CONSCRIPTION

Southland Times, Issue 24011, 29 December 1939, Page 7

CONSCRIPTION

To The Editor

Sir,—A house divided against itself—that is New Zealand. On the one hand, we have the churches, particularly the Anglican Church, preaching pacifism year after year, the Labour Party condemning conscription and, in the past, discouraging all preparation for war; on the other hand, we have no organized bodies insisting on the necessity of conscription and of proper preparation for war, but only isolated citizens preaching vainly to deaf ears. That body, which should, if it had followed the dictates of its famous covenant, been on the side of those ready to enforce respect for treaties and ready to resist aggression by being prepared to fight at any moment, that body, the League of Nations Union, namely, has consistently betrayed the Covenant of the League of Nations and done all in its power to make the League of Nations contemptible. So now the Government of this country is forced to advertise for young men willing to fight for their families and friends. The churches, using the endowments contributed by loyal citizens in the past, declaim against war as contrary to the will of God, even when, as in the case of the Finns, the war is being waged against a cruel aggressor. That Christian religion which inspired those who urged crusade after crusade against the infidel, has now become a religion for pacifists and shirkers. Where is the fiery spirit that urged on the Christian fighters in the good old days? We read that at the second Council of Ephesus the Bishop of Constantinople was trampled down and stamped to death by the Bishop of Alexandria. Our present bishops are too ladylike.—Yours, etc., J. P. DAKIN. December 26, 1939.