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ELLIOTT ELLIOTT
ELLIOTT ELLIOTT OPTICIANS
oityAkt, Ut
OPTICIANS
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PERRI
Ex-Blarisi Bros:
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NO. 3,02.
SEVENTY-FIRST YEAR.
PRZOCE THREEPENCE.
PERTH, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 14, 1944.
Development of Allied Bombing Policy Causes Dismay in Vatican . . General Decline of How Warfare was Humanised in the Ages of the Faith and they *Vigorous Denunciation of Scorched Earth Technique The Rome correspondent of the "Da- one day see the lamentable consequgens Nyheter, claiming to be the first ences." It is not only the development of newspaper correspondent allowed to visit Castel Gandolfo since it was Allied bombing policy which is caushad ing dismay in the Vatican, however. It refugees that 18,000 bombed, says is the general decline of standards that fled there, believing that they had found a safe retreat in the Pope's cas- is to be observed everywhere, both in and park. He.goes on: "It is best the conduct of the war and in other There is especial apprefields of life. to state in advance that I do not intend to answer the very delicate ques- hension about the "scorched earth" the Germans are likely to which policy which tion as to whether the bombing, pursue when their general retreat damaged even the Papal estate, was What a witness begins. for military reasons. An article entitled ',Scorched Earth" may state is that the actual Papal Villa appeared in the "Osservatore Romano" while anundamaged, 5 was on March It began by saying of January 15 other building, which had no special importance and which belongs to the that the ideal of peace which Christhe world has alto brought tianity de Propaganda Pontifical Congregation ways had an indefatigable champion Fide, and is part of the 60 ha. estate, It was in the Catholic Church, whose practical received many direct hits. under the collapsing ruins of this build- genius has led her to adopt a maximum were and a minimum policy-the first aim500 victims of the most ing that ing at the abolition, the second at the buried. In antiquity, "By their bombing in the Roman humanisation of war. of the "Osservatore" went on, war was bombing the area, and especially by Castel Gandolfo, the Allies have lost entirely ruthless, not only in more remote periods, but even in the century a great deal of the sympathy which they formerly enjoyed among the popu- of Auglistus, the most brilliant period disapof the Roman Empire. The so-called now are people These lation. pointed and embittered, and in indivi- "Pax Romana" was based essentially The on force and coercion, and had nothing dual cases are filled with hatred. damage which has already been done in common with that "Pax Christiana" which Christian Rome subsequently adcan, on the whole, be repaired." vocated and which was founded upon The "Osservatore Romano.' of March charity and justice. day's 2, commenting on the previous The article then referred to the variraid in which Vatican property was ous efforts made during the Middle damaged, said: "And yet, modern technique affords Ages by the ecclesiastical authorities effective means of detecting even at in various countries, and by the Holy night time, selected targets which See itself, to mitigate and reduce to a should in any case never be the dwell- minimum the evils inherent in war; and it instanced the largely succ, ing houses of peaceful and unarmed citizens, nor buildings consecrated to efforts made during the ninth, tenth, religion, culture or art. Moreover, the and eleventh centuries to establish reprehensible and too frequent flying that Truce of God whereby belligerents over the Vatican City is a violation of consented to refrain from war on most Yesterday's at- days of the week and during certain International Law. tack comes after a series of most griev- liturgical seasons, and to respect not ous incidents, which are occurring re- only women, children and the clergy, peatedly in many countries, and which but also other classes of persons such not only do not produce any result, as farmers, fishermen, merchants and however slight, such as might hasten those whose activities were regarded as it the solution of the conflict, but contri- essential to the common welfare So in bute at an increasing rate to provoke was that, in that medieval period egoism chivalry, and generosity fearful bewilderment and dangerous re- which actions, of which those responsible for and cruelty, were so strangely combintheir repeated occurrence will perhaps ed, men never lost sight completely of
For Value and Service
Ethical Standards
