WIN THE WAR

Evening Post, Volume XCIII, Issue 48, 24 February 1917, Page 5

WIN THE WAR

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—Your correspondent, Mrs. May Ellis, in replying to my letter 're the "Clergy and tho War;" has certainly shown us her views on the subject, but has failed to give a rational explanation as to why the clergy are to be'exempted from all military service I, for one, cannot believe that the feelings of respect and love that a congregation holds for its priest is any greater than that between husband and wife or parents and children, though necessarily of a very different nature; or that the horror at the thought of what our dearest ones are called upon to do and suffer would be any greater if it were our parish priest instead of our own flesh and blood. However, granted that to a Catholic mother or wife this is- so, is it fair that the conscientious objections of one section of the community are to be upheld and those of the others swept aside? Mrs. Ellis quotes an assertion of Lord Derby's, iir which he says that the men who could not go into the firing line were winning the war just as much as those in the trenches. Yes—because tho majority of them are out to do so. They are giving their money, making munitions, doing noncombatant and national work of.all descriptions, with the definite, material aim of winning the war.

. \Vhat, actually, are the clergy offering us in place of their services.as soldiers? Let them come forward and offer themselves in the noble and self-sacrificing capacity of tending and healing the sick and wounded, or any of the many necessary branches of non-combatant military service. There are hundreds of women who would only too willingly. take on their shoulders many of the duties that the clergy now discharge. The special offices of an ordained priest could bo so arranged that they might bo performed by a much smaller number of men. The exigencies of this unprecedented war absolutely demand sacrifices and retrenchment in hitherto unthought-of directions. Why not hold Mass and Divine Service in one church,'where it is now held in two or three? . Such things-as-extra

seating accommodation' could very, soon! be arranged. Of course, I know that to the Catholic these things assume a muchgreater significance than to the nonCatholic, but, Sir, the need of men to win the war is not only Catholic, but essentionally national. . I assert that iS the Appeal Board sweeps aside the genuine conscientious objections of one religion it should be absolutely unbiased* to all. —I am, etc., '

A SOLDIER'S WIFE. 23rd February.