MORALS IN WAR

Hokitika Guardian, 6 June 1930, Page 7

MORALS IN WAR

Lord Moynihan, president of the Royal College of Surgeons, and chairman of the Council df Consultants throughout the war, contributes the following to the “Times” discussion on the conduct of the Army

I had, perhaps, as long, varied and ultimate a knowledge as any man or our soldiers (I include both officers and men) in all stages of their service in war—lYomfruit line to comma nil-depot, ret ’m to dutv. or discharge; from recruitment to disablement or death. I had not the privilege of living for weeks or months with men in advanced trendies or in dugouts, and I have no authority to speak of what .happened there. But unless the-act of wounding miraculously changed a man’s char m-ter and infected liirtl with Allotiortß and manners hitherto utterly foreign +0 his nature, I can most confidently assert that the pictures drawn of him mi “war” novels are so grossely innernroto as be exasperating and revolting. The war plays, including ■U’n nmst popular, may rarely and at rvM moments appear to come within range of truth, yet even then are so •-'“o'.'r r'uro f ens to bear witness only to +b« pitiful incomuetence of their °uthoes to see anything but the snrfnee, nr to read the minds and interpret the soul of troops.

A lie which is all a lie may be met with and fought outright. But a lie which is half the truth is a difficult matter to fight. The sudface of men was perhaps not seldom rough; their language may have 1 beep Rabelaisian, their ,behaviour not always the most decorous; XVar is not a Sunday school. But if'one speaks of our men in the multitude ..one can remember only their stout hearts their gaiety of courage, their prieje of race and battalion ,their nobility '• of spirit. I believe that t represent all nty profession when I claim that our wounded soldiers in their unquenchable heroism fortitude, steadfastness and infinite patience in time of harshest trial consecrated the hospitals which held them and made service for them -a- sacrament. 4: