The White Ribbon. For God and Home and Humanity. WELLINGTON, MARCH 18, 1918. A RETURNED SOLDIER SPEAKS.

White Ribbon, Volume 23, Issue 273, 18 March 1918, Page 9

The White Ribbon. For God and Home and Humanity. WELLINGTON, MARCH 18, 1918. A RETURNED SOLDIER SPEAKS.

Miss Rout’s letters have roused indignation among the soldiers themselves. Mr Burnet, who was badly wounded at the Somme, and has returned ;o this Dominion unfit for further military service, voices the feeling of many of our young soldiers. We know that there is disease among our soldiers. The position is bad enough, but it is unnecessary and unfair to make it out worse than it really is. Mr Burnet is a fine type of the thousands of our boys who went from good homes, from our churches and our Bible Classes; boys who went at the stern call of duty, and whose ideals were too high to allow them to sink to the low level which Miss Rout thinks all soldiers live upon. We are proud of these boys who have kept their ideals, “our white knights.” We feel deep indignation for the many who have fallen because of strong drink. May the day speedily come when an equal standard of morality may be demanded from both sexes.

As a returned soldier, may 1 be allowed to say a little about Miss Rout’s letter. There seems to be an idea abroad that that letter gives a fairly accurate picture of the condition of things among our soldiers. Vet who is Miss Rout, that her words should carry such weight? It may be said she is on the spot; site has opportunity of seeing just wha is going on, but it is possible to be too near a thing to see it c learh. Miss Rout has evidently spe< ialised on the question of immorality among our soldiers, and for that very reason her pictures are almost sure to be too highly coloured. It may be right to warn the people of New Zealand that immorality is a bigger problem than is generally realised; but it i> wrong, it is wicked, to paint the New Zealand soldier as so absolutely immoral that the only thing to do is to g ; ve him a prophylactic packet in the hope of saving the race from extermination In venereal disease. 1 think of my old company—some two hundred strong, men of all sorts and conditions. I did not join them till after they landed in France, yet I know that when they left Egypt, after about a couple of months there, they did not leave luif a dozen men behind, and of that halfdozen, only one or two, if any, were suffering from venereal disease. Then again, during four months’ campaigning in France, I know of <>nl\ one man who left us through venereal disease. Then when 1 come to think of my own paricular mates, l can pick out half a dozen men who would lie terribly tempted if they failed to treat any woman as they would 1 heir own sister. And these were* men that I just fell in with by chance. I’erhaps had 1 been there longer I might have found cause to alter this picture a little, hat even then the contrast with Miss Rout's would he sufficient to give us pause before accepting all she says. It may be somewhat difficult to determining the extent of this evil, but surely there can be no difficulty in coming to a decision about Miss Rout’s proposal for lemedying matters. It comes as a shock to find that the issue of a prophylactic pa< ket to every soldier could ever be suggest ed ; but to find it definiteely proposed, and by a woman at that, is simply re volting. The military standard is low enough, but it has never yet come down to that, and surely it never will. No one who has not been in

the Army can realise how degrading is even the* present * moral standard. In the Army every man is treated alikq—as possibly immoral. Even now and then he is ordered with the rest to parade before the Medical Officer, and the* mere fact of attending such a parade tends to lower the mcual tone of his life. And if he be not strong upon his feel, it were an eas\ thing for him to become* actually immoral. If immorality is anywhere near as ripe* among our soldiers as Miss Rout makes out, is it not time th.it we raised our standard instead of coming down yet lower.' I here is every reason to believe that the* present low standards and unwor.hy ideals of the Army system are responsible for much of the* evil. In the Army the young man finds that immorality is looked upon as practically a necessary evil. I he medical staff sorts out the victim of venereal disease, but no authori ative voice condemns the thing itself. Occasionally perhaps a medical officer speaks, but his chief cry is, “Be careful where you go.” The natural implication is, “I know you must go somewhere, only be careful. In such an atmosphere, i j it any wonder that the high ideals of the dear old home fade away into a thin and dis ant unreality? Now, as a remedy, M;ss Rout actually ’-opuses that the* medical authorities put into every boy’s hand a prophylactic packet! Just imagine a soldier on leave in London with surli a packet in his pocket ! lie did not sneak in o a shop and buy it himself, stealing out with a shifty, guilty look in his eyes. It was given to him given by the highest medical authority of the land. Just when he needs a little extra help, when the pa'h is a bit slippery and steep, Miss Rout proposes to give him a shove down the slope. I’or that is what it amounts to. The medical authorities do occasionally hold out a helping hand, generally very neat and shaky, but for pity’s sake do not ask them to withdraw what little moral support they do give*, and deliberately give the soldier a shove down the hill. Even if the issue of a prophylactit were to reduce venereal disease a hundred per tent., it would be too cruel a price to pay. It might save the hoy from one of the consequences of his sin, but it would deliver him over bound hand and foot to the sin itself. No man yields to immorality without in the beginning feeling that

Ik has shamed his manhood. Physical strength is admired anion** young men, and so is moral strength. The man who is strong enough to master himself, strong enough to hold in check he strong passions that rest in the blood, is secretly admired and envied among those who are the slaves of their own oassions. So Isiy if a man is a man at all he will not thank anyone who can show him a safe and easy way to avo’d the consequences of his actions, but he will thank that one who will truly help him to master himself. The consequences of immovali y are often terrible enough, but to be the abject slave of the tiling itself is far more terrible, and that is what we must save the hoys from. If in trying to shield them from the consequences we give the evil a chance to tighten its grip upon them, how terrible is our responsibility. The women of New Zealand who believe in the innate purity and integrity of their hoys, who expect great hings from them, and keep on expecting great things, are doing infinitely more than those who come forward with such proposals as Miss Rov.« s. A mother’s faith and pr: ?ers are never altogether in vain. It is the military way, and it seems to be becoming the fashion among others, to put sentiment, as they call it, on one side ; but many a man has been able to stand firm simply because he could not forget loved ones at home who be lieved in him and were praying for him.