CAMPAIGN AGAINST TALKING

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23495, 25 November 1941, Page 10

CAMPAIGN AGAINST TALKING

Sir,—We should be grateful to the Prime Minister for the expression “simply siliy,” which you quote in your correspondence column to-day. It should be applied in particular to his own utterances and to those of Mr Nash. The Government seem to think that the patriotism of New Zealanders burns with so feeble a flame as to need a constant draught of hot air. I do not find it so. The people here are not in need of propaganda. Every individual—except those we read of who are not men and who are worthless in any case—is doing his or her duty to the best of his or her ability and it would be more dignified to let it go at that. It was quite humiliating to hear through the British Broadcasting Corporation of Mr Fraser’s bombastic talk in Egypt and Britain as to' what New Zealand would do. We know that what we are doing is our best, having regard to our pathetic and politically criminal unreadiness, but it is not what our people would wish to crow about round the world. “Simply silly]* also applies to the no-talk “campaign, which must be costing a great deal, to the benefit, only, of interested parties. The phrase may also be applied to other matters, as. for instance, the flying round of generals and Cabinet Ministers, and also that of the visit of the High Commissioner to Egypt. Are our men in the field such feeble creatures as to need so much encouragement and fulsome praise? If I know soldiers, they regard such tourists in a most unflattering light. May one beg the Government to check up Mr Fraser’s excellent phrase against most of its proceedings.—Yours, etc., R. F. W. ASHWORTH (Major). November 24, 1941.