The Star. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1914. THE SACREDNESS OF PROPERTY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 1123, 17 December 1914, Page 4

The Star. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1914. THE SACREDNESS OF PROPERTY.

In a recent issue of the "Clarion," , , j\ contributor, Mr Arthur Kiteon, in reviewing some lessons from the great war, points out among other things that tho strugglo lias shown tis how much more sacred to the world is property than human'life. "War," he "writes, " preys on both. But a striking difference in their treatment is observed. Property destroyed becomes a • debt of honour imposed upon the living and their posetrity for ever. . . But what of the lives taken? Out cf . .the hundreds of thousands killed not one per cent is even mentioned by the Governments employing them, whilst any suggestion of adequate compensation to their relatives would be denounced as unworthy of consideration." The picture is perhaps a little

overdrawn, but it contains a degree

>f truth which must bo noticeable to •<■ everyone. 'ln a distinctly commercial ago like the present the economic aspects of war come in for more than iheir fair share of attention. It is

-, on this account that Norman Angell's '. books have a greater vogtio that the vorks of Lloyd Garrison, Tolstoy and . it'her prominent pacificists. The forftibr stresses.the economic and political ' arguments against war, the latter the moral and social. Hence under preibnt sociological conditions the econo.nio and industrial standpoint of warfaro makes a more direct appeal than abstract moral considerations.

Tho horror and indignation of the

world at the German atrocities in Bel-

$111)1 found characteristic expression in, protests, first, against tho destruction of ancient and costly edifices, and then, ■as an afterthought, mention is made of tho poor civilians who were brutally murdered by the Germans. sven Mr Asquith in ono of his .speeches instanced the burning of Lou-

vain—not the massacre of the inhabi-

iants—as the crowning act of infamy perpetrated by the Germans. Similarly it was not tho savagery of the

Prussians and their outrages on civilians that caused tho Pope to protest

to the Kaiaer. It was the attempt to bomb the Cathedral of Notro Dame in Paris, and the destruction of tho jßheims Cathedral that called forth the Papal rebnke.

It is strange indeed how in our present advanced state of civilisation (P) we reckon material values at a much highor rat© than human values. There is always money for Dreadnoughts and

other engines of destruction, but it is Another matter to find provision for the aged and infirm, and the dependents of those who have fallen on the blood<rtained fields in France and Belgium. The Dreadnoughts, machine guns and uowitzers are of the utmost importance to the Empire at the present time, but are not tho men who man the ships, and who go cheerfully to their deaths if) handle tho guns, also of great importance P Yet in the one department the Government will spend to the last penny, whilst in the other it exhibits a most extraordinary supiness, being fluite content to rely on voluntary sub-

scriptions to provide the blankets, V. Books, shirts and other comforts for tho men in the trenches.

The war has already woko to life new impulses in tho nation. It has consolidated the Empire to an extent undreamed of by the most ardent Imperialist. Perhaps it is not too much

to eKpect that it will quicken our hu- - sanitarian instincts and cause us to place tho htiinblost human life far above the noblest work of art. Perhaps it nay make us realise that the destruc-

tion of a hundred Louvains is not as great an outrage as the murder of injiocerit Belgian peasants. Finally, it may guide us in providing for the common soldier and his dependents after jfche wat is over and iuatify Mr Kitson's. X ' .-■•

pertinent question that "if one man gives himself or his sons without compensation, why should hot another give a portion of his wealth on similar terms?