The parents and the home both need children of varying ages. That is the
way of happiness and enduring youth.
And lastly, the national aspect may be stated very briefly. If England
is not to lose her place in the world her population must be maintained.
Unless fathers and mothers produce an average of over three children
that population will not be maintained.
If you say to a young husband and wife with their one or two children,
"Do you like to contemplate that when you both leave life your country
will, through your action, be worse off than when you entered life?"
that is an appeal to patriotism, and likely to be a successful appeal.
There are signs of a public opinion forming which will condemn the
selfishness of marriages without their proper heritage of children, but
such public opinion will not be strengthened by an indiscriminate
condemnation of birth control.
May I end my speech with an appeal that the Church approaches this
question, in common with certain others, in the light of modern
knowledge and the needs of a new world, and unhampered by traditions
which have outworn their usefulness?
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