MORAL RE-ARMAMENT

Opunake Times, 24 February 1939, Page 3

MORAL RE-ARMAMENT

ITS TRUE MEANING

BUNNY AUSTIN WRITES

(“Moral Rearmament” is a phrase coined in Britain last year to stress the need for a return to high principles of morality both "udividually and nationally. This it is claimed is the spirit in which disputes can be settled and which will make it possible for nations to avoid war). The recent crisis was a turning point in my life, writes “Bunny” /Austin, England’s tennis star. It an never be quite the same

again. For me life has always been full of fascination. I have perhaps. been more fortunate than most. My father, himself a keen sportsman, was always anxious that I should follow a sporting career. In consequence nearly all my most exciting memories are connected with games. I look back over twenty-six years closelv connected with hitting some sort of ball, of running about on some sort of ground nr court. I remember the thrill of ray first game of tennis—'the hours [ spent in practice without ever getting bored —my first tournament at the age of fourteen when to everybody’s surprise, and especially my own, I beat the reigning schoolboy chanmion. That victory, was the one that set me on my tenuis career. I remember it as a dream. The excitement made me ill. Later came Wimbledon —tours round the world--the Davis Cup —the mad excitement in Paris ivhen we won,the Cup—dramatic days in England when we defended it. What more could anybody ask? Surely here, if anywhere, were the ingredients of happiness. I travelled; there was. continuous change and variety in my life, I had the good fortune to be successful and, well-known. I was playing the game I liked. And yet, underneath it all lurked a. baffling sense of _ futility which I could not explain. Ever more repeatedly came the question, “What was the good?” Where ivas all this energy and effort, and the training needed tor it, leading to? What good was it doing me or anybody else? At Hie age of thirty-five I would be finished. What then ? I. could not answer. I satisfied myself by telling myself _ that oerhaps I was doing something to help Britain’s, reputation in the tennis world, and evaded the real issue by going on exactly as before.

Then came the crisis. We Aveve nil of ns faced with the possible destruction of civilisation. It threatened ray wife and daughter, my parents and all I cared about. It seemed uncannv to think of putting my baby daughter in a gas-proof tent. Tennis, did not help me. much now. One Avas prepared to do all one. could if it came to the worst. But war seemed to throw everything worth while overboard. Them was no hope of it deciding anything. I felt there must be some aim to go for which would give me whole life meaning, some cause by which the, youth of Britain could create a newvchilalry in the world. Then I saw the letter on “Aloral Rearmament” which Lord BaldAvin and other national leaders sent tq the Press. ‘‘Policy, foreign as well as domestic/’ it stated, “is for every nation ultimately determined by the character of her people and the inspiration of her leaders, by the acceptance in their lives and in their policy of honesty, faith in love as. the foundation on Avhich a ucav world may be built.” Here then Avas something worth going out for. It came clearer arid clearer that the trouble in the world must He in people; and if. people, could become different, the world would be different. Fear, hate, greed and self-seeking in individuals lead to fear, hate greed and selfseeking in nations. These are the things against which the nation needs to re-arm. An East End boy of ten put it this way; “If you want to stop Avar in the world, stop Avar in The home.” Moral Re-armament, I realized. meant first setting my own house in order —getting rid of

inv own weaknesses so that I in (urn could help others to get Free of theirs. If the world was rid of fear, I must get rid of my own —the kind which would give me ‘nerves’ before a big match and a more sjubtle one, fear of

the opinion of others. So 1 decided that the cause of Moral Rearmament must bq my cause, for only through the moral re-arma-ment of individuals could there ever be peace in the world. A great many others seemed to be thinking much the same. A few days ago, thirty-six prominent sportsmen joined in an appeal for “Moral It e-armament through Sport.” They represented sport of all kinds. There was George Fvsfon for racing, Len Harvey, who is training now for the heave-weight championship, Gordon Richards the jockey, and Len Hutton.

But well-known people can’t, do it all alone. Supposing there was in every club and organization a ‘live wire.’ who was out to set before all his friends an absolutely new level of physical and moral fitness. Supposing everv soccer, cricket or sports club was putting into section the words of the sportsmens’ appeal, “We believe it to be the task of snortsmen to assert the principles of sport —fitness, discipline nnd team work —so that they may be-

come dominant in the life of the nation.” I believe that this would be the new for youth for Avhich we are looking; that it would mean for Britain the birth of a new chivalry.

That old feeling- of futility just has no part in the programme. It is a colossal task—a great race against time, and against the forces of destruction. It calls for everything a man has to give. Twenty years ago in the, greatest war of all time a whole generation was. wiped out. Last Friday in the two minutes, silence I was thinking of those who died, of those who gave their lives that we might live and that war might never come again. And I thought of the debt we owe them, of hoir we the younger generation could repay that debt, of how we could build a glorious future for the world, if only we in our turn would sacrifice enough. And the words of the. wreath laid on the Cenotaph when Mr. Chamberlain returned with peace, came hack to me, “After all, they have not died in vain.’’ And in the silence I determined they should not be betrayed. _ Those words for me proclaim an irrevocable commitmefni.