The Auckland Star WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. SATURDAY, MAY 16, 1942.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 114, 16 May 1942, Page 6

The Auckland Star WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. SATURDAY, MAY 16, 1942.

the article published to-day in another column there ends a series of thirteen which have been read with keen interest not only by civilians hut by the soldiers whose training and achievement and spirit they described. The publication has proved that there is among the general public an earnest but largely unsatisfied desire to be told as much as possible about the life and work of the men in uniform, who have been mobilised for the vital purpose of defending, if the need should come, the soil of our homeland. That it is a healthy desire should not need to he said; it would be deeply disturbing if there existed among the people an indifference to the welfare and achievements of the army, or a teelin# of hostility. Happily there is to be found in New Zealand no trace of either Indifference or hostility; but there has been noticeable In recent months a tendency to disparage the army's achievements, and a readiness to believe that defects and shortcomings were permanent n they were temporary, or general when they were in fact confined to

1,1 ll ' 1111 l,s c r single localities. Too many people were ready to say, or that there was nc.thing right with the army, and to make no iH-jiice for the difliculties Inherent in the task of mobilising, training ami oi r;anlsation of a force of a size unprecedented in New Zealand. In bome at niy authorities this attitude gave rise to a feeling of resentment, leading to an unwillingness to accept any criticism as fair or disinterested. The one attitude was as unhelpful to the army's best Interests as the other. It is heped with some confidence that the publication of the articles under review has helped to correct false impressions, including the impression that the army, or any other armed service, thrives best without publicity.

The articles written by our chief reporter were only what they purported to he—a description of things seen, a record of impressions formed. in a necessarily hasty tour cf a considerable number of new military camps which the general public has, and will have, no opportunity of seeing- They were not, and did not purport to be. concerned with either strategy or tactics, with the finer points of training or ?L nrn ? y or P aniSt 7 tion ' or wi,h such highly Important matters' as aimy-air co-operation. The quality and quantity of the army's weapons could not., for security reasons, receive any. but general reference So it might seem that a great deal was left out. But what was not left out ® cc o. u s\s* a ™ st heartening account, of the living conditions and the spirit of the soldier. If the soldier's conditions' be poor, and if his spirit be low, then the army will be unsound, however well it may be armed and equipped and however experienced may be its leadership. But In New Zealand to-day there is an army in which the basic human material Is of the best. It is living under conditions which in the vast majority of cases are as good as circumstances will permit which is H hilh Sa L l £ a L ci M Gr o r?™ rs , or . raen are having a picnic. Its spirit is nigh. In it the New Zealanders resourcefulness, his capacity to helo himself and to adapt himself to changing situations, is being Riven Increasing scope. There is an earnest desire to learn, and to learn from 7L C cx P* rlenc e. Naturally and inevitably there are exceptions, but these are becoming rarer and their lease of life shorter. But In general it can be said that th<* army's leaders, upon whom rests the great responsibility of completely fitting their force for battle, have laid J®®'®"IlafLs°1 la f Ls°) mdat ? n atrongW and well. Much yet remains to be done—that fact Is realised alike by commandjers and men—but the army is getting on with it. It will be an army of which the Dominion can be as Justifiably proud and confident as It wants to be.