"THIS SHINING THING"

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 206, 30 August 1940, Page 9

"THIS SHINING THING"

Tradition of Democracy

CO long as the English tongue *J •β-rives, die word Dunkirk will be spoken with reverence. For in that harbour, in such a hell as •ever hlws on earth before, at the end of a lost battle, the rags and blemishes that have hidden the sow! of democracy fell away. Tfcere, beaten bat unconqaered, ns shining splendour, she faced the enemy. They sent away the wounded first. Me* died so that others could •scape. It was not so simple a thing as courare, which the Nans bad in plenty. It was not *o simple a thing as discipline, which can be hammered into men by a drill sergeant. It was not tb* result of careful planning, for there could have been little. It was the common man of the free countries rising in all bis glory out of mill, office, factory, mine, farm and ship, applying to war the lessons learned when he went down the shaft to bring out trapped comrades, when he hurled the lifeboat through the surf, when be endured poverty and hard work for his children's sake. This shining thing in the souls of free men Hitler cannot command, or attain, or conquer. He has crushed it, where he could, from German hearts. It is the great tradition of democracy. H is die future. It is victory.— "New York Times."