The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun SATIRDAY. MARCH 7, 1942. THE SINGAPORE DISEASE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 56, 7 March 1942, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun SATIRDAY. MARCH 7, 1942. THE SINGAPORE DISEASE

THI.MI-! .ui' in lie met every day now any number of people, old and ■'i ii,g \vl,.j know whs Singapore fell so quickly to the Japanese, and u,l '• nri-il not have fallen. Their explanations, necessarily lacking I •<••••«..niHi kniiw lodge, make up for that, somewhat important disadvantage

i' ilf 'I'ltfin.nii fervour with which they are put forward, and though '"' ■ v,;v ,|,PV have in common the characteristic of simplicity. So v «■ 1 ,,, " , a ili*;i.»ter .is the capture of the great bastion of British power I', i: '■ I .11 K.tsi (.m be accounted Cor in a sentence or two! We may y " '"i , *: 'Imi 'be historians, helped by possession of all the facts, or more "' ""' ,ai ~ ,lian ait available to any of vis now, will not find the task hi explanation so simple. Nevertheless, on the facts now available, much '■hi be learned from the fall of Singapore, but to be useful it must be lemnecl, mil with a view to the cheap condemnation of others, but to the « i.u itiratloii of our own thinking and the guidance of our own actions. i"ir Mime o[ the conditions which contributed to the fall of Singapore hit present m \<-v\ Zealand to-day, and if New Zealand should suffer an orislfii.slH "-mil as that which Singapore was unable to withstand it will contribute to the fall of New Zealand, too.

'I he reasons for the failure to reinforce Malaya and Singapore strongly enough, and in lime, are complex and obscure, and little is to bo gained by speculating upon them; but it seems to be agreed and cpftnln that a serious contributing cause of the disaster was the failure i" ii~' .-kilfulh and resolutely the human and material forces which Ull, ' 'hero. We arc told that a false confidence reigned in Singapore. .i cnnli leuce based partly on ignorance (which was in part due to excesM\e censorship' and partly on the unwillingness of the people, high and low to face unpleasant facts. We are told that the F,uiopeans. having for long lived In security and comfort, and often in luxury, could not entertain the thought, that not merely their way of living was threatened, I , " 1 thfii physical security, their right to live except as slaves of the Japanese or If they did entertain the thought, they gave it only a moments lodging, and they were not impelled by it' to uncomfortable find unaccustomed actions. They preferred to think that all would be well, because help was coming from outside, and that, anyway, the Japanese threat was exaggerated, because if the .Japanese bega'n fighting tney would light in another direction. Such, in substance, are the stories told of Singapore. Whether they are true descriptions of the mentai attitude of the military and the civil populations in Malay£ and Singapore we do not know; but—who will say that they are not', in the main accurate descriptions of the mental attitude of'most New Zealanders to-day?

Some will deny if. vigorously. They will say that at least the people recognise the Japanese threat, because some of them talk of little else I hut. too, is true; but the test is not what people think and talk about but what actions follow their thinking. What has been done in New Zealand, since the fall of Singapore, that would convince a foreign observer that New Zealanders are really stirred by it, and anxious about is consequences? Actually, the visible evidence of public concern is less than that which followed -the fall of France, which brought no obvious Immediate threat to New Zealand. That disaster was followed by the Introduction of conscription, by demands for a national Government, demands which at least produced a War Cabinet in which twfc leading members of the Opposition took their seats. This calamity the calamity of Singapore, and its consequences already flowing fast'and Jar, Is for Australia and New Zealand far worse. Yet has the Government, been strengthened In any particular? Has Parliament, has even o, ' ° f r a n" ament, P ublic 'y announced a determination that paity feeling, and all the cramping Inhibitions which it produces shall be scrapped burled and forgotten? Has it anywhere been proposed that both In civil and military administration, there shall be an Immediate ES'nfdSELmi "Vi lhOße "° Wlng tO physical or rtSSSS lock of determination or drive, overstrain or unadaptabilitv of temDera-Uli-L a » n lm ar "» cte [i are unable . fully nnd Bu «eßsfully to discharge their Ron wifh thVrnttlif 8 an /° ne , ,n auth . ority P ubll dy Glared dissatisfaction with the rotten Rystem in which men, because of the accident of age. and the fact of their physical fitness-plus a minority of volunteers Eh^ nd rt r mer !m bear th . e burden of «»e war effort, while a hort of ' ;J some willing, others selfishly Indifferent, are allowed to do nothing? Iβ there anyone in a responsible position who knows the fee, , ,n « on these ™ l other irsand wiU express that feeling? If there is, this could be his hour.