"ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT”

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 263, 2 August 1929, Page 9

"ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT”

CORRESPONDENTS’ VIEWS

(To

the Editor.)

Sir, —The librarians who have banned "All Quiet on the Western Front” from their shelves are to be commended , even though such proscription itself also increases the demand. Pacifists and many other, including pulpiteers, profess to see in the work a mighty instrument towards the consummation of their ideals, and by their open recommendation of the book seem quite reckless of the pernicious effect it must have on the morals of our young people by reason of its glaring but quite unnecessary obscenities. Pulpiteers designate them “crudities,” which only goes to show that even in the Church moral values are declining and vision becoming blurred. As has been pointed out by some critics, the objectionable , interpolations might easily have been left out without affecting in anjy way either as a literary production or a trenchant indictment of war the value or force of the volume. Why it becomes necessary for any writer to introduce bestiality into his work is not easy for the ordinary man of the.world to determine, but the same man of the world must stand aghast to see professed exponents of clean thinking and living advocating a book that ordinary instincts of decency dictate should be relegated to the index expurgatorius. It is a pity that it was ever allowed into the country. This writer is not now a church member, for which he is thankful, after seeing the names of some of the champions of this kultured German's production, but he has a keen solicitude for the moral well-being of the young people, and when he hears of women anxious to get the book for their children to read he is inclined to emphasise the responsibility of those who favourably discuss the book. . . . . —I am, etc., “SINCERITY.” July 24.

Sir, —Having served some years in the front line in the New Zealand infantry in Gallipoli and France, I would like to join my opinion with those of Messrs. William Perry and A. Ernest Mander regarding the book, “All Quiet on the Western Front.” I know neither Mr. Perry nor Mr. Mander personally, but the unbiased opinions of such gentlemen with records such as theirs, must surely be accepted instead of that of the noisy minority who write, biased against military training. I am, I suppose, a successful business man, on the army retired list, probably too old now for any future military work. I have, however, sons whom if the call comes, will. I trust, serve and know that glorious spirit of comradeship and selfsacrifice which permeated the New Zealand Division in the late. war. I had more than an average knowledge of the conditions pertaining to the vicinity of the front line, and can assure all those who lost their dear ones there that the disgusting conditions described in the' above book most emphatically did not exist on our side in either Gallipoli or France. I bought the book because General Sir lan Hamilton (a gentleman whom I never much admired) quoted it, and also because I wanted to learn what the German front line was like. I have travelled over this world a good deal, and my opinions are quite “broad.” but I felt thoroughly nauseated at the unsavoury details portrayed. Filthy things occnr in times of peace, but we don’t write books about them. This book will probably be bought by the curious, and have record sales purely on account of its disgusting details. It is the only book of its kind I have seen sold openly published in the English language, and am surprised that the publication and sales were permitted. War has its horrors everyone knows, but it has ■ -onderful glories too. Life and its necessities are shared equally. If a few of you are fighting for your lives in a “bend,” there are a cheery no-surrender crowd fighting their way towards you, and itching to be alongside to help. To know that in one’s company of nearly 250 men, if you are lying wounded in no man’s land, every single one will toss his life away to bring you in., tempers one’s character to an extraordinary degree. Even to renay such devotion by offering one’s own life seems, inadequate somehow. Courage, self-sacrifice, cleanliving (in spite of external influences), and devotion to duty are all there, of course, but supreme above all is comradeship of such an extraordinarily high order, that it is not understandable by the civilian at home, or indeed anywhere, except where men are dying hourly. Many of us who have returned have helped financially and in other small ways the* men who share our hardships and dangers. One man I know has assisted some of his old soldier friends to the extent of some thousands of pounds, but these things are not spoken of, and no receipts or promises are exchanged. Although I am a member of many clubs, and have many friends, I know I will never feel again towards any men towards those I learned to know in the front line (many of them very rough), but whom I am the better for having known. I have no axe to grind of any description, and I write this letter only for the same reason that Mr. Mander does, in strong disapproval of the above book, and to repeat that the conditions it describes did not apply to the British Army or to the New Zealand Brigade in Gallipoli or to the New Zealand Division in France.—l am. etc., APEX. Wellington. July 25. Sir, —I have read with interest Mr. Mander’s comments on the book “All Quiet on the Western Front.” One admires Mr. Mander’s reserve and his tone of suggestion, rather than affirmation, that there is such a quality as “glory” in modern warfare. The hardships in the late war were rather good fun for the average healthy man. (I talk of my own experience in France and Belgium only), and an occasional difference with the enemy on a patrol, for instance, added a piquancy to the vigorous life. The comparative comfort of reserve and rest billets to the mud and discomforts of the “line” was, if anything, accentuated by the contrast. Many of us who came back have lingering memories of many a good time on service. When our thoughts take a serious turn and we dwell on the comradeship, etc., of those days, we incline to appreciate the “glory” of war. I can quite understand an ex-artillery an! many an ex-infantryman, whose experiences perhaps ineluded one “show” or so, feeling they were great days those war days. There cannot, however, be a great number of infantrymen left who saw an appreciable period of service in contact with the enemy and survived more than one or two shows. The men, whose opinions of the book one would appreciate are for the most part left behind in France and Belgium. We are inclined to lose sight of the fact that an army in war time is a vast and comprehensive machine, and all the returned soldiers are by no means “fighting” men. An opinion on what war really means from one who wasn’t on service is presumptuous and is almost as worthless from many a returned soldier. Even seeing the “horrors” without having had the prolonged mental and physical experience of fighting can convey little. When health began to suffer and nerves got really shaky, and one still had to keep on, it was then the crass stupidity of the whole filthy business of war was really brought home and the “good times” began to sink into insignificance. Then the “glory” of war showed up as a hideous mockery.—l am. etc., EX-INFANTRYMAN. Wellington, July 25.

