WAR AND SPIRIT OF ADVENTURE

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 147, 16 March 1940, Page 9

WAR AND SPIRIT OF ADVENTURE

Motive For Enlisting ADVICE TO YOUNG MEN TO JOIN UP Tlie spirit of adventure as a motive for enlistment for military service overseas was discussed by Colonel C. Il Weston in an address at a recruiting rally held in tlie Town Hall, Wellington, yesterday. “To every man his motives are known to himself only, and that lite motives leading men Io litis or that decision are many and complex is incepted bv all of us as a simple fact.” lie said. “We have had the motives of duty ami patriotism placed before lite country with emphasis. 1 should like to emphasize tlie motive of adventure. Since I lie end of tile last war tlie advocates of peace in New Zealand had urged upon its people tlie futility of war, its waste, its horrors. And rightly so. They all looked forward to the dav when there would be no more war, tint these advocates .of peace, many of them advocates of peace at any price, had overlooked the iact that war was one of the greatest of human paradoxes. It was futile, wasteful, horrible. Yet to wage it successfully tlie soldiers of a nation must, possess and use the finest qualities of which tlie human race was capable. These were not so much material or physical qualities, but the great spiritual qualities of courage, unselfishness, loyalty, endurance and patience. The best soldiers had a good measure of these qualities, and without them the physical qualities were useless. The Horrors of War. Advocates of peace, in their enthusiasm, had drawn a lurid picture of war. They had painted in dark colours the fear, the risk of death, the pain and penalty of being maimed. And again they were right. The great majority of soldiers admitted, at any rate at times, to a sense of fear. A great many' were killed, and still more were wounded for life. “We can't vouch for the feelings of our dead comrades, but at a gathering of old soldiers, do you ever hear talk of their wounds?” asked Colonel Weston. Ti e thoughts uppermost iu their minds were of the enduring comradeship, the interest, the excitement, the thrill of it. They said, weighing up everything carefully and solemnly, that they would never have missed the great adventure whatever the price. They regarded it as a gift of tlie Gods to have had a part in it. There were many who for some good reasons, health or family ties, could not go. They were tlie unfortunate ones, and in years to come they would curse their luck. "Even among the crippled—those exservicemcn who today through advancing years are finding their wounds no longer a handicap in life but an intolerable burden —I doubt if one would have had his fate different from what it is,” said Colonel Weston. Some of his younger friends had asked his advice as to what they should do, and he had told them to seize the chance of going with both hands while they had it. The war was not of their making, they were not responsible for its commencement, and they could go with a clear conscience. There were an insistent call to ail who could go and their plain duty was to fight for everything they held dear, for this was at stake. As Providence had presented them with a great adventure clothed with duty, let them, take 'it with gratitude that the opporunity was theirs.