PATRIOTISM AND WAR.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 16, 16 December 1937, Page 16

PATRIOTISM AND WAR.

(To the Editor.) t Sir, —Your correspondent, Mr Young, says lie is sorry for me because I have quoted such an insignieant person as George Bernard Shaw. If Mr Young had listened to Shaw’s good-bye speech, he might have heard the advice he then gave to New Zealand, “to give free milk to the school children.” I am sure he would have joined in the general laugh with which that remark was received, but the children have got the milk and it would be a brave member of any party in our House of Representatives who would dare to deny its wisdom. I suppose, though most people know, I must tell Mr Young that G. B. Shaw is not to any great extent an orator, yet if he does make a speecli in public, what he has said is likely to get more publicity in the Press of the world than perhaps any other living man. His worldwide fame is drawn from his work as a dramatist, and he has written a preface to each of his plays, and millions of people, I am sure, would agree with me that those who had not read most of those prefaces at least once could hardly consider themselves educated. Enough of Shaw. Now I heartily agree with Mr Young in his last paragraph thus, “What causes war is blind and misdirected ambition, greed and selfish hate, that takes possession of individuals and nations.” The world is full of this blind ambition, perhaps never more so than now. My object in writing what I did was to again get publicity for Tolstoy’s unanswerable condemnation of patriotism. I like to get into print about once a year, because I agree with Tolstoy that until mankind begins to put the ethics and economics of the Golden Rule into general international practice, real civilisation cannot be even started. I tlrtnk perhaps if Mr Young had read what I quoted from the most consistent Christian and pacifist of our time and then tried to answer that, I should most likely have had no need to write again. Now Mr Young’s ideal, in the abstract, is also very fine. He says: “This lovely spirit of patriotism does not stir us up to go to fight and take other’s lands, but it does defy others to come and take our national liberties away.” Now there is my difficulty. He says “11s” and so perhaps means New Zealand or, again, perhaps the British Empire, but either way it flatly contradicts the whole of English history. We will, to save space, leave the Empire out and try to apply this patriotism to New Zealand. I must go back for the beginning to before Captain Cook. About the middle of the 17th century England and Holland were the two greatest naval powers in Europe, sometimes allies and sometimes enemies. Dates when they fought can be found in Whitaker’s Almanack. First some Dutch adventurers landed in Table Bay, South Africa, built a fort and started a trading post. Later, most likely there was a war on, an English force arrived, took the fort and the trading post. The Dutch took another turn and finally when England had grown to a great sea power and Cape Town had grown to a sizable Dutch colony the English came again, defeated the Dutch, and drove them over the Vaal River. Time went on and England, finding that there was lots of gold in'those parts sent out, shall we call them, gentlemen adventurers ! They left the Dutch alone in the Transvaal, and took what was afterwards called Rhodesia, but the gold'was not in Rhodesia very much nor in Cape Colony. Mr Young will remember the rest of-the story. A form of patriotism quite unlike his ideal was needed; it is called “My Country, Right or Wrong.” It worked, and I am willing to bet that either if Mr Young was in England or New Zealand when the South African AVar began he shouted “Rule Britannia” and sang “God Save the Queen.” If he was of age ho very likely volunteered. If so, would be sugeest that it was to protect either England or New Zealand from attack? AVhat did lie do when the news came through that Mafeking was relieved ? To conclude, one of the Springbok team when asked for a soeech after a match, among other things, used words to this effect: “A T ou have treated us splendidly and we like you verv much, hut we should like you much better if you would tell 11s why you were in such a hurry to come and help England to take our land, farms, homes, and lives.” AVe coukl not say We were afraid that they were going to attack New Zealand or England as the case might be. Mr A oungs definition of patriotism lets his case flat down; it doesn’t answer Shan , t doesn’t answer Tolstoy; it doesn’t even answer —Yours, etm, pjgE