War Fanaticism

Maoriland Worker, Volume 12, Issue 299, 22 November 1922, Page 3

War Fanaticism

Spoal*Jng at th© unveiling of the Cambuslang war manorial near Glasgow, General Sh lan Hamil'toh said they were there to pay homage to th* memories of t&e soldiers who fell at Belles-and Suvla, aii well as on the' wider fields of the West.

"A year tetgo I would not have thus raised my Voice against war," he said. "I was Oradled amidst the Gordon Highlanders in their barracks at Corfu, long since given back to the Greeks by Mr.; Gladstone. From my childhood upw[ard3 I have taken part Sin aU the trouble that was going, and have had no- quarrel with war.

"But during the pas-; 12 months I hare unrolled- too many memorials. First, the shouting of the captains, next these silent memorials! Nothing speaks Straighter than a memorial to a polltic'-ian, soldier, or monarch whoso conscience tells him he might have prevented war. If we are human beings with human , hearts, we begin to think .how best war might be brought to an end. '.'-..

"Whyr not now? Why do we fall from one convulsion into another and {find thj&t any '.fanat:c or adventurer has the power to drop sparks into the powder magazine? "The root of the matter is th's. We hay© never made peace. Peace was the last thing the. men who made the Treaties of Versailles and Seyres were tlilnking is what tliey wero after, "Peace .does not need, armies of occupation to enforce it. If it does, ft is indeed a peace which passeth all undereitanding, for it is, in fact, no peace at all,, but Only an armistice."' ;