MAYOR DEFENDS REMARQUE’S WAR BOOK.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18805, 6 July 1929, Page 2

MAYOR DEFENDS REMARQUE’S WAR BOOK.

WILL DEAL WITH IT IN SERMON TO-MORROW.

Remarque’s famous war book, “ All Quiet on the Western Front,” will be dealt with by the Mayor, the Rev J. K Archer, in his sermon at the Colombc Street Baptist Church to-morrow even ing.

i “ I frankly cannot understand why this book should be excluded from some of the leading libraries,” said Mr Archer, in referring to the matter today. “ Obviously, it is not a book for children or for finicky old ladies to read, but it is a book which I think every strong and sane man and woman ought to read.

“ Of course, one could wish that certain parts of it had been written with greater reticence, but from the point of view of filth it is absolutely mild compared with the talk that went on in the military camps during the war. So far as I can see, the strongest swear word in the book is ‘ damn,’ which by most people is now considered to have ceased to be a swear word. “ Perhaps the most extraordinary feature of the book is that there is not a single expression of bitterness or even criticism concerning the men whom the Germans were fighting. The writer has not dealt with national rivalries, but with the abomination of the war as war. From that point of view, any New Zealander who was at the war could, if he had the literary power and cared to open his mind, paint a far more horrifying picture, and so could any one of our nurses who witnessed the tragedy from the hospital point of view.”