REACTIONS TO WAR

Press, Volume LXXX, Issue 24270, 30 May 1944, Page 4

REACTIONS TO WAR

TREND OF LAST FOUR * . YEARS ''***’ • DANGERS OF APATHY IN ' PEACE “Wonder and amazement” were^th^M; 1 only two words which he could flnffv?? ; to describe his feelings when he lised how New Zealand had berami,-; spared the desolation of war, and ljwp>''"' Great Britain had rallied from disaster of Dunkirk, said the Rev.-^fc*.-J V, Whiting in an address at a cheon meeting of the Businessmen’s Club yesterday. Great Britain, according to thony Eden, had not possessed a slngliii|j.' fully-equipped division immediately;*;; after. Dunkirk, continued Mr yet to-day she had ample mumtiftM&s* 1 and vast forces. Just at the'psycliSfe^ l ,. ■ cal moment when Britain wasMßoWj| to almost her last American 1 ,dw«p the United States had made a her of £3,000,000,000 in monegifta'. materials of war. raised up leaders in the hoijjraStr,’ , need. Only five years ago, Mr ChurcM’J had been in England a politician—a political refugee, a man-;., of no party, who had been forced out,; ‘ into the wilderness because he ■ been sufficiently brave to stand by his . convictions. His warnings about the?,.'';; coming war had . been disregarded;;;-;: and even derided. Just as the hour , of doom seemed about to strike, the , King had sent for him, and with sub; j lime courage and amazing ■’ j had taken supreme, command. W ,. -& Mr Churchill’s first duty, said tMT ", , j Whiting, had been to call on the cbmmon people of Britain for assistance. £ They had revealed true greatness and . /..j amazing heroism. This was shown in the many decorations, awarded' to, civilians. . ‘ To-day was no time for rest or com*..' placency or easy-going selfishness; or’? • spiritual indifference, he continued./ Every decent man in the Allied cpun-, -;- tries was-being called upon to in co-operation with, the providence/^- 4 which had operated in the Earlier Vt,; >. years of the war. Had we really the,.s&" moral stature to keep calm and keeper our intellectual and spiritual balance' t;when we heard that the “great storm” '-/ 1 !, had broken in Europe? “What scared about,” added Mr Whiting, “is, v : that if the storm doesn’t go the way xf we think it should, we may indulge in foolhardy criticism. Will we have , the ‘guts’ to get on with the great,!; , tasks of reconstruction after the; v fighting is over?” Peace would bring a tremendous; . challenge, because the seeds of hats had been so deeply sown, said Mr ■ Whiting. War weariness Would tempt people to cast aside the new burdens . of peace. He made a plea for the pro- ; per treatment of returned service*,'men, and referred to the difficulties . ‘ : faced by men who returned from the ' r . Great War. All the men who had been / reduced to being roadside peddlers in Great Britain had not been wasters; and the responsibility for treating.// those who came back from the pres* ent war as they should be. treated-lay with every member of the business community.