A PLEA FOR YOUTH
Sm,—The letter you published last week from Mr. Rayrner under the above heading makes depressing reading if it truly reflects the thought of the young man of today.
It is deplorable if thousands such as Mr. Raymer reallY think that their blood is about to be shed "to redeem the follies of politicians." Are they, too, going out to fight
weighed down by the belief that twenty-five years ago those others "died in vain" because the politicians have made mis- takes or—more obscurely—" because we neglect the Christian message"?
No doubt the politicians have made mistakes ; they would be the first to admit it. But to suggest that diplomatic blunders during these difficult twenty years are the primary cause of the present war is to show a failure to understand the magni- tude and the nature of that evil thing against which we are fighting.
Mr. Raymer's third paragraph shows that he is no mere materialist. He will, therefore, accept the reality of a Spiritual Power of Evil which wages eternal warfare against that other great Spiritual Power which we call the Goodness of God. History shows that there are times when this Power of Evil obtains disastrous control of the affairs of men. We live in such a time. Hitler and Stalin, Molotov and Goering, and all the thousands who delight in carrying out their sadistic cruelties are men wholly possessed by the Power of Evil, so that it is true to say that we are indeed fighting, not merely against flesh and blood, but against the Powers of Darkness.
To suggest that this great Spiritual Force of Evil has gained control of human affairs throughout North Eastern Europe, just because statesmen are not infallible, is an absurdity, and is part of a defeatist outlook.
As for those who died twenty-five years ago, perhaps Mr. Raymer will allow me as "a young man of the Great War" to point out that I and many other ex-service men resent being told by the young man of today that our comrades "died in vain."
Mr. Raymer seems to think of the present war as a sort of "second round," because we somehow failed to produce perpetual peace. But he should realise that the Great War was of a different kind from the present struggle. It was waged as resistance to an attempt at military domination. That threat was successfully averted, and those who died, so far from dying in vain, saved Mr. Raymer's home as well as mine.
But the present war is a different matter. The Russian Commissar for Foreign Affairs (of all unlikely people) was right when he told the Soviets Supreme Council that this was primarily a war of religion. We are fighting to destroy some- thing far bigger than the old threat of military domination. We are engaged on a religious war between the powers of the spiritual universe, whose instruments and servants we humans are.
If Mr. Raymer can accept such ideas he need not worry about being sacrificed to "the mistakes of politicians," and perhaps he and his friends could then accept a happier and less doubting outlook on their call to service.—Yours faith-
fully, W. H. ALLEN WHITWORTH. Framlingham College, Suffolk.
Previous page
