When Will We Do This?

Maoriland Worker, Volume 12, Issue 294, 18 October 1922, Page 12

When Will We Do This?

i "Wo are re-constructing our school books. We are going to teach our children history, without fiHiug them with" the thirst for victory over other

I people. Paragraph 148 of the New I German Constitution enjoins that the teaching of history in schools be done with a view towards International reconciliation and universal peace. t Already twenty German States are ' issuing the new history text books, I with the old vainglory of Germany I left out. } We are n o longer teaching our ch!l- ---' clrgn that Germany is always right land other'countries} always wrong, or I 'hat v,'e inherit the earth. : We are trying to give a pacifist : colouring to our history, and-.trying 'to point out, that ALL wars result :in a moral and economic loss and : disasit*. ; Of course, the professional ■soldier- ' ing class that is in Germany, hate us : for do : ng this. ' They live by war, htid ALL THOSE ! WHO PROFIT BY WAR hate us." Helnmth Yon Gerlach (a leading German pacifist—before the war, during the war, and always—Herr Yon Gerlach possesses that fine combina- j lion, a mind, clear, reposeful, idealistic, but at the same tim-2, intensely practical), * * * #■ '"Let there be many windows in * your soul, That, all the glory of the universe May beautify it. Not the narrow pane Oi! one poor creed, can caf.ah tho radiant rays That shine from countless sources. Tear away The blinds of superstition; let the light Pour through fair windows, broad as Truth itself And high as Heaven. Tune your ear To all the worldless mus'c of the stars And to the voice of Nature, and your heart Shall turn to truth and goodness as ' tho plant ■ . Turos to the sun.. A thousand unseen hands Reach down to help you to their peaca-crowned heights, And all the forces of the firmament Shall fortify your strength. Be slot afraid To thrust aaitJe Half-Truths and grasp the whole."