A HOLY WAR.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 14 December 1925, Page 7

A HOLY WAR.

FIGHT AGAINST UNDISCIPLINE. WOMAN J.P.’S ATTACK. Miss Faitlifull, J.P., who has been head of Cheltenham Ladies’ College, interested everyone at the final session of the Congress at Eastbourne. “Young people expect a higher standard of conduct from us than we expect of ourselves, and they are critical, perhaps not without reason. “We have confused matters of taste with matters of right and wrong, and lost influence thereby,”, she said. “Manv parents ai-e so eager to avoid growing old that they are glad their children, ‘to bridge the gulf of years,’ call them by their Christian names, and treat them with a familiarity which borders on contempt.” Many parents to-day did not know their own children, and did not know how to begin to know them. Sometimes they were not intimate even with thei?' babies. Bad Examples. “No wonder,” resumed Miss Faithfull. “their spasmodic attempts to assert parental authority ai'e simply disregarded. Now was the time for the Church, she concluded, to organise a great enterprise. “Unfortunately, many who should be best qualified to* lead were not anxious to conduct a campaign of social reform, and were responsible for much of the existing evil. “They are utterly undisciplined, and are extravagant beyond any justification; unwilling to endure discomfort, and satisfied to spend half of every day playing bridge; incapable of resisting any impulse, whatever its consequence.” It was not surprising that those in less easy circumstances envied and imitated women who were recognised as leaders of soeietv. Theatres and cinemas l'eflect the t-one of such society, and a low standard of conduct is popularised.” “We want a Savonarola —many Savonarolas” —concluded Mies Faithfull, “and a mission to the West End to set on foot, in very truth, holy u r ar, a new quest of the Grail.”

ASS-LIKE MAN. CANON CASTIGATES THE CARELESS . The Rev. E. S. "Woods, Hon. Canon of Ely, made a wide onslaught on the undisciplened of all classes, “unquestionably the cause of many social, industrial and political troubles.” Included in his list were: The so-called idle rich, who had never heard the word discipline. Working men who repudiated agreements made bv their leaders. Dramatists, novelists, and filmmakers with no sense of reticence. Football crowds who booed the referee. Holdav-makers who defiled the countryside with litter. Parents who would not control their children. Children and young people who would own no authority but their own whims. “All the serious lack of authority in the world to-dav is caused,” said Canon "Woods, "by chaotic thinking, sheer stupidity, and muddle-headed-ness.” Bishop Creighton had said that though the ape and tiger within us might die, there was plenty of evidence that the donkey still survived. (Laughter.) You could generally spot the man of undisciplined mind by his complete eocksurenesss. Undisciplined assertion of individual rights made liberty into license, whilst the assertion of unchecked authority by the few in the alleged interests of the whole simply meant tyranny, as in Bolshevism and Fascism. Mr Maurice li. Beckitt said it was simply ridiculous that women—between taking cocktails —should denounce the worker for indulging in beer, and that the gambler should deplore the attitude of tiie poor towards the racing tipster. What was needed was less obedience than reponsibility. Rev. R. D. Beloe, headmaster of Bradfield College, remarked that discipline was not a thrilling or a popular theme, though a headmaster once pointed.out to him that boys, at any rate, liked to he kept in order. (Laughter.) «r He himself remembered liking lack of discipline. If a man had to punish let him regard himself in part the culprit. for lack of discipline was in part the fault of the man in authority. At an evening meeting, at which “Christianty. the Hope of the World,” was the subject of discussion, ViceAdmiral Drury-Lowe said we should not gel, rid of the fear and suspicion amongst nations till we removed their anxiety about the possibilities of war. TTo "warned the British public that the next war would he “women and children first,” though in a very different sense to the application of the old rule of the sea.