NOT ABSORBED

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 10, 11 July 1940, Page 17

NOT ABSORBED

LESSONS OF WAR

SPIRITUAL VALUES

TERIOD OF CHEATING'

The last twenty-five years of peace were characterised as a period of cheating between two periods of fighting by Mr. I. M.. Plimmer, president of the Scots College Old Boys' Association, speaking at the annual reunion dinner of the association last night. Scots College was born during the last war, and once again former scholars gathered with the shadow of conflict claiming their schoolmates for the armed forces.

"I think there was more to be learned from the last war than ever we could be taught at school, had we been receptive, which we were not," said Mr. Plimmer. "In point of fact, we learned nothing that l*3d any permanent value. We experienced the elation of a successful feat of arms after hard, bitter fighting; just that, I think, and nothing more.

"It almost seems that the hopes and aspirations of the founder, Dr. Gibb, have gone for nothing; at any rate, we are at war again," he said. "It would be wrong to say that this school is the product of war, but I think it is true that the beginnings of the school had some relation to war. The last war must inevitably have had some influence on the mind of the late Dr. Gibb to establish a school under the auspices of the Presbyterian Church. On the material side things were good in 1916. Money was plentiful, and there was every reason to believe that such a project would not fail for want of material resources. But boom years are unstable things on which to make calculations about the future, especially financial, as the school board found before'''many years had passed. COURAGEOUS DECISION. "On the ■ spiritual side, it is more than likely that Dr. Gibb reasoned that if he could found a school on the basis of the Christian faith it would surely be a sound contribution towards peace in future. In the middle of the most disastrous war in history it was a mighty, courageous decision to make. The school has turned out boys in the ensuing twenty-five years educated upon the ideals of Dr. Gibb, but we have not kept the peace. We might well inquire into the frailties of human nature. Fortunately the world has not reached such a pitiful condition that we must blame the children; upon them, indeed, rests the hope of the world." They were learning quickly that the ■issues at stake in this war were things of the spirit, said Mr. Plimmer. They were being taught that reliance upon material things would avail them little.: In giving the school a foundation of the Christian faith, that was what Dr. Gibb believed. It was upon the material assets of their civilisation that the attack was. being -made; all systems', political, religious, economic, and financial, were being tested in the fire of adversity. For the preservation of such values the Empire had staked everything, but they would win nothing, if, in winning the war, they did not suffer a spiritual revolution in the process. Their tremendous sacrifices must be. to the spiritual betterment of individual and national character, or it was sheer waste.

Mr. Plimmer spoke of the many old boys of the college who had taken up arms unbidden, and indicated their willingness to sacrifice their plans, ambitions, and dreams of life in the defence of their country.

The headmaster (Mr. V. F. Francis), Mr. A. L. Wall, chairman of the Board of Governors, Mr. lon Fraser, president of the Parents' Association, Mr. J. Forsythe, of St. Andrew's College, Christchurch, and Mr. T. E. Ennis were other speakers.