NO GLORY IN WAR

Stratford Evening Post, Volume III, Issue 346, 29 April 1935, Page 5

NO GLORY IN WAR

"JUST DOESN'T E^IST" ANZAC DAY AT CHRISTCHURCWv The waste of war and the absence of glory so often lauded TnSconnection with it were points made: by Mr. B. J. Jacobs, president of the Wellington district R.S.A;; in-an- Anzae Day address at Christchurch, k

Mr. Jacobs said that' when tho Great War broke out the whole o! man's scientific faculties, inven!tiv<? and mechanical genius became diverted into one single channel —thp wholesale destruction of life and limb and property—and to what purpose only those of the war period could properly testify. "I can only imagine," Mr. Jacobs said, "that tho boys and girls of today are of a constitution similar to those of our time. I suppose they derive the same thrills from their perusal of history and from stories and poems that have war for their background that they dream the same dreams of the glories of war to be won and the heroisms to be performed, and generally of the gay trappings and the panoply of arms. Here, I suggest, lies out great debt, our great obligation to the gen erations that are to follow us. Those that are with us should be Aught by us that such things as oceumn these adolescent dreams do not exist in modern warfare as we saw it, and what we saw can only be intensified i-i any wars of the future. Wo were able to witness that war is no longer a conflict of soldiers —it is a literal conflict of nations, at a bloodv

cost of life and limb that runs into millions, of senseless destruction of

property that runs into millions, and

an insane expenditure of wasted wealth that runs into millions. Welter of Blood and Filth "As for the glory of it—well, it, in*t r>no«,n.'t. exist. We who were privileged to take active Dart in it know that it, merelv a welter of blood and rrmd and filth. Ro mv chief message fo" this Ansae P».v is that we should nil pledge nnrselves bv the lessors o" war drying our time to h« missionaries and ac.Hvn pr^neho-s—----preachers amongst thos n who immediately follow us for the, establishment and support of evof movement nnrl genuine institution that, has fiv its trio oblect the permanent maintenance nnd preservation " f peace. Tliev then in their turn wMI bo able similarlv to instruct, thofeo that are to eome nfte' 1 them. T sha'l content mvself bv savins; that w.« •honUi all h° ivoud ro recognise the fart, that, of all the nations r»"oat PHtaln. bos bprni most sincere in h*r efforts and practices towards th« r'esirablo end of the world peaeo. Tinfortunately, th«* ultimate sronl is not vnf reached, and to its attmiment w» should individuallv and as a nation' lend aid and ""oonrnfirement of which we are capable. Tf onlv some part, of «uch a consummation could ho ascribed to Anzac Day, then thank God for Anzac Day.''