The reason for conflict (From South Wales Argus)

The reason for conflict

3:14pm Monday 22nd October 2012 in Letters

I READ V John’s letter (Don’t mark the war) with mixed feelings. On the point of it being a political stunt, I agree that it is a blue smoke screen and that the Remembrance Day service for the end of both wars is perfectly adequate. The point that they both were a a terrible tragedy and waste of life is also true, but the reason for the conflict was hardly as stated. My grandfather came from Southern Ireland to join the British Army and served in France in the Engineers. He and the rest of the Allies fought to drive the megalomanic Kaiser and his Pickelhaubed, jackbooted thugs, back to Germany, not for any Marxist dogma. He, as many of his countrymen, came because he realised that if Britain fell, Ireland’s neutrality wouldn’t have been worth a light. Unfortunately, governments following the First World War believed it to be ‘the war to end all wars’ and were totally unprepared for 1939 (nothing changes).

NB The medals and citation of L/Sgt R E Trew, 2nd Mons (TA)( the brother of a close family friend) killed in Flanders, can be seen in the Newport Heritage Centre in the indoor market.

Derek Everett, Crindau Road, Newport