BRITISH HUMBUGS!

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17031, 3 May 1923, Page 1

BRITISH HUMBUGS!

DESECRATION OF TOMBS. DEAN MAYNE’S OUTBURST. (Special to the “ Star.”) NAPIER, May 2. “Is it any wonder that a great foreign statesman once cynically observed : ‘ Bah, those British humbugs ’ ? . . We British people are perhaps the most inconsequent, inconsistent and illogical people on the face of the earth.” This outburst came from the Rev Dean Mavne, of Napier, during service in the Cathedral, when he vented his indignation by protesting against the “ desecration of the tombs of dead Pharaohs,” and the non-observance of the spirit of Good Friday. “ Forget not all His benefits,” was the text of the Dean’s address. “ We British are perhaps the most inconsequent, inconsistent and illogical people on the face of the earth,” he asserted. “ We would go to war rather than see the graves of our dead heroes on Gallipoli desecrated: yet we look on with tacit approval, or at any rate without raising any strong public protest, while those of our race desecrate the tombs of dead Pharaohs and others to whom such an interference was an unspeakable abomination. “Again,” he continued, “we have made, and rightly made. Anzac Day a holiday, and our Government has passed a law to compel its due observance. Yet Good Friday—on which day our Saviour died, and from whose life, death and resurrection our boys derived their inspiration and power of self-sacrifice—is devoted by the people at large to amusements—competitions, picnics, tournaments and picture shows. Is it any wonder that a great foreign statesman once cynically observed : ‘Bab, those British humbugs!’ ”