Squandering the Nation's Youth

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22540, 3 October 1936, Page 17 (Supplement)

Squandering the Nation's Youth

WHILE the menace of war grows before our eyes and ' Britain and the countries of 'the Empire are being compelled to abandon the splendid ideal of disarmanent, too li'itle thought is being given to one of the most menacing consequences of a great conflict — the destruction, once again, of a considerable body of the most virile iiection of young manhood and the far-reaching result of that lost in the future. • 0ver,17,000 New Zealanders had died before the armistice was signed. They represented a proportion of about one four of front lino strength. The majority died without leaving issue. Including many stricken soldiers of the fame age group vho came home to die or live cfisabled, little New Zealand's potential loss in children can be estimated in many thousands, notwithstanding increasing birth control, and i>o in proportion was the loss of Britain and the other Dominions. So also was

tho loss of the Allied countries. So also if not more so was tho loss of Germany. The Great War was tho first which demanded full national effort and the massing of vast armies of civilians made soldiers for tho emergency. The FrancoPrussian war saw both Germany and France raise armies by calling up classes to the colours. Tho Russo-Japanese war saw tho, fighting forces of both countries expanded rapidly by drawing upon the unprofessional soldier already partly trained. Tho Turks and the Bulgarians met their war emergency in the same way. But not until the Groat War did the world see a demand made upon the whole man power of nations. And all tho nations squandered the best of their youth and rolls of honofir were filled with the names of men who left no issue to help compensate for the appalling loss. Tho same may happen again. Those who are in command of the professional forces want to recruit from the best. The physical standard of the services is high—and in time of war the age of the profesional sailor, soldier

and airman falls very rapidly. The life of the new recruit is short. The averago serviceman fights as an unmarried man. Ho dies without leaving a family or is broken in health before he marries. But the big battalions, that is, the largest body of the fighting forces in modern war, are militia, territorials or whatever the civilian armies are designated. There youth again is predominant, particularly in the iirst waves. The "Urgent" Reasons One reason is that Governments want the best war material, a term that may be apt enough, but exceedingly brutal to the minds of those who comprise the "raw material." A second reason is that youth—courageous, generous, will-iirg-heattei]youth—so eager to combine with a senso of national duty the spirit of adventure, demands the right to be the first to fall. Youth has always been superb in its readiness to sacrifice itself, and no doubt will be so again. Another reason is the dreadful economic one. Governments find it impossible to weigh ,the futiire loss against the immediate financial responsibility. They therefore prefer to have the services of men who cannot make a claim for separation allowance. They prefer to have men whoso death or incapacitation will mean the lowest degree of pension liability. And in any case the economic factor can easily be dismissed when, as is obvious the single soldier of superlative physical fitness is tho best man for the job. Still another consideration in drawing largely upon youth is thai the emotion o! pity for women who will becomo widows, and childen who will be made fatherless, has a much stronger influence on recruiting policy than have the promptings of cold reason which say that war Nliould not be allowed to make avoidable inroads upon population capital, that a vital thing for tho future of tho race is that the fittest should leave issue to retain, as far as possible, the virility of the race. This is more than ever important in view of the facts that the marriage age of men in British countries is increasing and that the birth-rate is falling. Every

Policy of Mode

Specially written for THE NEW ZEALAND HERALD by NIKORA.

year the older age groups are increasing, the younger decreasing. Yet war of the dimensions of the Great War will result in a much greater disparity between those groups that already are an ominous sign of race decay unless care is taken to ration out much more slowly the supply of man power from the ranks of the unmarried. Whore are the strong, (tin brave, tho fleet. Where is our English chivalry; Wild grasses are their burial sheet And sobbing waves their threnody. S-> said a poet long before tho Great War. a poet who perhaps was still thinking of sacrifice in terms of a particular class. The menace to freedom is bad enough. The menace of that menace, to the future of tho race is very terrible. Would the great, virile native fighting peoples of the world have survived to contest the out-spreading of the European races if in their constant tribal wars only the youth had faced the enemy ? Would tne Red Indians, the Pathans, the Zulus, the Maoris have survived if their fichting had not called upon all men of physical capacity for the fray? - Encouragement to Marry Apparently it is to bo left to the civilised races who have not yet been able to abolish war to run themselves I down through not using in war the commonsense which dictates that the cost of war should bo made good as far as possible by children and that, to this end, heavy recruiting demands should first be made on the fit classes of tho ageing bachelors and the married men without children, so that the young unmarried could have the opportunity to marry before enlisting. Said a veteran of the Great War, "I k.;vo three sons. 1 would enlist again to help them to escape a similar ordeal of the future, and also to take tho place of some young fellow who, at a recruiting office, ought to be told to "go away and marry tho girl and come back later." Probably it is too much to expect that this kind of commonsense will be applied if there is another war, but woe to the future race u it is not.