ORDER OF ST. JOHN

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 151, 28 June 1943, Page 4

ORDER OF ST. JOHN

SPECIAL SERVICE HELD Seven hundred members of the St. John Ambulance Brigade were present at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul yesterday when there was a special St. John's Day service. The GovernorGeneral. Sir Cyril Newall, read the Lessons; and the service was conducted by Chaplain W. W.- Lumpkin, United States Marine Corps, and the Rev. C H. Isaacson. The congregation included the High Commissioner for the United Kingdom, Sir Harry Batterbee, the commandery staff of the Order, and the district staff. Corps Superintendent S. C. Smjth was in charge of the parade, assisted by Assistant Corps Officer V. Boesley. The preacher was Canon D. J. Davies, who took as his leading thought a statement by Professor Marratt that real progress was progress in charity, all other advances being secondary to that Scientific knowledge and its application to industry and commerce, unless directed to constructive purposes and wielded with a spirit of compassion or love, might be a curse land menace and not a blessing Aid ous Huxley, commenting on Professor Marratt's statement, had pointed out that the eighteenth century had been' a century of real progress, said Canon Davies. Thinkers and writers of that age had stood for toleration in religion and politics and for freedom of speech and liberty of thought : Many great movements for the benefit of man had.been started in that century. '' This generation, on the other hand, had seen dictators and political parties rise to power by violence and ! treachery, and terrorism had become an- instrument of State. It had seen intolerance raised to the dignity of a creed and brutality regarded as proof of manhood, and had seen disregard of truth and lying propaganda' used to inflame international hatred and fear. The Order of St. John was a movement of compassion, and therefore one of true progress. . ' After the service Assistant Commissioner W W Dutton presented the Grand Prior's badge to Cadet OftV Small, of the Y.MCA. cadet division.