"ONLY A SIDE ISSUE."

Press, Volume LII, Issue 15776, 18 December 1916, Page 4

"ONLY A SIDE ISSUE."

AN APPEAL FOR SERBIA. "WHY ARE LABOUR UNIONS SELFISH?""

Considerable discussion has taken placo concerning the sermon prcaclxed in Avonsidc Church yesterday -week by tho Rev. O. Fitzgerald, and he has received a number of letters regarding thei sentiments expressed on that occasion. The vicar of Avonside again referred to tho matter in l'lis address yesterday morning, when, taking a 6 his text "Is it nothing to you?" Lament. 1-12, he stated that at tho time of the late Queen Victoria's jubilee he had preached a sermon on the influence of Christianity on the growth of national life and character, -without directly mentioning the name of Christ himself. Next day ho had been assailed by someone for not proaching the Gospel. What was the Gospel? It was the message of good tidings—the advent of Clu'ist to seek ana save that which -was lost. That was the Gospel and the Church's mission. The Salvation Army and the Roman Catholics had taken up the idea, and were to be commended for the institutions for the relief of the f&llen that they hail established. "The Press" had done him tho honour of sending him a copy of the report of all that had been done in connexion with Serbia. Tho task was a great one in itself, and the question of tho reorganisation of that unhappy country a huge problem. But unfortunately to fat too many people that work seemed but a minor mere side issue. The picture which was a frontispiece to tho report was one to touch the heart of all who sawit—of anyone who was "eountryless." But, unfortunately, there were men and bodies of men in New Zealand who did not realiso what this meant. He saw the labour unions of the Dominion satisfied in a self-centred and, in some cases, a seitish manner, to go on, the while labouring men and women in France, Serbia, Belgium, ltoum&nia, and Poland were being dishonoured, rendered homeless, murdered, or deported. To many of these workers, theso atrocities seemed quite a small matter as compared with their all-ab-sorbing question of one of their illbalanced ie.vders being imprisoned for delivering disloyal utterances towards his country in its timo of deep distress. He then referred to the Tramway Union throwing in their lot with the Red Federation, and stated that it had Leen a surprise to him that they had done so for of all the men ho had come into contact with, the tramwaymen of Christc'nurch wore tho finest and most courteous. He asked "What was the reason?" "Was it self-interest was it due to intimidation, was it fear of sdf-6acriiice?" Yet it was the labouring classes in the countries he had mentioned who were calling to the labouring classes of New Zealand, "Come over and help us." He had been' insulted for speaking as he had spoken on tho previous Sunday. He had even been threatened, and had also been sent the "white feather'' as a mark of cowardice in himself. But he asked those who read that a nation was homeless to imagine what that meant.' Let them imagine that we in New Zealand had lost home and country. Would wo, then, like ethers to act towards us in a sellcentred spirit, in a; spirit of opposition even, if they were asked for personal help on our behalf? In perusing tlic pamphlet sent him by "the one could not but be thrilled with the account of tho heroism in Serbia and its spirit of solf-sacrifice, but to far too many "it was only a side issue. Ho then detailed the wonderful spirit that characterised that famous winter retreat through Serbia when one nurse had to attend to 300 patients for two nights and days, and another nurse, with a temperature up to 304, put ice on her own head, a 6 I>r. Knobel and Ladv Paget were bpth ill. The heroism, "tho privations, the absence of murmuring*, all spoke the greatest spirit of self-sacrifice, but the attitude of some men and women to those poor suffering multitudes could only be placed in parallel columns with tho action of Esau, who sold his birthright lor a mess of' pottage, and that of Judas Iseariot, who sold his blaster for thirtv pieces of silver. Because, went on the preacher, some people were selfish and were making money out of the blood «nd self-sacrifice of their fellowcountrymen, that was no reason why others "should refuse to play the game fairly. Two wrongs committed did not mnko a right, but they rather multiplied the wrongdoing. With Christmas coming to us, bearing messages of goodwill aud peaco upon earth, there wis yot another message to be remembered, and that was, "Though Ho was rich, He became poor for your sake." Peace could only come by self-sacrifice, by national and individual self-sacrifice, not alone for the sake of others, snch as the Serbs and the Belgians, but for the permanent peace of the world. He appealed for self-sacrifice this coming Christmas in order that they might obtain personal peace—the peace of God that passes understanding," and the permanent peace for which Christ came and for which he honestly believed the British Empire was fighting.