THE NEW WAR.
MR KIPLING’S VIEWS.
Speaking at the annual banquet of the Chamber of Shipping in London last month, Mr Rudyard Kipling, who said that among his many weaknesses had been “an early, acute, and abiding interest in the mercantile marine,’’ declared that the recovery of British trade had been retarded by propaganda of ill-will. “When a nation is lost,” said Mr Kipling, “the underlying cause of the collapse is always that she cannot handle her transport. Everything in life, from marriage to manslaughter, turns on the speed and cost at which men, things, and thoughts can be shifted from one place to another. If you can tie up a nation’s transport you can take her off your books. Wo have suffered from one scientific attempt to prove this, which very nearly succeeded. For the moment, however, there is a lull in tne wars fought with visible weapons. We are deep now in the world war that aims to destroy the spirit and will of man in his home and at his work. A sound man whoso moral can bo gassed and gangrened in time of peace till he condones and helps to create every form of confusion that will ruin himself and his neighbour is doing more harm than 1000 casualties on the battlefield. It is cheaper to induce your enemy to cut bis own throat for what vou have persuaded him are loftv motives than to do it for him against his will. And this is the essence of the new model war—to create ill-will, which is the mother of despair, and through that ill-will to cxoloit the damnable streak in each of us which leads us to stop our own work and talk about the duties of others. The rest follows by itself. Our sane attitude towards each other must be that of goodwill—a goodwill just a little more persistent, just a little more indefatigable than the ill-will which is being fabricated elsewhere. For if goodwill can once more be made normal with, it must return that will to work which is the trade mark of established health in a people. If the will to work be too long delayed, then all that our race has made or stands for must pass into the hands of whatever nation first recovers that will.”
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ODT19250512.2.10
Bibliographic details
Otago Daily Times, Issue 19477, 12 May 1925, Page 3
Word Count
386THE NEW WAR. Otago Daily Times, Issue 19477, 12 May 1925, Page 3
Using This Item
Allied Press Ltd is the copyright owner for the Otago Daily Times. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons New Zealand BY-NC-SA licence. This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Allied Press Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.