AFTER WAR

Evening Post, Volume XCII, Issue 41, 17 August 1916, Page 5

AFTER WAR

PROBLEMS FOR SOLUTION

THE CHURCH'S PART

The subject for discussion at the Congregational Conference last night was "The War and After." Mr. F. Meadowcroft presided. Tin discussion was opened by the Rev. A. M. Aspland (Palmerston North), who dealt with "Our Empire's Unique Opportunity." The after effects of war might, he said, bo looked upon as an answer to the causes for which we entered the war. The command to Jeremiah of old when the nations were corrupt was first: "Root up, pull down, and destroy," and then "Build and plant." No less decisive was the command to Britain. She had first to take -the step of rooting out the false and corrupt principles which Germany had sought to enforce, and would have enforced, if might had been equal to right. Then she must plant, in the fields where iniquity grew, the seeds of Christian principles. It was not sufficient to be iconoclasts. WORLD LEAGUE OF PEACE. The Empire's unique opportunity was to lead in the establishment of a great European partnership based on the common will, a world league to maintain peace and an international law court in which disputes would be discussed, and, if possible, settled They must agree .at heart with Sir Edward Grey that unless mankind learnt from this war to avoid war, the struggle would have been in vain. 'Speaking of the results of the war, Mr. Asptand said he believed the family tie would be strengthened, and that man's belief in prayer and the spiritual interpretation of life would also be advanced. ROOTING- OUT EVILS. "We must, after the war, tarn to our national evils, ■ which the war had revealed equally with our strength. We must root out those things which were a, menace to our future greatness. The drink traffic .and everything that sprung from it had had the searchlight turned u.pon it, and nothing worthy of its continuance had been found. There must also be a social tcconstruction, and employer and employee must be brought into a closer' relationship. The elevation of women would be another result of the war. The part taken by women in the struggle had done more to establish their claims to equal rights than all the suffragette propaganda. After the war, lie believed, there would be Jess of social distinction. After the part which had been taken by the Japanese, the people of India, and our own Maoris, a man would be judged not so much by the colour of his skin as by the principles which he held.

THE CHURCH'S OPPORTUNITY.

To the Church would come a grand opportunity for proving that the principles set forth in the parable of the Good Samaritan were more than truths to which we had given our intellectual assent; that they were living forces. By her attitude to the dependents of those who had borne the brunt of the battle, the Church would be either strengthened or weakened. The message of the Church would he more easily delivered, for men realised how true it was that tho way of the transgressor was hard. Mr. Aspland believed that the war would tend to break down distinctions.of creed as between the Free Churches, the gulf between the sacerdotal and evangelical Churches would, however, be widened. The men who had .seen the barriers of creed broken down in the field would not wish to find them here when they returned.

In conclusion, the speaker emphasised the need for a great revival, based on reason, not merely appealing to the feelings. This break down the indifference which had been manifested in the past, and would prevent the nation from becoming Vainglorious following on victory.

BEFORE THE WAR.

" Social Reconstruction " was the subject dealt with Mr. C. J. Nicklin, who discussed the problems existing before the war. The unequal distribution of wealth had resulted in some who produced nothing having far more than they could use, while, before their eyes, many who produced had barely sufficient or less than sufficient for their subsistence, and this within the shadow of the churches and after 2000 years of Christianity. This had led to great industrial unrest, which was rife everywhere when the war broke upon them. The effect of the war must, in the first instance, be bad. They would have to set to work to make good the damage wrought by the war, and perhaps not with the best of material.

EVILS OF WAR,

The speaker referred to tho work done by men who stayed at home. He honoured the man at the front, but he also honoured the landlord or merchant who refused to make a profit out of tho war. The latter was a rarer product. He had yet to meet the man who, in the face of the Government's halting, hesitating, overdue claim to 45 per cent, of war profits, had suggested that all should be taken. It might be paradoxical, but it was a harder thing sometimes to live for one's country than to die for it.

PEOPLE ROBBED OF FREEDOM.

As items on the debit side of the war ledger, Mr. Nicklin said that the Government, under t.h» nlnn. " MnH-.;..< matters but the war," had taken from the people freedoms which had been won in centuries of strife—the freedom of the press, the right to public meeting, and' lately it bad disfranchised the electorate. The New Zealand Government, in a most callous way, had made it illegal for a, citizen of military age to possess a conscience other than the official conscience, embodied in the tenets of the Teligious body to which he belonged. The inviolability of conscience was the greatest privilege of the race, and one which the Congregational. Church, had most prized. These rights might not bo so easily regained after the war, when they remembered how near " privilege " was to the executive.

SOCIAL INJUSTICE,

As some of the good things arising out of the war; Mr. Nicklin mentioned the partial breaking down of tho barriers between classes, the realisation by some useless people of their uselessness, and the opening up for some of the lower classes of a brighter prospect in life. Many men of Kitchener's Army were well clothed and well nourished for the first time in their lives. They must remove the gulf between the classes—the gulf of social injustice. To realise what was social justice they must study the principles of God's law as set forth in the Bible. If they did this, and realised that God was the father of all men, they would have to ask themselves where was the sustenance that God provided for all his children? They could not answer that without a blush, when they contemplated their man-made laws. God provided the earth for all men, and what right had they to make titles to portions of it, and' charge to their poorer brethren as much as they could for its occupation '!

The problem after the war would be the same as before the war, but its solution, might be revolutionary instead of ■evolutionary. Would they come forward and assist in the solution or wait until their fair title-deeds were torn from them ''

The addresses were received with great attention, and on' their conclusion the speakers were heartily thanked.