ewell, Surrey, in his parish magazine. '•Hundreds of thousands of our people,"' lie writes, "will witness one of those literally whited sepulchres, euphemistically called 'tattoos,' during the next two months. "Whited sepulchres because they present war under the aspect of a glorious adventure, instead of showing it as it is, a filthy, beastly shambles." "They glorify a foul plot on They nourish national pride. "FraneoV; destruction of Guernica is what war will be like—not the crash of military bands and the singing of 'Abide with Me' as the final blasphemy of the tattoo. Broken Hearts. "If yon who read this are going to be present at one of the tattoos this summer, think of the millions of slain and mutilated in the Great War, the devastation -and the broken hearts. '"When the grand finale of that gorgeous, heart-stirring pageant comes, when the strains of 'Abide with Me , have died away, will yon, as.you wipe ■ the tears of patriotism from your eyes, remember that you as an individual have been glorifying mass murder and worshipping a whited sepulchre?" "Desecration." Mr. Holland writes, too. of "the desecration of Westminster Abbey." '"We are amazed that no voice has been raised at what seenifi to us to come perilously near desecration," he declares. "Turnstiles and money tills have been erected, the chink of entrance money and the excited chatter of sightseers has created an atmosphere of a show place rather than a House of God.

"The excuse given m that the Abbey has lost the collections owing to the long months during which there have been no services."