THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS SATURDAY, MARCH 22, 1930. SOME REACTIONS OF WAR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20520, 22 March 1930, Page 10

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS SATURDAY, MARCH 22, 1930. SOME REACTIONS OF WAR.

The flood of war books, noted in

an article published yesterday, has been lately the subject • of much critical comment. It is high time that a protest was made against this spate of misleading and mischievous stuff. If its general effect were to carry away false impressions and to clear the ground of noxious growths, there could be no complaint. That is not the general effect. Instead, there is spread a slimy silt which, in spite of whati ever half-light of truth may be reflected from its surface, can produce little of lasting value for life. No comprehensive indictment can be drawn. There are war books and war books. But there is need for the salutary counsel, given by the headmaster of Eton, that in the writing and the reading of this increasing output an effort should be made to keep mental balance. It is regrettable, as he says, that we should have nothing better to do than to write and read about the indecencies of the soldiers' life and the horrors of their physical sufferings, and should not find a word to say of the splendour of the courage, the unselfishness, the generosity and the self-sacrifice which . carried them through. It is beyond denial that there were indecencies and sufferings, but the thoughtless welcomegiven to the wholesale depicting of these, as if they were all or even the major part of the experience of the men at the front, is more than a defect in literary perspective: it is a foul libel on the character of these men. It argues a ghoulish taste in both writer and reader to manifest any fondness for this sort of thing, and this mental depravity is far more prevalent among those who now sit down in peace than ever was its like in actual happenings in the trenches. Probably it was inevitable that in the days of the war and in those closely following there should be almost exclusive emphasis on the finer traits manifested. Those days were marked by a wholesome satisfaction in the return of courage to its high place among the immortal virtues. Self-sacrifice ceased to be only a word for platform or parlour eulogy; it came to living reality. Praise of these great things got a new sincerity and held attention. From that extreme, however, there has been a far swing, and tales of libertinism and cowardice are become "as a morsel under the tongue." To know the truth is greatly desirable, but there is no truth that is not the whole truth, and this is being sadly forgotten. In this welter of sensational sordidness, whether let loose by garbage-mongers or sped on its way by pacifist arraigners of war, there is no real service to thought. The confession that war is a reproach in an age so far advanced in many ways is salutary beyond question, yet to attribute every evil thing occurring in war to war as its sole cause is poor'logic. It would be nearer the truth to attribute the evil to tendencies in thought and life growing through pre-war days. Given a habitually sober and clean manhood, confirmed in wholesome habits during peace, the outbreak of war would not necessarily mean any sudden sinking of the national level in morals, even at the front. So buttressed in Rood, those exposed to the late war's test came through it well, with convincing frequency. Thus was it with countless individuals. What if the whole strength under arms had been so well prepared 1 Among the most stalwart' arraigners of war was Ruskin, but he gave a high place to j the soldier's vocation, and clearly | would have resented any suggestion j that war meant always and cer-1 tainly the moral deterioration of all j participating in it. And it is equally J clear that he would have scouted the I idea, so well denied by Sir lan I Hamilton, that the foundations of j the temples of peace should be laid ! upon fear of danger rather than j fearlessness of danger. Fallaciously, ! physical and moral courage are often j Ret 'anrt from each other. There is only one courage, and it always | has an inherent moral excellence, j whatever be the sphere or motive' of its exercise. Tn the living reactions of the Great War this pedestal]ing of pluck was a tonic , gain for all the world, and to drop it out of the picture now, even to allow it to be partially smothered under recitals of fear, is to do violence to truth. Men did know ( fear then, but in their conquest of it they proved themselves. It is well that the war should have bequeathed to all peoples a deter- ] mination to be done with it. To 1 see it as an anachronism is the first i step to its extinction. But it is ( only the first step, and the taking i of the rest will' be beset with risk s of missing the way. "Nothing will •, be gained by any extravagant de- i picting of its horrors or any putting i of its features in false perspective. ! This sort of propaganda will defeat 1 itself. The extravagance will be < realised, the false perspective be j i seen, and the appeal be worse than 1 useless. ' That is where many of j these recent war books fail, in so far 1 as they have had any motive save i a mercenary one, and where many i well-intentioned advocates of peace ;

fail.' From this unfortunate reaction of the war a very baneful influence is springing, as Sir lan Hamilton notes with deep regret—"already our younger generation are in danger of becoming jingoes." No cause, however good, was ever served by overstating it. To the frantic boasts and foolish words of many a red pacifist there is traceable an effect quite the reverse of the intention. Loud ignorance about the ease of disarmament is begetting a sorry inability to study the problems inseparable from it, and putting off the day of firm advance. In the Naval Conference, to judge from reports, mtpre harm than good has been done by the impetuous spirits. Until whole communities become sanely enlightened, peace will halt on the horizon, and the pity of it is that in so many who write and speak about war and its overthrow an unhelpful spirit works.