The Dominion THURSDAY, APHID 16, 1942. A HEARTENING MESSAGE AND ROUSING APPEAL

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 171, 16 April 1942, Page 4

The Dominion THURSDAY, APHID 16, 1942. A HEARTENING MESSAGE AND ROUSING APPEAL

In his first public speech since his arrival to take up his duties as United States Minister to New Zealand, delivered at the State luncheon given by the Government yesterday, Brigadier-General Hurley conveyed to the people of this Dominion a most lieaitening message from his own country. It breathed a spirit of determination and purpose in the struggle now raging in the Pacific and thioughout the world that spoke eloquently of the feeling animating the war effort of the great Republic of free men and free institutions he has the honour to represent as its first Minister to this young nation. The speech was a model of conciseness, precision, and telling emphasis. It is difficult, indeed, to recall an official deliverance m which so much was conveyed in so few words. Not only was it a message of hope and encouragement to a little country faced with a terrible menace, but it was also a fighting speech, a call foi action, unsparing sacrifice, and unstinted effort by every citizen throughout this land. One ringing passage deserves special emphasis for the moral to be drawn from it by the New Zealand people: Tliis challenge (declared his Excellency) cannot he met by words. We must attack, defeat, and destroy the autocracy ot Japan in battle upon the land, upon the sea, under the sea, and m the air. In the face of tliis it seems futile for us to continue to debate our social, political, economic, and diplomatic objectives all of these objectives will be lost if we lose the war.

These are words to stir our hearts and energies, fire the imagination, and impel a new spirit in the councils of our public institutions from Parliament down throughout the great mass of the people. The United States Minister has pledged to us the friendship, svmpathv, and assistance of 130,000,000 American people in the common cause of liberty and the destruction of aggression and tyranny. This splendid gesture should lie heavily upon our conscience as a nation and a people, for it implies a whole-hearted measure of reciprocity in productive effort as well as in military preparations by which the earnestness and sincerity of our war effort will be judged. The standard of measurement is best expressed by his Excellency s own words, in which he laid down the principle of action that must be the animating force of the total war effort of the United Nations if victory is to be won:

It is necessary (lie emphasized) for us to mobilize the productive strength of the free peoples at home behind the soldier who lights. The leader of industry, manager of production, worker in the factory, in the Held, or unloading a ship—in fact, every leader, manager, and worker is fighting, and if they shirk they are breaking faith with the soldier who dies in battle. The New Zealand people will feel deeply grateful for these inspiring words. Coming from the distinguished representative of a mighty nation allied with them in defence of everything held dear by thencitizens—rights, and privileges, and free institutions achieved by the blood and tears of past generations of the English-speaking peoples —they should mark a turning point in the war effort of this Dominion, a mark from which a new goal of achievement will be set, with a new and inspired effort to reach it.