ATTITUDE TO WAR.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXI, Issue 207, 2 August 1941, Page 6

ATTITUDE TO WAR.

SALVATION ARMY LEADER. AUCKLAND, Aug. 1. Discussing at a Whangarei meeting the Salvation Army’s attitude to war and the apj>eals by some on conscientious grounds against military service, Lieut.-Commissioner J. Evan Smith, territorial commander in New Zealand of the Salvation Army, said he had little patience with pacifists. “When the whole world is threatened with tyranny and oppression by the forces of evil, it is no use merely singing psalms and giving utterance to pious platitudes,” he said. “You have to do something to combat those forces, and that is what we are doing.” It was a strange fact, said Commissioner Smith, that many of the socalled pacifists who were taking swell a strong line in connection with the present conflict had not, so far as he knew, taken similarly strong action regarding the moral and spiritual issues either at present or before the outbreak of war. “Hitler is the devil incarnate. Wo are fighting against evil, and sometimes it is necessary to use drastic means.” said Commissioner Smith. “You cannot treat with a man like Hitler—-a man who is constantly breaking his word. We must destroy him.”