TRAGIC REVELATION

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 13770, 13 October 1942, Page 2

TRAGIC REVELATION

EASY DESTRUCTION OF STATE "To those who realise the long toil of a myriad men and women which has built up civilisation through many generations, it has come as a tragic revelation that, while a thousand years scarce serve to form a State, an hour may lay it in the dust. "We had grown into the habit of thinking that nothing could destroy our way of life, and we have seen that, like a forest fire, an evil thing may sweep across the world and leae it but a ruined wilderness. "We have seen the great cities blotted out in an hour. We have seen whole populations disappear. We have seen the spirit of evil turn men into wild beasts and nations into drunken fury. "We have seen nations look on aghast with fear and paralysed with terror till they were but the shadow of a name. We have seen ourselves in the grip of this grave danger so that the foundations of Old England shook for the first time in a thousand years. We have seen the collapse of Europe built on shifting sands. "We should be fools and blind if we had not learned from this that there is something wrong in our view of life. It was not enough that we should be prosperous and comfortable, and that we should have great prestige in the world. It is not enough that we should rest and be satisfied, and trust God to deliver us."— Mr Arthur Mee.