The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo and The Sun. FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 1940. OUR TROOPS "HOME."

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 146, 21 June 1940, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo and The Sun.

FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 1940. OUR TROOPS "HOME."

for <Ae cause that lacks a6c:itancc. For the tcrong that reeds resistance. For the future in the distance, A nd the good that we cart do.

The long wait, the suspense and the fast-growing anxiety are ended and relieved by the news, which the Prime Minister was so glad to announce, that the Second Echelon has reached its destination. It has not reached its intended destination, which was Egypt, but it has reached a better one. That is reported to be the feeling of the troops; that is the universal feeling- in New Zealand to-day. The feeling of regret that the Second Echelon has not been able to "join up" with the First is submerged by joyful appreciation of the fact that it is in England: it has even been welcomed by a Shakespeare! The news is not entirely unexpected, but the voyage of the Echelon had been so long, and the secrecy necessarily surrounding it so close, that the arrival of the troops almost anywhere—even in New Zealand —would not have been a great surprise. Some day we shall learn the full story of the voyage, and the circumstances which caused the change of destination: it will be a story likely to deepen the sense of gratitude commonly felt for the everpresent protection df the Royal Navy. Meanwhile in many thousands of homes there is joy in the thought that New Zealand's soldiers are in a country which—though most of them have never seen it before—they have always known as "Home."

The Echelon sailed before the "blitzkrieg" began; it arrives in the middle of it. "You find us in the forefront of the battle," said His Majesty in his welcoming message— and it is literally true. The England that the Second Echelon is now seeing is an England beset by danger such as the men of the original N.Z.E.F. could never have imagined. They thought of "Blighty" as haven, safe and peaceful and beautiful. It is still beautiful; it is no longer safe and peaceful. "Blighty" to-day is an armed fortress, with every man and woman in it working to make it still stronger, and resolved that it shall be made impregnable. From the moment of their landing our New Zealanders and Australians will have been made aware of the peril which threatens the "Home" that is their heritage, and ours. They will do their part to defend it, and we may feel unreservedly glad that they are thei-c to do it.