tened out and crushed by armoured vehicles hurtling across crops and vineyards, alike the resources of to -day and the promise of to -morrow, are carted away by the enemy. And the directed. declined faith trains and lorries that remove goods when the ages of "But and the new day of rationalism, secu- and merchandise of every kind also larism and materialism dawned, all the take away men who are themselves rethe garded, according to the most modern charitable institutions which conceptions, as nothing but social and Church had devised were rejected . rejected as part of what was regarded political merchandise; there remain as an obsolete obscurantism, while hu- nothing but ruins, whatever else will manity marched onward-filled with make the desert more wearisome and pride and self-confidence-towards the scorched earth more painful to the aims which are to -day so discredited. enemy. Thus women and children are The men of the new epoch were sar- left, old people, sick and disabled pe,.;castic about the Christian conception ple, deprived of everything, without Under such homes, clothes, food or money; beof a mild form of war. conditions, they said, war would not cause otherwise those who survive have room to develop its full striking would not be faced by all the obstacles power; the clever might sometimes pre- which it is thought necessary to create vail over the strong, and it was only for them, whether material or human strength that should count. War was in character. Everything which is useful to the enemy must be removed, war!" It was no longer understood that the everything which can harm him must war Church's aim had been to bridle be left. "This is the abyss into which humanas though it were a fiery steed, and this with a view to its eventual aboli- ity, detached from its Christian sumtion. Nor was it understood that the mits, has fallen, the abyst in which same end would otherwise be attained entire nations lie groaning. To raise not by a road of civilisation and pro- it up again, to replace it on its former gress, but by one of retrogression and eminence human strength alone will barbarity. War would eventualy be- not suffice. The grace of God is needcome impossible, as a result of its piti- ed and in order that this may be gainless, its ruinous amplitude whereby the ed and that it may be fruitful, Faith, whole territory of a nation would be- Christian feeling, resolution of amendcome the battlefront while its whole ment, readiness to make reparation, the population would be involved in the rebuilding of our lives on the foundaconflict. tion of the Gospel, ali are necessary. Thus, thanks to the rejection of a Either our to -morrow will be thus," the "pietism" once denounced as "defeat- "Osservatore" concluded, "or else, far ist," we have found ourselves faced in- away on the new horizon, despite its stead by "the new conception of total promise of peace, of liberty, of prosair -warfare carried out by means of perity, of a thousand other things, the aerial flotillas," as the encyclopedias smoke will again rise threateningly, the say; we find ourselves treated to de- acrid breath of scorched earth will once clarations of principle like the follow- more assail our nostrils." The general decline of standards is ing: "The limitations imposed on certain methods of warfare on the ground the theme also of the Lenten Pastoral that they are uncivilised or atrocious, Letter of Cardinal Seredi, the Primate are due to demagogic hypocrisy"-"the of Hungary. "All earthly values are distinctions made between belligerents being dangerously shaken," he wrote. and non -belligerents are no longer ad- "Art treasures which have been carefully preserved for centuries are being demissible," "We find ourselves faced by the stroyed in a few minutes. That which 'scorched earth' policy, the latest ex- has been produced by the crowning ample of the law of warfare, its 'dernier work of creation-man-by the hard cd.' The idea here is to leave the work of many centuries, is being worn enemy nothing which he might find down and destroyed: and there is no useful, neither houses, nor food, nor hope of replacing it. The means of fields, nor cattle, nor men; to leave- exchange, money, is losing its value, because there will soon be nothing left No, worse than that, the desert 'scorched earth'l A programme which, to exchange it for. Human life has inperhaps become the least valuable of even when not carried out literally, volves such ruin, like that of ashes all earthly goods. Not only the solupon the soil, as to render unproductive diers fighting on the endless fronts are the regions affected. What fires and threatened by arms, but also the peace (Continued on Back Cover.) mines do not destroy, what Is not flatthe Polar star of Christian principle, made of it a goal towards which, in spite of every deviation, their footsteps were for the most part
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