Sir, —With reference to the letter of Ernest A. Mander, on the book, “All Quiet On the Western Front ” might 1 suggest that there is as much difference between a member of the R.F.A. and an infantryman as there is between a member of ihe R.F.A. and the Rev. James Gibb and Mr. Robert Semple, as far as being in a position to judge whether the conditions of the Army at war depicted in this book, might w veil refer to tbs

British as to the German Army. The infantrymen, who did the fighting and suffered the conditions, should, I think, have a better idea, and as one of them, I certainly do not agree with Mr. Mander. Even if the Rev. James Gibb and Mr. Robert Semple support the book for propaganda purposes, it is propaganda in a very good cause, and should hove the support of all worthy people who wish to lift civilisation above such savagery.—l am ’ etC ” A.D.M. Eketahuna, July 25.

Sir —Mr. Ernest Mander’s views on “All Quiet on the Western Front” have prompted me, having had just on four years’ experience in the East and West, to offer my humble criticism. If experience of war is essential to a true criticism, then Mr. Gibb and Mr. Semple are wrong. Likewise is Mr. Mander. He. I note, served with the Artillery —an officer perhaps—as an infantryman, and also a machine-gunner. I can say that no other branch of the Army is in a position to speak with such authority on trench warfare us the occupants of the front lines of trenches. The part of Mr. Mander’s letter I should have most desired to read was left out, as it were; that is, the “essentials in which life in the British and German Armies differed. Certainly our conditions where food, equipment, and clothing were concerned, were better. However, the struggle was desperate. AU the engines and devices of war that human ingenuity could conceive were there. The spirit of comradeship, self-sacrifice, and the glories and virtues of war were massed against each other, too. It must be so when nations; ary

fighting for self-preservation, and in the path of war are its horrors, its lice, rats, gas, smells, shells, bombs, raids, mud, and slaughter; its overbearing officers and brow-beating non-coms,; its field punishments, and all its harrowing details that none but an infantryman of the line could depict, with such vivid reality, as Remarque has done. Let our historians tell of the glory of war—let the soldier of the line speak of its horrors. The book should be read by all. It is true.—l am, etc., LANCE-JACK. Waipukurau, July 29. Sir,—Your correspondents, who have written about “All Quiet on the Western Front,” have discussed it with reference to its morality, its value as propaganda, its documental truth, or in conjunction with some private reminiscence. A great work of art, it should be judged as such. The author transmutes certain aspects of life into a new reality, which is much more vital and significant than the average experience. But what has been generally ignored is that the motive of the book is the effect of the greatest horror of all time on a sensitive nature, a poet, whose power of suffering is so much greater than that of his fellows. And it is only a poet who could have created such a work of art. It is intensely personal, yet by this very intensity it becomes universal. Every man. whether or not he served in the trenches, feels what the writer has described precisely in proportion to his poetic sensibility, just as men in varying degrees may be aware of the ' tragedy of Hamlet. To seek to use this I book for emphasising a particular moral 1 code, to probe into it for obscenities, to

regard it as an excuse for complacency or self-glorification, is to stand convicted of pettiness.—l am, etc., P. W. ROBERTSON. Wellington, July 25.

“C.X.” forwards a wholesale condemnation of Remarque’s book, which he contends is only fit for the incinerator, lie quotes thirteen separate pages as containing filthy and absolutely immoral literature and concludes; “How such a publication was allowed to pass the Customs authorities unchecked or not banned is certainly very much open to question. . . . I sincerely trust that this book will find public denouncement and be banned both in our Parliament and from our pulpits. Having put in four years’ service with the New Zealand Division in the line,, writes “Two Bar,” I have been greatly interested in the criticisms levelled at “All Quiet on the Western Front.” The author has not, to my mind, exaggerated in his narrative. Those who did not see the awfulness of the war area during hostilities can hardly be expected to believe that such things happened. It was only the desire to spare our people at home that kept the returned men from discussing the horrors of war and inclined them to describe rather - our pitiful attempts at pleasure. . . . Our ex-enemy author has told the truth, and if the truth about the horrors of war will help to end war, then let the returned men of all nations speak of them as we saw them in the pride of our youth, which is spent.

[Thin correspondence in now dosed.]!