N.Z. CENTENNAK

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22983, 1 April 1940, Page 6

N.Z. CENTENNAK

CELEBRATIONS AT if® AKAROA K CHANGED ARRANGEMENTS ffl AFTER POSTPONEMENT * New arrangements for the natlor centennial celebrations at Akaroa, ma 3 necessary by the postponement for a, fortnight because of the death of t Prime Minister, were discussed at meeting of the Akaroa Centenn « Celebrations Committee, over whi Bf the Mayor of Akaroa, Mr F. Dai) St presided. 5S A motion was passed thanking 1 !»j Government for the . preparatic gj, made for the national celebrations which will now be held on April Hi 1 and for its willingness and co-opera?. l tion with the committee in makingj ■« celebrations as impressive as poriS ft in commemoration of the historical Jb penihgs of a hundred years agr Th ay committee, though expressing iisai poinjment at the absolutely neissai gu postponement, decided to wit the preparations for the celelatioi a with every possible effort. { Members of the committee ijporit * C that many relatives of peoplein 11 tE-1 district were at present visitir Ak at roa and the bays, and it was igretU that many could not stay dtil tl g-i postponed celebrations took tace. was decided to assist visitors a far a possible to get over this difSulty. r* To entertain those who wold lia to leave before the celebratips to r*el place, it was decided to hold vgard old] party in Mr R. Bruce's grouris. a: preparations were made acceding jgg. Progress was reported with 1e pi (kg cession of historic floats whih w 1 take place, during the celebraions '7®i Akaroa. Most of the floats being < ganised by residents in th' bays a fill Akaroa were reported to pe in p ax 1 para tion. It was left to tfe pageant *oJ)committee to make final arangemei Alterations to Pregramme Some alterations to tfje committs celebrations were considered net [jl sary, and it was decifed to hold . centennial ball on Apprl 2? instead ■■ April 25, which is Amac\Day. ' 7 national day will noiw bd on Saturc t April 20, and the othurch oglebrati 1 and reopening of thfe renovated chu r , at the Kaik, AkaroA, on Sunday, A , 21, The Maoris’dgly will be oh Mom IJjg April 22, and /the garden party 1 ««, centennial ballf on Tuesday, April L*. 1 after a procession of histoiic fi demonstrating} tableaux of hist events and pest and presents induJ flea On Wednesday, April 24, there wil ?lsl the Banks Rteninsula School sports, it. J a conversazione will be held du iQg_ the day anld in the evening. The secretary, Mr P. G. Riches, imported that the Traffic Department arranged,-for the control of all tr PIS. at Akaooa during the centennial ( |- bratiomp. Traffic would be contn £ right mom Little River to Akaroa, in Akyaroa two large parking had b«en secured to relieve the fic in I the streets. On Sunday, ■ 21, only one-way traffic would bjHu/v: lowecu on the Kaik road. The pa^B!? rs areas were the Akaroa High SqH.d playing area and a paddock in B®fe street offered by Mr E. X. De Li® jThje Wairewa Native School, iBLL, Riveir, wrote offering to make a c playl of native work at the Ak®jP§ celebrations. .The offer was acce®Pa It wps decided that a committee snjjtfs make arrangements for the displ^BB c this {work as well as curios, PlStt T graplns, pictures, and articles- of ■Br 1 toric interest in. a suitable buildinHlK the town during the celebrations. Brail The {Mayor reported that the Saralp Vase Irom the President of FrflHfel: would also be displayed. Mian M. Souritz leaves for MosctraK'^ The Soiviet Ambassador CM. who mas recalled after the KrflragGovern ment intimated that he Mb* no longer persona grata, has Bfep for Mo scow.—Paris, March. 30. HKj

