LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23802, 23 November 1942, Page 6

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

* S.M.N.— Correspondence on the subject recently closed. SPIRITUAL SECOND FRONT Sir,—Much has been written and spoken on the question of a second front in the war zones. Much, too, has been written and much has been said on the Campaign for Christian Order. Truly, as has been said by preachers, the campaign must begin with the individual and hxs relationship to God, but once adjusted and ready to respond to the will of God there immediately opens up to the individual a wider field in which to serve his fellow-men. A second front on the spiritual plane might readily suggest itself to Christian people who envisage a world at peace under a Christian order. Now would be tne time to lay the foundations for a spiritual front against Japan, such front to be opened up when peace has been restored. To the Japanese with his Oriental outlook (apparently so little understood by the western civilisation) the bayoneting of prisoners and the rape of women are perfectly in order and are in keeping with his standards of what is right and wrong. What then? Just this: what a need and indeed an opportunity for Christianity to teach the new way of life and to change the individual Japanese, Then, and then only, will it be possible to build a stable peace with Japan. What an opportunity indeed for the Christian Church militant here on earth and indeed for Christian pacifists!— Yours, etc., * O.E.W. November 21, 1942. LOCKING OF AIR RAID SHELTERS Sir, —Owing to the misuse of air raid shelters it is proposed that they should be kept locked and that three keys should be provided—one to the police, one to the E.P.S. warden, and one to a responsible citizen. Bombs are apt to fall at a moment’s notice, and by the time one of these men arrives with the key the raid might be over. Would it not be advisable to put a fourth key in a case with a glass front by each entrance so that immediate access could be obtained in case of an emergency by breaking the glass?— Yours, etc -’ F.J. November 20, 1942. VICTORY Sir,—The sentiments of your correspondent "T.A.5.,” as expressed in The Press” of Thursday, would, I feel certain, be echoed fervently m the hearts of many thousands of New Zealanders. Yes, the best way we can show our appreciation of the boys who have borne the “heat and burden of the day” for so long is to bring them home. Are these heroes of Greece and Crete and those who have been playing their part so well in the health-shattering conditions of desert warfare to be kept there until all crack up under the strain of first one encounter and then another? Have they not earned at least the right to do what I know many of them feel they ought to be doing, and that is take a stand nearer home against the enemy in the Pacific? —Yours, etc., FAIR PLAY. Westport, November 21, 1942, BEER Sir,—Your leading article in Saturday’s issue, in which you direct attention to the efforts of the Methodist District Synod in dealing with the hoary subject of beer, will be applauded. The public has had before, it a superb example of the facility with which men will swallow the camel whilst straining at the gnat. In your own words, “Members of the Synod, who believe that young men can and should be trained to fight the Japanese, but cannot and must not be trusted to drink a pint of beer. , , May future Synods be blessed with a due sense of proportion.—Yours,; etc., METHODIST. November 21, 1942. WAR EFFORT Sir,—Your correspondent “Voice From the Bush,” is apparently one whodoes not know the conditions miners and wharfles work under, and I think Is sadly misled (as far as West Coast workers are concerned). For instance, he states bushmen lost only one day last month. To my own personal knowledge in the King Country, North Island, they lost more. I have brothers working in them and they have told me that they have lost time in every week through wet weather. But to go on with the rebuttal of your correspondent’s condemnation of, wharfles and miners in general, I will say, regarding his story of wharfles ducking and diving for shelter if a Scotch mist comes over, on the Grey wharf, I have seen the time when icicles have been on the wharfles’ whiskers during ; a “barber.” What bushmen have worked under those conditions? Besides this, they have also worked the clock around under these conditions. The average rainfall here is two or three times as heavy as your correspondent would apparently call phenomenal, but the wharf works just the same, as,he can easily find out. 1 also have worked in the mines on the Coast and it takes a very heavy shower to send the men home. At the Liverpool mine the men have to walk at the barest minimum three-quarters of a mile with not a vestige of shelter, as the bushmen have. —Yours., etc., M. GIBBENS, Wharfie. Greymouth, November 20, 1942. JUVENILE MORALITY Sir, —Premature seeding or sexual precocity is common in vegetation if life is insecure through lack of nutrition, water, or space. Animals, including homo sapiens, react similarly to like conditions. Another bar on the paddock gate won’t affect the vegetation nor another bar or law assist seedy homo sapiejis. Health of body, mind, and environment is the only remedy, and that cannot be provided until we abolish war, want and credulous ignorance. Raising the bars above the beast is useless, but raising the beast above the bars means progress.— Yours, etc., H. J. BUTTLE. Darfield, November 20, 1942. Sir,—Your correspondent H. J. Buttle is like a man tossing with a penny, “Heads I win, tails you lose.” According to him,. if we are honest we have to admit we were bad (in our youth). If we deny we were bad then, according to him, we are not honest. Very ingenious, but I don’t agree. I was brought up to itrive for full self-control (and here temperance in eating and drinking has tremendous influence) and also to try to be a good influence among my mates, as in the sight of God.—Yours, etc., GENERALISATIONS TOO BROAD. November 20. 1942. RETURNED SOLDIERS IN THE BALLOT Sir,—ln your issue of November 21, "Any Old Soldier” has a letter under the heading, “Returned Soldiers in the Ballot.” Whilst substantially agreeing with the original author of the article in question, I believe they are the words of Douglas Reed, found in his latest book, “All Our To-morrows,” chapter 4, page 161. Therefore, the letter of “Any Qld Soldier” is called in common parlance, piracy.—Yours, etc., 10/809. November 22, 1942.