STIRRING APPEAL

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 66, 19 March 1942, Page 8

STIRRING APPEAL

"BE UP AND DOING"

NEED TO REMOVE EVILS ;0.C.) WELLINGTON. Wc-lno.-'lay. A Stirring appeal that in ;ne present time of emergency the rulers of the nation .should try by every means they can to remove si,me of the temptations and opportunities for evil that lay before men v,a3 made by the Bishop of Wei'mct-m, the lit. Rev. 11. St. Barbe 11' '.land, when addressing a combined 1 •ranch meeting of members of the Church of England Men's Society. Recalling the speech delivered bv Mr. Churchill after iho fall of France, in which he called upon the people of Britain so to act iha- r.-.en in years to come would sav of them, •This was their finest hour," Bishop Holland said they knew porfictlv we'l how. through the siu-rei ding months. Britain had proved in the hilt that by her heroism and rocklike courage it had been the finest hour of lier history. Now, it seemed to him. the call had come to New Zealand. It seemed to him that, quite definitely, the question had ai i.-en wh- tner we were so going to bear ourselves in this critical and decisive moment in Iho history of the New Zealand nation that men would say of us that this was our finest hour. Those tendencies to doubt — the defeatism which had been evident among many people in the country —must be bum.--hoi if nicy were going to do worthy 01 Mr. Churchill's statement. Speaking of the workers in the E.P.S., the Home Guard, and thevarious women's war service organisations, the bishop said there was a dedicated bit of the nation but. he asked, what about the other bit • 1 hat is v.nat I am worried abom now." he went on. Thev a): knew of the saying, "Nero fiddling while Rome is burning." but were they quite sanguine that there were not signs of that same levity in the nation of New Zealand? Surelv there were moments of such crisis that the facts must be faced and the truth spoken by whoever was called upon to do it. \\ hen Sir Stafford Cripps summoned the British nation the other day in the face of the whole world situation to u more austere mode of living he did what we know he had a perfect right to do, and what our leaders here have a perfect right to demand of us all, and I wish to God they would do it. ' Now, in the face of that, when one realises the frivolities and worse tilings that are going on bcfoic our eyes and hindering the development of a really great national stamina and natiohal morale, one begins to feel it is time someone was up and doing. y ou all agree tnat in a time of national emergency our rulers should trv bv every means they can to remove some of the opportunities and temptations to evil that lie before men."