THE ROAD BEYOND

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 3, 4 January 1941, Page 8 (Supplement)

THE ROAD BEYOND

B\j Trooper

iTOW, it can be said, we have N stepped out on the road. This > the New Year—l94l. With a ertain eagerness we look forward 0 exploring it, to seeing what is liddcn round the corners of the lays and months ahead; hoping hat ere its course is run we will lave arrived at Victory. May it ndcrd be so. There is the (li'.-h-p. new-born mill (•car, lu try and see the ro.nl beyond. n n ivirlil -■> troubled a.' Ili.it in which \f li\e ihU desire, is }mmli.i)■- greater, lie r<--ti 11 of anxiety, anxiety fur kith iru! kin— I hn-r wlin.-e I'll if i> tn take 1 place in the- front line- fur the Into ,f imi- very c\\ Hi~.itinn il-clf. Of our hii:_' ur i-iin lip i'<-rt;."in: There i* only •me way in which w> ran po f"i'\viird, hat i«, with courage tn mpi>t whatever )!■- .-1111• n< I—iiii'l lake it on tin , I'liin. Problem of the Individual Every px-spr\'ippnian anfl woman realises the magnitude of our task. There is no evading the issue. N'n matter how many nations or races the war

tourhes. it sti.<&' remains the problem of the individual.- AYere it not so, then, all the ideal* ofl freedom, democracy and all we hold long since have disii pyearod. "We are not fighting for any particular section of the pt Immunity, but for the sum total of all '-.decent British-minded people think, an.* Impp for - as indi " visuals. There ma] be talk of profiteers and militarists, or '-prmips in our midst each seeking to |l -oseeiito their own purpose. But llicr-c Appuplt" cannot affect the opinion of the any more than Germany can .ttipose her purpose, unlc-s we let them. Majority must ink , .* We cannot turn ruir l>acks on our own individual responsibility toward the common problem of winning the war and the peace. New Zealand, like all nations, is a collection of people. Xatiynal policies are but the expression of tjhe peoples who make the nation, or ehonjkl be under our British ideal. The resp< Risibility of the individual is to think ffc'r himself and

for a Government to so order its decisions as to meet the concerted opinion of the majority. Nevertheless, war involves the putting on t>f checks and of rein!j;, the infringement of liberty. Broadly., spi-akinf: this is inevitable. But wcr*iiiiist '"' s , "' l -' that when our immediate objective, the winning of this war. is achieved, when victory is won and freedom aiul democracy secured from destruction by ruthlcjse aggressors, the will of the individual, as expressed by the majority, must rule once more. Fighting as we arc for this purpose, why then should we fear the imposition of temporary restrictions — unless it is that we fear or do not trust those responsible for their imposition. This the individual must decide for himself. Our young men go forward into battle. Their road not an easy one. Can we, who must remain behind the line, leave one thing undone that would make that road easier and shorter? If we do leave one thing undone, produce an ounce less of any or the vital needs of the time, or for any reason fail to send forward those vital needs, not only to our soldiers but to civilians, themselves in the line or battle in Britain, we are simply betraying our cause into the hands of the enemy and, at best, making our soldiers' road more arduou-ly dangerous and longer. "It ie the property of democracy not to search for its saviours from afar. It must find them within itself."