CALL TO SERVICE

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 34, 9 February 1940, Page 8

CALL TO SERVICE

LIBERTY AT STAKE

OLD CONTEMPTIBLE

TOWN HALL SPEECH

From one of the famous "Old Contemptibles" who took part in the retreat from Mons during the last war a large audience at today's recruiting rally in the Town Hall heard an appear to all men of military age to enlist for active service, and an appeal to those who for reasons of age, health, sex, or responsibilities were disqualified from military service, to help in other ways. The speaker was Mr. S. McDonald, president of the Wellington branch of the Old Contemptibles' Association and a former member of the Rifle Brigade.

Mr. McDonald said he was present on behalf of the New Zealand Scottish Regimental Association. He appealed for everyone to co-operate in all ways with the other members of the Empire and her Allies and to make all other interests subservient to that primary one of bringing this war to a quick and successful conclusion.

"I could not do this," he said, "did I not believe that we are honourably committed to this war—a war which has been thrust upon us, a people unwilling to bear arms against our human kind except as a last resort to stay the criminal frenzy of those who, for so-called national gain, are destroying the better part of our fabric of civilisation; a war which, until the eleventh hour we endeavoured to counter by all the means known to our diplomats; a war which we avoided until some of us were terrified of examining our consciences with relation to what was happening in Europe. "This is a war we have embarked upon, more in sorrow than in anger, not for material gains, nor for revenge, nor even to protect this great and glorious Empire of ours, but in a spirit of dedication to a cause that is greater than all of these, so that- the efforts of the.great liberators of mankind shall not be wasted, and that justice and liberty shall not perish from the earth.

"You all know how these ideals of justice and liberty have been challenged by the enemy. You will have been told how Germany metes out justice to its citizens, how she deprives one and all of every freedom but that of subscribing to her doctrines, and how, within her own borders and those of those States which she has recently absorbed, men and women have been so divested of their primary rights that they have not hesitated to destroy by suicide the human shell which was all that was left to them.

"I am asked by friends who have pacific leanings how I can reconcile the Divine injunction 'Thou shalt not kill,' with such an appeal as I am making here today. I regret that I cannot answer that —not until 'such time as I have reached that state uf perfection when I may witness the destruction of those near and dear to me without striking back."