LOST IDEAL OF SERVICE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23489, 28 October 1939, Page 15

LOST IDEAL OF SERVICE

Sir.—Wo undoubtedly need someone to revive in this materialistic generation > the lost ideal of service. The pampered child of socialism regards the opportunity of serving his country and Empire from the same cynical angle as he regards everything else, even his own Government, its financial possibilities; and ns it is obvious that tho soldier's work is less pleasant, that his hours arc probably longer, and that his pav is certainly less, about 80 per cent of the eligible young men of this Dominion have decided that there is nothing doing. '' The same line of thought would presumablv load them to submit cheerfnil v to foreign domination of theso islands, provided the conquerors promised still shorter hours and still higher pay. At the same time, when the new Kipling arises, would it bo too much to ask him (and the illustrator of the poem in a recent Supplement) to remember that the English {lag is simply tho Cross of St. George, and that it is the British flag that has carried .the ideals of justice and fair play to tlie four corners of the earth; where it still waves defiance to dictatorship and oppression of every kind —except perhaps at Parliament House. Wellington, where the (lag, if loft to itself, would no doubt descend to the half-mast position as a last mark of respect to the freedom that has gone, Scots Wra Hak.