THE NAZI WOLF

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 182, 29 April 1940, Page 11

THE NAZI WOLF

Need To Oppose Policy Of Aggression ■ LORD GALWAY’S SPEECH “I feel sure that in Norway the Germans have made a blunder that will cost them dear,” said the Governor-General. "We might hear from the German wireless that their detachments have been withdrawn according to plan, but they will leave Narvik and Trondheim according to our plan, not according to theirs.” (Applause.) His Excellency said his thoughts went .back to a similar occasion four months ago, when the first echelon paraded. Then at his right hand sat the late Mr. Savage, and he thought it was his last appearance in public. His stirring words on that day would long be remembered, and though his words were stilled his utterances remained. When war broke out, though no oue hated the idea more than he did, Mr. Savage and the Government never faltered for one instant. German Domination. His Excellency said it was impossible to think of what German domiua tion would mean in a country such as this. The doors of Parliament House permanently closed’, government by tyranny and ruthlessness, the spy, the secret police, concentration camps, the firing squad—it was a prospect too awful to consider. But that was the fate of the smaller countries at the hands of the aggressor countries — small countries which only were too anxious to live in peace and friendship with their neighbours. Czechoslovakia and Poland were the first to suffer. Denmark had been overrun. Finland and Norway had shown they were made of sterner stuff and had gained memorable fame by their gallant resistance. The Nazi regime seemed to him to.be rather like the wolf in the fable which accused the lamb, which was drinking downstream, of polluting the water the wolf was drinking. The German wolf now, with Wood dripping from its jaws, sought other prey. Who wits to be the next victim? Sweden, perhaps, but the Norwegian resistance had upset the German calculations. Holland and Belgium, we knew, would resist to defend their freedom. Their defences were in order and Britain and France would rush to their help. Again, there was Switzerland. What of the others? Hungary, Yugoslavia, Rumania were all apprehensive, and what about Italy? Would she be absorbed under German "protection” ? The cynical poctrine that if a country could not defend itself it was unfit to exist struck at the very root of all international law, but a country which could defend itself and failed to do so, that was a country which had lost its soul. Britain’s Rule of the Seas. Whatever Hitler might do, whichever way he might go, one thing must give him sleepless nights—Britain’s rule of the sea. And so long as Britain ruled the sea, Germany would remain short of coal, fuel, focal and petrol. The latest adventure in Norway had cost the Germans at least one-third of their fleet, and it made us think once more of the magnificent part our Navy had played and was playing in these critical times. First of all wc had the example' before us of the magnificent performance of the Navy in which New Zealand took a great part in the Battle of the River Plate, and he was glad that Captain Parry was present in the gathering. Then, again, the action of t.he destroyers at Narvik made one proud of (lie spirit of the Navy. And we must not. forget the magnificent work done by the Air Force on the French front and now on the Norwegian front in helping to make the German position precarious.. His Excellency said that all would follow the activities of the Second Echelon with the greatest interest, knowing full well that it would maintain and uphold the magnificent traditions of the New Zealand Division of 1911-18. “May the campaign bo brief and victorious and may you come back safe again bearing the laurels of victory to the Dominion, which thanks you for coming forward and which is indeed proud of you,” he concluded.

OLDER COMRADES

Message To Troops Of Today

Their older comrades of the Great War were proud of them, said Mr. Jackson, addressing the men on behalf of the returned soldiers of Now Zealand and Australia. Again, the men of these two countries were associated in the great force of right as members of an Empire which, he hoped, would never be torn asunder. ’’l hope the country which you are proud to serve will do the right thing by you later," Mr. Jackson