No Apology-Patriotism In Time Of War

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 188, 11 August 1941, Page 6

No ApologyPatriotism In Time Of War

effort, of this war. as of the last, but more powerful and farreach ing. has been to simplify and clarify feelings of patriotism. The issues of the struggle have laid bare elemental emotions and convictions, of which patriotism is one.

By Cyrano

People in the Old Country especially, with their native land and j their very homes threatened and j torn, have been released both from j the shyness that made them chary about expressing their love of I country, and from the disillusion- I ment-bred cynicism that spread like a blight over much of society in the long armistice period. The Oxford men who voted they would not fight for King ami Country, are now lighting for them, and dying. England, or Britain if you like it better, is now avowedly the loved one; her fields, her sticks and stones, her lovely countryside and her city streets, even her slums, are blessed possessions, and one not only lights for them as a matter of course, but. in open and simple fashion, one is fond of them. No Reservations I am reminded of this by two pieces of writing that have come my way this week. One is a paragrapn j quoted from the "New York Times," ! which expresses what a good many of us have felt now and then. In the old days when people took up arms lor the ashes of their fathers and the altars of their j gods they were not apologetic about it. They did not find it necessary to confess that their deceased parents were far from perfect examples | of humanity and that their gods left much to be desired. When people took their stand for a cause they omitted the fqotnotes and the parentheses. So we still cherish the hope of finding some day a speech or a book in defence of democracy that does not strike the note of "A poor thing, but my own." This, it should be noted, was written in the United States, which have not been actually touched by the war. If Americans do come into the war there will be less apology for patriotism and democracy. Why, indeed, should there be apology for patriotism? When Horatius spoke the famous lines to which this writer refers (and not quite accurately, for Horatius said temples, not altars) he made no reservations. And that's what nearly all men do when their country is threatened. It isn't that they should be blind to its defects, though the absurd idea lingers that criticism of one's country is unpatriotic. It is that a fundamental decency makes men go to the defence of their country automatically. ' The graver the danger the less talk is there of faults, the more clearly do virtues shines, and the more dearly is the native land loved. Politics and Art The other thing 1 came upon was an article in the "Listener" on Budyard Kipling by Edward Shanks, the English poet and novelist, in which he emphasises the value of Kipling's patriotic prose and verse to-day. To an absurd and discreditable extent. Kipling's reputation has suffered by reason of his political views. The set. against him in certain circles has been so marked and so undiscriminating that it ought, to be a leading case in the teaching of English literature and the principles of literary criticism. Because he is a Tory and an Imperialist, he has been' written off as of little or no account. There is. I believe, a similar set against Scott.

"It is sheer muddled thinking." says Mr. Shanks, "to condemn an artist because you dislike his politics: but people will do it." I would modify this slightly and say it depends upon the extent to which an artist brings politics into his work. But it is sheer muddled thinking to allow one's opinion about a writer's general work to be influenced, by the views he expresses here and there. I am not uncritical myself of Kipling's politics and philosophy. I think I understand why some people dislike him, but I don't think that's any good reason why they should deny him greatness. As an American professor very truly said, we don't deny Milton the title of great poet because we don't like the theology of "Paradise Lost." Milton wrotp "Lycidas." And quite apart from the unsoundness of judging, on political grounds wholly, those parts of Kipling's work which are* Coloured by politics, he wrote a great deal that hasn't, anything to do with politics, national or Imperial. Because Kipling believed in the Imperial mission of the English. why should one refuse |to admire "Sussex" and "An Habitation Enforced"? Discovering England However, the main point I want to make, because it bears upon the emotion and expression of patriotism to-day. is Mr. Shanks' reference to the later Kipling, the Kipling who. as he puts it, having discovered the East, discovered his own country. It is still the earlier Kipling that most people think of first when his name is mentioned, the Kipling of "Soldiers Three." "Life's Handicap." "Many Inventions" and "Barrack Room Ballads." Mr. Shanks remembers his elders saying forty years ago that Kipling had done his dash, and that nobody now paid much attention to him. But the later Kipling was only then developing. the period of "Puck of Pook's Hill." "They." that lovely story of the English countryside I mentioned just now, "An Habitation Enforced." the period of "The Way Through the Woods." "The Recall," "The Children's Song." One may imagine a collection of this later Kipling being given to an understanding foreigner, and this foreigner, noting its tenderness as well as other qualities, asking in astonishment: "Is this the man who has been written down as a Jingo?" The very soul of England is in this later work. It was the earlier Kipling who wrote: If England were what England seems. And not the England of our dreams, But only putty, brass and paint. How quick we'd chuck her. But she aint! Which expresses precisely one of the objections raised to his own Imperialism. In his later years Kipling developed this idea' and described the England of his dreams. In these days of direst peril, line after line, passage after passage, come into the mind of English men and women. "I am the land of their fathers . . . see you the dimpled track that runs . . . but there is no road through the woods . . . take of English earth as much . . . God gave all men all earth to love . .

Here, says Mr. Shanks. Kipling is "a patriotic poet of the very best sort. He does not merely expect us to love our country and fight for her. He actually , shows us the country we are to love, the countrv we are to fight for ... If anyone wants to know just why we should go on defending our island against no matter \vha r ndds. let him read l the later Kipling.''