SCRAPPING WAR RELICS

Evening Star, Issue 19760, 10 January 1928, Page 10

SCRAPPING WAR RELICS

DIVIDED VIEWS REMINDER OR INCENTIVE? [Spkuax, to the ‘ Stab.’] CHRISTCHURCH, January 9. When shown the cable re Manchester's removal of all war relics, Mr E. F. Willcox, secretary of the Christa church Returned Soldiers’ Association, said he could not express an opinion, as coming from the association, but he himself considered that the relics should be treated as sacred. There were war relics in every country in the Empire, and he thought it fitting that they should remain to remind the growing generation of the seriousness of war He contended that they were of great, educational value in that respect alone Mr J. J. Dougall, president of the Canterbury branch, of the Navy League, said ho thought the relics in Christchurch certainly should not be scrapped. They bad historical traditions, ami should impress rising generations with the necessity of defence. Besides, they were tangible evidence of the part New Zealand took in the Great War.

Dr Thacker thought there should be a certain number or relics kept in museums to show positively what barbarians we were,, and also to be of assistance to the. people in the future to delineate evolution. The bulk of the relics should be commercially scrapped, and the proceeds go to those human beings who had been wrecked in the war. When Mrs J. M‘Oombs was questioned on the subject, she said: “War relics are a reminder of war and war conditions, and we all hope that our community is joining with _ others throughout the world in working for peace. I think the Manchester Corporation has set a magnificent example, and everything that suggests the glorification of war, as these relics do, should be put aside. I think that to stand such relics of war as machine guns in public places keeps the idea of war before the rising generation, in a town on the West Coast a machine gun had been placed in a children’s park, and the children smashed it. 1 thought that was a fine action.” [A London message, despatched on January 8, stated Regarding them as useless and repulsive, the Committee of the Manchester Corporation has decided to remove all war relics from the parks and to sell them as scrap metal.j