Battle Of Britain Services

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31168, 19 September 1966, Page 3

Battle Of Britain Services

The freedom a country desired for itself should be the kind of freedom it desired for others, the senior chaplain to the R.N.Z.A.F. (the Rev. W. Harford) said at the annual Battle of Britain commemorative service in the Christchurch Cathedral yesterday.

He told a near capacity congregation that although the Battle of Britain service was a time of remembrance it should also be a time for re-examination and for rededication.

“Re-examination calls for the acceptance of greater responsibility to the peoples of a world whose population is increasing by five every second,” he said.

In the Air Force increasing emphasis was placed on character guidance and moral leadership, he said. Without these qualities there could be no true base on which a nation could build. Nor could true leadership be exercised. “This is the only way to true victory. The alternative is enslavement." Mr Harford said that the choice 26 years after the Battle of Britain was still the same.

“The battle is being fought in Africa and Asia with focus for us on Vietnam. “New Zealand is in this battle because she can do no other as a free nation and because in this realm of freedom we cherish the freedom we enjoy in preference to the ‘freedom’ of the oppressed, who could be enslaved in ideologies that take no account for human per-

sonality, the dignity of man, or the fatherhood of God,” he said. At the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, the R.N.Z.A.F. chaplain at Wigram (Father C. P. Cooper) said that in thanking God one also had to ask Him for strength and courage to continue to do battle.

“For many people today suffer the oppression of the totalitarian state, of the persecution of religion and of hunger and poverty. We can no longer relax in the celebration of past victories, but must brace ourselves to serve and help those people who are suffering.” Father Cooper said that in thinking of the days of war. one remembered “the great leadership of men like Churchill. Dowding and Freyberg. Leadership is just as important today. The basis of true leadership is humility.

i "The humble man is ruth- . lessly honest with himself ' and in all his dealings with \ others. Because of this, when he is placed in authority, he is a realist and respects and , serves his fellow man,” said Father Cooper. He urged that New Zea- , landers be generous and serve their fellow men and women suffering from political, religious and economic oppression—even as Christ ; did in the face of opposition from the society of his day. Before attending the two major services of remembrance in Christchurch, men of the R.N.Z.A.F. Base, Wigram, with representatives of the Air Training Corps, the Air Force Association, the Brevet Club and other allied organisations attended a wreath-laying ceremony at

the Citizens’ War Memorialin Cathedral square. The parade to the wreathlaying ceremony was led by the band from Wigram. Four Harvards from the base flew over the city at the end of the ceremony.