e nninimpse our task, but „ Jpan now measure it in its enor- ’ as magnitude miore exactly than poi could before v V e came into con- . - with our adversary on the sea in the air. ,%e do not conceal n ourselves W'ha. trials and tribuons lie befor re tis. far beyond lla , thing we hcf," V e so f ar undergone, e i we know/ that supreme exeris will be ffi equired ftom the BritW( and Frend ; h nations. But we are itled to recognise basic facts, jjj Our resoy jrc e S and our manpower, e they been developed, masffceed those of,the enemy. ■f£)- and French races tojjrffer apmount to 110,000,000 against jjJi thsln 70,000,000 Germans, for jfli canlnot count the 16,000,000 they 111 hO W n Z down by brute force, rougm bur command of the sea, ich lit becoming continually more npletfe, the resources of the world ; to fa very large extent open to ant®, surveying the whole scene, maVy rightly feel good assurance .t iLJwe do our best we shall not Peabple often ask me, will the war loilng or short? It might have ;n|very short—perhaps, - indeed, rel might have been no war—if tujputral States who share our concerns upon fundamental matters d openly or secretly sympathise thus, had stood together at one Hal and in one line. We did not ttlft on this, and therefore we are t dismayed. We trust in God and phr own arm uplifted in a cause licra we devoutly feel carries with the\larger hopes of mankind. Ie fact that many of the laller States of Europe are terKised by Nazi violence and bruty ,into supplying Germany with p materials of modern war may ndemn the whole world to a pronged ordeal with grievous consciences in many lands. Therefore Hanot assure you that the war will ! short, and still less that it will i easy. It is our duty to try not lly } to win the war, but also to ITtail as far as possible its devourg course. Sympathy With Neutrals "Some few weeks ago I spoke Jout the action of neutral States ho have the misfortune to be Qerany’s neighbours. We have the ■eatest sympathy for these forlorn igitries, and we understand their lagers and their point of view; but tyould not be right or in the genai interest that their weakness Igald feed the aggressor’s strength id fill to overflowing the cup of pan woe. There could be no juste if, in a life and death struggle hh .an enemy who tramples down /ery sentiment of humanity, those (rho resist him remain entangled m be tatters of violated legal coaentions. “Hardly a day passes without fresh utrages of a cruel and barbarous iiaracter being inflicted upon the lipping and sailors of all European hmtries. Their ships are sunk by fine or torpedo or by bombs from ie air, and their crews are mm> ered or left to perish unless we re able to rescue them. Swedes, forwegians, Danes, even Italians, pd many more I could mention, ave been the victims of Herr litler’a murderous deeds. In his repzy this wicked man and the rimihal regime which he has conaived and erected increasingly turn leir malice upon the weak, lonely, nd above all unarmed vessels of ountries with which Germany is till ..supposed to be friendly. In tritish and French convoys there is afety. Only one in 800 of the eutral ships which have reported to ur protection has been sunk; but utside the shelter of the Allied levies a merciless, baffled, pent-up pite is wreaked upon all who come yithin the Nazi clutch. “Nearly 2100 neutral ships have igien destroyed and nearly 1000 seamen have been slaughered in Herr Hitler’s frantic enleavour to terrorise all who seek to frade with the British Isles. During ;he last fortnight 14 neutral ships aave been sunk and only one British ship. After all, it is we who are his :oes. Such a form of warfare has sever been practised since the effecWal suppression of piracy on the |igh seas. 3 “And this is the monstrous power which even the very neutrals who lave suffered and are suffering most re forced to supply with the means f future aggression. This is the

power before whom, even while they writhe in anger, they are forced to bow and whose victory they are compelled to aid—even though, as they well know, that victory would mean their own enslavement. “Why, only yesterday, while sailors from a British submarine were carrying ashore on stretchers eight emaciated Dutchmen whom they had rescued after six days of exposure in an open boat, Dutch aviators, in the name of strict neutrality and impartial orthodoxy, were shooting down British aircraft which had lost their way. I do not reproach the Dutch, our valiant Allies of former days. My heart goes out to them in their peril and distress, dwelling as they do in the cage with the tiger. But when we are asked to take as a matter of course interpretations of neutrality which give all the advantages to the aggressor and inflict all the . disadvantages upon the defenders of freedom, I recall the saying of the late Lord Balfour: ‘This is a singularly ill-contrived world, but not so ill-contrived as that.’ The Example of Poland “But all these outrages upon the sea, so clearly visible, pale before the villainous deeds wrought upon helpless Czechs and Austrians, and sink into insignificance before the hideous agony of Poland. Here was a community of nearly 35,000,000 people with all the organisation of modern government and all the traditions of an ancient State, which in a few weeks was dashed out of civilised existence to become an incoherent multitude of tortured and starving men, women, and children, ground beneath the heel of two rival forms of withering and blasting tyranny. “Thoughtless dilletantes or purblind worldlings, although the fate of Poland stares them in the face, sometimes ask us what is it that England and France are fighting for. To this I answer—lf we left off fighting you would soon find out. “We shall follow this war wherever it leads, but we have no wish to broaden the area of conflict. At the outbreak of war we did not know if Italy would not be our enemy. We could not be sure Japan would not be our enemy. Many people had hopes that Russia would re-enter the comity of nations and help to shield working folk all over the world from Nazi aggression. But nope of these things, bad or good, has happened. We have no quarrel with the Italian or the Japanese people. We have tried and shall try to live on good terms with them. Attitude to Russia “It is not part of our policy to seek war with Russia. The Soviet Government in its onslaught upon the heroic Finns has exposed to the whole world the ravages which Communism makes upon the fibre of any nation which falls a victim to that deadly mental and moral disease. This exposure of the Russian Army and the Russian Air Force has astonished , the world. But there is no need for Russia to be drawn into this struggle unless, upon' the promptings ; of obsolete imperialist ambition, she wishes tp do so of her own violence and of malice prepense. “Qur affair is with Herr Hitler and the Nazi German power. There is the head and forefront of the offending, and it is there and there alone that we seek to strike. AH is quiet on the Western Front, and to-day, so far, nothing has happened on the sea or in the air. . But more than 1,000,000 German soldiers are drawn up ready to strike at a few hours’ notice all along the frontiers of Luxembourg, Belgium, and Holland. At any moment these neutral countries may be subjected to an avalanche of steel and fire, and the decision rests in the. hands of the haunted, morbid being whom, to their eternal shame, dhe German peoples in tjieir bewilderment have worshipped as a god. 6 “That is the situation in Europe to-night, and can anyone wonder we are determined to bring such a hideous state of alarm and menace to an end as soon as may be, and once and for all,, Few there are tonight who, looking back oh these last seven months, would doubt that the British and French peoples were right to draw the sword of justice and of retribution. Fewer still there are who would wdsh to sheath it till its sombre and righteous work is done.” -