“Men on Opposite Side Are Not Monsters”

Northern Advocate, 27 April 1939, Page 4

“Men on Opposite Side Are Not Monsters”

[Speciai to "Northern Advocate ”] KAIKOHE, This Day. Dealing with the establishment and growth of wars since the beginning cf time, the Rev. M. H. Wybert addressed the Kaikohe Anzac Day service. He outlined the first war in the history cf mankind, and likened it to an argument between two neighbours in the primitive days, who each sought that which he lacked and which his neighbour abounded in. “Instead of obtaining their requirements in a peaceful manner.” he said, “they resorted to force and then began the first war.”

“Today we realise that the people in Germany did not want war in 1914,” the Rev. Wybert continued. “Unfortunately, they are not the people who rule Germany. “Today we come here to remember those men and women who fought for the war to end wars,” he continued. “We know now that that was wrong, but they didn’t. “Today the dictatorships appear to be arrayed against the democracies, and it will be an insult for men enjoying the freedom which we have today to give in to the totalitarian domination of western Europe. “War is hell,” he concluded, “but should it come let us remember that the men on the opposite side are not monsters, and that- they .are just plain peace-loving men. “It is not right to say and believe ‘my country right or wrong,’ but if we in this country are attacked, it is then, and only then, our duty to protect our homes as Britishers, with the gallant and immortal spirit of the Anzacs.”

The £1,000,000 gift from the Straits Settlement for defence has been sanctioned by the Legislative Council, with the recommendation that the money be spent locally.