RACING AND WAR

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 10, 11 July 1918, Page 7

RACING AND WAR

MOCKERY OR DUTY?

"ESSENTIAL TO MILITARY

EFFICIENCY"

VIEWS OF PRESIDENT OF CON«

FERENCE,

Reference, to the war and racing in its relation to the world conflict was made in interesting fashion at the New Zealand Racing Conference by the President (Sir George Clifford) in the course of his annual address. He spoke as follows :— "Our meeting to-day brings us nearly to the fourth anniversary of the first blow struck by Germany in her crimestained attempt to force a despotic yoke upon us. Relentless war with far worse than the traditionary horrors of war still persecutes the world. Every Briton worthy of the name has striven to bear his individual part in the universal resistance, and all sections of the community have vied with each other in collective endeavours. The ■ exceptions' are branded with an indelible shame. In this common effort the racing organisation of the Dominion has borne its conspicuous share Enemies of racing have Wd us that our continuance of it during wartime is a heartless mockery—we retort that it is a bounden duty. The supply of chargers is essential to the equipment of an army even where the modern motor-driven tanks and aircraft are available. Examples of this are frequent in recent operations in France, Pales-tine, and Mesopotamia, and only an ignoramus would deny the necessity of the racecourse test for the effective horsing of cavalry. All the warring Governments have had the foresight to preserve the cream of the Turf for this purpose, and, not least, our shrewd adversaries. Every conceivable preparation for future wars is ever in their, minds, and they knowwell that equine courage and endurance are qualities only obtainable by the use of thoroughbred sires. '

"While_ racing is thus essential to complete military efficiency, we claim for it that it presents no obstruction to war work, that it offers an antidote to the dangerous gloom engendered by continuous forboding of possible and impossible disasters, and that the large and ungrudged revenue derived from it is of material assistance. to the Treasury. As to the last consideration, it is calculated that racing clubs have paid in taxation for this season about £180,000. Voluntary donations since the outbreak of war probably exceed £100,000, and the subscription to War Loans £50,000. The taxation paid during the past four years will have reached and probably exceeded £640,000, and that it has not mounted to a still greater sum is the fault of Government, and not of the Clubs. We have readily submitted to the temporary curtailment of the days of racing, but wo fail to understand why access to courses should be purposely made difficult when it ie perfectly obvious that the railways are sacrificing a very highly profitable business for no perceptible or disclosed advantage. "We have opponents—some are curiously self-persuaded that we are the central figures of a, nest of iniquity. With these imaginative gentlemen, who have probably rarely, if ever, trod a racecourse in their lives, and who consider it not unseemly to utilise the war for furthering their unreasoning hostility, we cannot deal. Argument and proof are equally ineffective with the invincibly ignorant. There are, however, others who are honestly unconvinced that good and not evil accrues from present racing—l have already said something on this head, but I propose to ask you, in committee to work into practical shipe a proposal to devote all clear profits of all racing clubs for the duration of the war to war purposes. This would be more than any other institution has achieved, and will answer those of our friends who may have doubts about ths expediency of our perseverance. They may also have forgotten that owners of racing_ stables owe_ it to men who have been in their service,, perhaps for many years, perhaps for a lifetime, not to cut off suddenly their means of subsistence."