Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit MONDAY, JUNE 3, 1940. A CLEAR DUTY.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 60, Issue 201, 3 June 1940, Page 4

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit MONDAY, JUNE 3, 1940. A CLEAR DUTY.

Amid the confusion of the retirement of the Allied forces in Northern France one aspect stands out m clear relief, heartening to the Empire. Under the most desperate circumstances, hardpressed by overwhelmingly stronger numbers, the British Expeditionary Force has acquitted itself in a manner worthy of the best traditions of the Army. Even when driven to the coast the men presented as gallant a front as if the relative positions were reversed. As Mr Duff Cooper said in a broadcast last week, the British and French armies have not been defeated, let alone destroyed. An action may be lost, but defeat comes only when morale is so crushed that recovery is impossible* True, the loss of territory jr grave, particularly to the French, but the spirit of the troops or of the people has not been broken. Whatever other aspects there may be, one of the deciding factors was the defection of King Leopold, which placed upon the Allies a burden that was as unexpected as it was weighty. Describing the German advance, Mr Duff Cooper said in his broadcast: It is the story of August, 1914, and of March, 1918, and let us hope it will find the same ending as those stories found.” While it would be misleading to carry too far consideration of the Resemblance of the present position to the two cited, some points of similarity cannot be overlooked. In many ways the events of March, 1918, present the closer analogy. .An enemy attack of tremendous violence, was launched on a specially selected sector, aided by new tactics prepared for the*occasion. The army on which it fell crumbled, the front was broken, the troops massed to exploit any gain poured through the opening. Ihe advancing Germans swept up to and, in places, beyond the line from which they had been turned back in 1914, flooding over territory which had been fhought permanently won back. The Allied armies were tried to the uttermost in opposing the onrush, but eventually they brought it to a standstill. Then, with but a brief breathing-space, they were rallied to a counter-attack which brought the war to an end. ‘‘On each of those occasions,” said Mr Duff Cooper, “it seemed to many of the faint-hearted that the war was lost. But it never was andall these events which seemed disastrous at the time proved but a prelude to victory.” All the conditions are not duplicated now, but there is enough resemblance to justify support for the Minister’s call for steadfastness. AboVe all, apart altogether from any selfish regard to individual freedom ,in the future, is it the duty of New Zealand with the other dominions and colonies, to prove, by whole-hearted support of the Mother Country in every possible way, our sincere gratitude for the protecting arms under which alone our present material privileges could have been achieved.