WAR BOOKS ATTACKED

Hokitika Guardian, 9 August 1930, Page 3

WAR BOOKS ATTACKED

ROMAN CATHOLIC PROTEST. -“Tlri&TJfai'yUtry of the days of old romance may ..have been misusing .from.. tM -bWOti-stoiiied' inud of' Flanders’ : fiehlsijihui oursoldiers fbnglif-like men'. Their deaths may have been, wholesale rind-in ghastly form, but they did riot ■iiihilike dogs,” says “The Month;” ther'journal of the Roman Catliolic diocese of Auckland, in the course of a vi.jgshsu| 'dehunciation of war 'hooks of' a tjvfee;: '{J ; y i.‘ ‘No—wax chaplain -or -returned- «el---dier*oan- recognise the obscenity ■ and J . bfasphefriy that stalk unashamed .the ..pages .of the books- of ■ w£ibli : *we “writb: as being a reflex ’ of conversational, .usage, in . the trenches, or'Tieiimcl the lines. The life of the sq|dier>was not.an uninterrupted waillofying. in! immorality; and the dirt of the battlefield was not of the kind to which these books give glaring prominence. .....

“If anything is worse than the books vritten by highly imaginative men ,vhq2tn{iy;• or ; may not have ■ heard' a‘ shpt fired it. is the hooks by Women.' In latter the limits of decency are loft si£faf behind as to need a' telescope of considerable magnitude to view them.

.... ~yp|. .time- • our people. rose ' up sin "theiiv’jjypatH. and., determined that.- '-no morep.sij.eh/ compound of filth' pollute the minds of the war generation and those who have, and will, come after. The time has long passed since the mudslingers should have been forcibly removed from the precincts of the cenotaph In common with decent citizens to whom gratitude is an ev6#flay garment, we : prefer to raise our liais.”' ‘