Free Down an English Lane by Margaret Thornton

conflicting thoughts. Yes, he rejoiced in the victory and in the cessation of bloodshed and strife; but at what a dreadful cost had this victory been won.
    Luke was by no means a pacifist. If he had been then he would not have served in the First World War, as he had done, as a second lieutenant in the Shropshire Light Infantry. And at the start of this recent war he had had thoughts at first of re-enlisting; he had been only in his early forties. But his bishop – and his wife, too – had told him, in no uncertain terms, that his place was here in his parish. And so he had remained, to be a leader to his flock, and to offer comfort and advice to the many members of the congregation who sufferedtragedy and bereavement, or just weariness and depression during the long years of the war. There had been problems a-plenty in the little town of Middlebeck and Luke had known he was in the right place.
    But he was a peace-loving man and he abhorred war and all that it entailed. What was war, when all was said and done, but a demonstration of man’s greed and the desire to possess what he believed was rightfully his, and to subdue others to his own way of thinking? His wife had often said that if women were left to sort out the affairs of state then there would be no conflict between nations. It could all be resolved over a cup of tea. A very simplistic view, but maybe there was something in what she said.
    Did the end justify the means? This was what he often asked himself. Archie Tremaine had been of the same opinion, he recalled. His son, Bruce, had become a pilot late on in the war. How they had hoped and prayed, Becky and himself, Archie had told him, that the war would be over before he was old enough to enlist. Alas, that was not to be; and Archie’s concern, once the young man had started flying – apart from his constant anxiety for his son’s safety, of course – was that he could have been involved in the devastating attacks against the city of Dresden. Bruce had never actually told them so, but Archie had wondered and had asked himself whether such an onslaught, killing thousands ofinnocent people, could ever be justified. Luke had empathised, knowing how he would have felt if a son of his had been involved.
    And now Luke was asking himself the same question over the recent catastrophic assault on Japan. He had followed with mounting dread the news of the ‘Forgotten Army’, the British troops still fighting in the Far East. There had been furious resistance by the Japanese against any attempt to land in their country. The Allied leaders knew that over a million British and American prisoners of war would be massacred if Japan was to be stormed in November, as had been planned.
    And then, on the sixth of August, the war in the Far East had been brought to its conclusion when a US Army Air Corps bomber had dropped the first atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima. This had caused eighty thousand deaths. And the second bomb dropped on Nagasaki on the ninth of August had resulted in forty thousand more. On the fourteenth of August the Japanese had accepted the demands of the Allies; and in Britain, on the fifteenth of August the day had been celebrated as Victory over Japan day.
    And their own Victory tea party and concert for the folk of Middlebeck had taken place yesterday. How trivial it all seemed, Luke mused, when one considered the global situation. The Second World War – and after the first it had been believed that there would never be another one – had resulted inover forty million deaths throughout the world.
    But men and women must be given a chance to celebrate. They needed to give thanks and to look forward with renewed hope to what the future might bring; but never must anyone forget at what a tremendous cost this victory had been won.
    Luke bowed his head in prayer… Lord, help me to think aright, and to set aside my depressing and gloomy thoughts. Help me, please, Lord, with the words I say, that I