Inspiring Address to Returned Soldiers

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXVIII, Issue 13026, 3 May 1940, Page 1

Inspiring Address to Returned Soldiers

“FUTURE UNCERTAIN, YET CHARGED

WITH HOPE”

In proposing, the toast of the New Zealand Returned Soldiers’ Association at the annual re-union of the local branch on Anzac Eve, the Rev. Father Eccleston first expressed his deep appreciation of the honour of being the guest of the evening, and also at being invited to propose the principal toast. “The function of the R.S.A. throughout the Dominion,” said Father Eccleston, “might be viewed from the aspects of the past, the present and the future. “In the past it has held together comrades in arms of the war of 1914-1918. This union, cemented on the fields of conflict, has been strengthened as the years have passed. It has found expression, not merely in emotion or in sentiment, but in solid enduring practice. Men who have been maimed, who have fallen victims to the toll of war, whose bodily powers have prematurely waned as the result of the exactions and privations of armed conflict, and who have found the toil of striving for a living in civil life overwhelming, have found in the ever-vigilant R.S.A. a sure shield and buckler, an instant and, if need be, vehement, advocate of the claims of returned men. These claims have ever been the demands of justice. The duty has always been the duty of New Zealand and of every citizen of this favoured land. Insistence on that duty in its practical expression has been the office of the R.S.A. Men who fought for loyalty and justice find it easy to insist on the observance of these virtues for those who fought with them. The sick unto death, the dying, of their comrades have been always the objects of their solicitude. , When the passage has been made'through “the low, dark, gateway,” comrades have attended the dead to the last place of sleep, and the flag, with its three Christian crosses of St. George, St. Andrew arid St. Patrick, under which they had fought and endured, has enshrouded them.

“In the present, the soldiers of a quarter of a century ago find their country in arms once more. The same ruthless, relentless, vindictive, domineering Germany is there. The R.S.A. may feel that its members fought in vain, and that they had gained but a quarter of a century’s respite. The fact remains, however, that they are of the men who beat Germany to its knees. The resurgence of Prussianism is not the result of their sins of omission or commission. The onus lies on other shoulders.

“During the present war the R.S.A. still has its duty to its members. It has another duty too. It must call upon the young New Zealander of to-day to take from the hands of the soldiers of the past the flaming torch of freedom for which they fought. Men of the R.S.A. took that torch ,from the hands of South African Veterans. They in their turn received it from gallant men of both races who fought for their ideals in the sad days of the Maori Wars. A visit to the old Mission cemetery at Tauranga. will bring this home. We are New Zealanders to the spinal marrow, or we are what Hitler thought us to be, soft, decadent, debased, degi'aded, fit subjects for serfdom. Our freedom is that for which we fight. A young New Zealand poet who died in early manhood, a brother of the present Mr. Justice O’Regan, stated this basic ideal in these lines: “Tell me no more ‘men must be serfs’ For so the Lord ordained, God set not freedom in our souls, And meant our limbs for chains.”

FUNCTIONS AND DUTIES OF THE RETURNED SOLDIERS’ ASSOCIATION

“The future, uncertain and yet charged with hope, lies ahead. There are enemies without the gates. These we know. They are open. There are yet others. They are they who live under the three Christian crosses of the flag of the British Commonwealth of Nations, and who dishonour its very shade and protection. They crave the sinister cover of the swastika, the crooked cross of Hitler’s barbarism, or the even more dreadful shadow of the hammer and the sickle, the badge of the professed enemies of God. Men of the R.S.A., drilled, disciplined, and resolute for the right, for law, for due order, for justice, for charity, for decent living, for security for life, for honour, for property, have banded themselves into a National Reserve. They must, however, glance over their shoulders and see and guard against the enemies within, the Quisslings who, of cold, deliberate, satanic purpose, or being emotionally lacking in balance, and stirred by real or fancied internal wrongs, would either by inaction or by deed imperil this fair land and its too trustful people. Apathy is the ally qf every enemy, but particularly the auxiliary of the traitor. Within these wide bounds lies scope for the trained energies of the soldiers of the last war. The call is now for vigilance, for vivid, vital activity beyond the bounds of membership of the R;S.A. The security of New Zealand may be largely in their keeping.

“War is iniquitous and execrable. Yet in a world of violence and injustice, justice cannot be deprived of the power of self-defence. Might cannot be admitted to be right. If we ask: ‘Have I, as an individual, a right to defend myself when attacked unjustly?’, Christianity and common sense alike reply, ‘Yes.’ No matter what sentiment or emotion or plain cowardice may say, everyone has a right to life, and to defend, not merely himself, but his family, neighbours and goods against aggression; and what is permitted to the individual is lawful to the State, which is subject to the same moral law. The right and the duty of war, so understood, is not the negation of peace but its safeguard. ‘Stability of order’ requires that nations, as well as men, recognise a duty to their neighbour. Such duty implies, not merely justice, but Christian charity, and both require the punishment of evildoers. The moral law applies to both individuals and nations. An individual may choose a counsel of perfection by foregoing his national rights in order to gain a higher perfection and attain to a fuller life hereafter. This cannot apply to the State, or nation, which exists only in the mundane sphere, and is concerned with temporal welfare. To demand, therefore, that a nation should risk ‘martyrdom’ by neglecting its defence of national interests, in the cause of ‘humanity’ is absurd. Governments have no right to sacrifice the nation’s possessions, except for some concrete good, for instant, national security. War is sometimes inevitable and may be justly waged. War comes inevitably from the rulers of a nation who have either given merely lip service to, or who have blatantly rejected, Christ and His moral law. We are not an aggressor nation. We are on the defensive, and in that defence the R.S.A. must play a great part, both moral and, if need be, physical, against enemies within or without the gates.”