MORAL DECAY

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20864, 17 August 1942, Page 3

MORAL DECAY

ALARM IN AUSTRALIA PROTEST BY CLERGY CAUSES ENUMERATED (Special Australian Correspondent.) < 9 a.m.) SYDNEY, Aug. 17. An attack on wartime moral decadence by the heads of seven Protestant churches in Sydney has again directed attention to “the very serious condition of affairs that threatens the moral stability of Australian youth.” A published protest makes six points: Firstly, the drink evil has attained alarming proportions; secondly, young girls are falling victims to intemperance and through it yield to immoral desires; thirdly, preventatives are an official issue to soldiers going on leave; fourthly, the advertising and sale of contraceptives to the civilian population has become a large trade; fifthly, erotic stimulation is being caused by suggestive pictures in magazines and advertisements, lewd scenes in some plays now being produced, and the purveying through the post of pornographic literature; and, sixthly, the Government has introduced a bill granting pensions to so-called “de facto” widows, thus placing a further premium on the disregard of the sacred obligations of marriage. The statement is signed by Dr. H. S. Mowll, Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, the Rev. C. F. MacAlphine, moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Australia, the Rev. T. M. Taylor, president of the Methodist Church of Australia, the Rev. R. C. Turner, Chairman of the Congregational Union, the Rev. J. M. Crawford, president of the Baptist Union, Mr. S. Stevens, president of the Churches of Christ, and Commissioner E. J. Harewood, of the Salvation Army. The protest is widely supported. The seriousness of the falling birthrate and the rising incidence of social disease are stressed by civil as well as church leaders.