NO MORE WAR.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18540, 10 April 1930, Page 4

NO MORE WAR.

To the Editor of the “ Timaru Herald.” Sir,—l read with interest your report of the “No More War” meeting held the other evening in the Unitarian Hall, and I was not surprised to learn that those favouring compulsory military training made up the greater part of the audience; but, I was both surprised and grieved to discover that the militarists present were so mean and unmanly as to refuse a vote of thanks to the lecturer who did his job in the Great War, although modestly he makes no fuss about it. If this shabby and ungentlemanly spirit is the afflorescence of military training then every right thinking man and woman will work for its speedy abolition. An amusing feature of the meeting seems to have been the chagrin displayed by a local militarist, on receiving the lecturer’s reply to the question: What did you do during the war? Had this militarist really benefited by his military training which he is so anxious to impose on others, he would not have made the exhibition of himself that he did. But, not being properly trained in the art of successful attack, he rashly “went over the top,” rushed across “no man’s land,” and, of course came a cropper to the missiles hurled at him by his strongly entrenched opponent. “What did you do during the Great War?” he asked. “I served with the New Zealanders in Egypt and in France, and went through Passcliendaeie—murderous Passchendaele,” was the quiet reply. The inventive spirit of our day is so active that it is impossible for anyone to keep pace with it. And the new war machines which are calculated to annihilate whole populations in the course of a few hours, are so bewildering in their number and variety that it has become quite impossible for any military expert to master any one of them; for. before he has had time to understand its construction, it is supplanted by something entirely differ.eftf- gSßJP.uto’y raiitofi Siaining, «i

such circumstances becomes a childish waste of time and money. What could the drill usually given to our boys do to offset the effects of squadrons of radio-guided aeroplanes dropping disease germs and deadly poisons on large centres of populations from above the clouds? Nothing. Such being the case, would it not be wiser for us to abolish our present military methods and bring our defences up-to-date, by devoting our time and the £500,000 which we are spending so uselessly every year, to the cultivation qf international friendship, which would very soon eradicate all the causes of war? With all due respect to the militarist, I would ask him not to run away with the mistaken idea that only those who are prepared to fight blindly are true patriots; for, the greatest patriots to-day are those who are endeavouring to prevent wars. The militarist has had a long innings, and he has failed to preserve world peace; surely it is time some other schemes were tried instead of that which has proved a gigantic failure. The militarist failed because he tackled the problem of peace from the wrong end. He concentrated on dealing with war after it began; the new idea is to prevent war from beginning. Very naturally, the high paid military men will fight this new idea, not because it is a bad one, but because it may lead to their losing lucrative positions. Nevertheless. it is to be hoped that even these well paid men will accept the inevitable and fall into line with the world’s present needs; and, if their positions are threatened, I am sure the new patriots, now erroneously called Pacifists, would stand by them and see that they retained their present salaries, though they might be called upon to da other work.—l am, etc., PATRIOT. Timaru, April 9.