WAR AND THE SOLDIER.

Manawatu Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 4372, 31 July 1934, Page 3

WAR AND THE SOLDIER.

General Sir lan Hamilton recently laid a wreath on the spot where 18 school children were killed during a daylight air raid.in June, 1917, at the corner of North Street, Poplar. In a. speech to the local British Legion he declared: “Go on improving arms; go on preparing to kill babies, and you will put an end to the wars of the future. Your little martyrs of Poplar have taken the first big step.” He said that British delegates to Geneva had been busy for 18 months now pursuing the phantom of disarmament and pinpricking other nations all the-time. “If they only knew the spirit of their own fighting men they would realise the delight with which the British soldier and his officers would hear that machine-guns were abolished, that poison gas was outlawed, and that we were now free to get back to battle-axes. They would realise that disarmament and peace have nothing to do with one another. For war to take on again its old romance and glory we must have disarmament.” There was no satisfaction to the fighting man in firing at something he could not see, or in being wounded by someone he could not see. Therefore, if armaments went on upon present lines the fighting spirit which Avas at the root of all wars would very soon receive its quietus.