SOCIAL EFFECTS OF WAR

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23718, 17 August 1942, Page 4

SOCIAL EFFECTS OF WAR

* STATEMENT BY CHURCH LEADERS

(Special Australian Correspondent.) (Received August 16, 9 p.m.)

(N.Z.P.A.) SYDNEY, August 16. An attack' on war-time moral decadence by the heads of the seven Protestant churches in Sydney has again directed attention to “the very serious condition of affairs that, threatens the moral stability of the nation.” Liquor, lack of parental control, the brown-out, and new freedoms given to youth in the war effort have been blamed. The churches’ published protest makes six contentions: (1) the drink evil has attained alarming proportions; (2) young girls are falling victims to intemperance and through it yield-to immpral desires; (3) contraceptives are official issue to soldiers going on leave: (4) the advertising and the sale of contraceptives to the civilian population has become a large trade; (5) .erotic stimulation is being caused by suggestive pictures in magazines and advertisements, lewd scenes in some plays now being produced, and the purveying through the post of pornographic literature; and (6) the Government has introduced a bill granting pensions to so-called "de facto” widows, thus placing a further premium on disregard of the sacred obligations of marriage. The statement is signed by the Anglican Archbishop pf Sydney (Dr. H. W. K. Mowll), the Rev. C. F. MacAlpine, Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Australia, the Rev. T, M. Taylor, president of the Methodist Church of Australia, the Rev. R. C. Turner, chairman of the Congregational Union, the Rev. J. M. Crawford, president of the Baptist Union, Pastor S. Stevens, president of the Churches of Christ, and Commissioner f E. J. IJarewood, of the Salvation Army. The protest is widely supported. The seriousness of the falling birth-rate and the rising incidence of venereal disease are emphasised by civil as well as church leaders.