CHAPLAINS AND CAMPS.

Free Lance, Volume XIV, Issue 724, 16 May 1914, Page 6

CHAPLAINS AND CAMPS.

War and the PackVem-Up-in-Cotton -Wool Theorists.' "V OJ$Ei or two chaplains who were in the camp at Takapau have made remarks of a woeful sort.. It is complained that' the language of some of ' the Territorials was not nice, and that (oh, horror 1) some, of "the men flayed football on a Sunday afternoon. . This paper holds strongly, to the necessity of observing -Sunday as a day of rest; but a little play on Sunday, after a week of hard work, is probably the best rest average young men can have. There is no more harm in a lot of youths, in camp having a game of football on a Sundajr afternoon than there is to a respectable family in town sitting down to a cosy rubber of whist on a Sunday night. If Sunday-night whist is wicked we are a very wicked people. Then, as to language: It is. perfectly true that the talk when thousands of young men of all. social grades get together, is not always quite choice. , - ■*.-.* * * But boys have to face the world and go through the ordeal of just such influences everywhere. You may hear bad language in every big factory and workshop in the land. Wherever big crowds come together, there is some bad language. • The boy who can suffer great . harm from profane talk is. not fit to be let out by himself. The strictures of the one or two chaplains who camplain would be reasonable enough if a _ Territorial 'camp were a Sunday-school picnic. As a Territorial camp 'is something quite different, the strictures are unreasonable and a bit ridiculous. The clergy have free access to the camps, and every opportunity is given them to exert a Christian influence. They can ask no more than that. They ought, rather, to one or two chaplains who complain would rejoice in so excellent an opportunity; "We are glad to note from the sensible remarks of the Rev. A. H. Walton (cur- < ate of St. Thomas's, Wellington) and of Ensign Garner, who was in charge of the Salvation, Army marquee, that the faultfinding chaplains speak only for themselves, and that the&e two gentlemen feel justified in sticking up for the Territorials who were in camp.