OUR FART IN ACTION

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 111, 11 May 1940, Page 10

OUR FART IN ACTION

Little surprise should be occasioned in New Zealand at the latest Nazi aggression. The news over the last few weeks should have prepared us, mentally, for this. "V^hat other effect has it had or will it have? Has there been other than mental preparation? There is a phrase in Kipling's "Absent-minded Beggar" (written during the Boer War) that has a lesson: "When you've finished killing Kriiger with your mouth." We should remember that today. It is easy to express opinions as lo what Britain, France, Belgium, Holland, and Luxemburg should do; easy to say that this should force the vigorous prosecution of the war that House of Commons critics have been demanding; easy even to say that mistakes made in Norway must not be repeated. But this, after all, is only "killing Kruger with our mouths." What we say will not help much; what we do will. Whatever criticism there may be of Britain's war effort, this we must admit: it is far and away greater than ours. We cannot hope to overtake her great effort; but we can at least accelerate and energise our own plans. We can, distant as we are, achieve something of real value. We cannot send man-power immediately and directly to Belgium and the Netherlands, but we can speedily and efficiently prepare to' support the Allies" in other theatres. It is not revealed whether this is a Hitlerian thrust alone, or whether it will be followed by other demonstrations or actual thrusts in the Mediterranean, in south-east Europe, or towards the Middle East. One thing is certain: the stronger the Allied forces in the Middle East can be made, the greater will be the safeguard against such threats. The more Aye can strengthen that line, the more free will Britain and France feel to concentrate upon the new front in western Europe, without fear of having to make sudden and costly diversions to meet new menaces.

We cannot accelerate our preparations to any appreciable extent by following our present methods. The voluntary system has been tried, thoroughly and loyally. We do not say that it has failed, for no system can be counted a failure that has produced almost 35,000 enlistments (nearly 25.000 fit men) for the Army, besides some thousand others for the Air Force and the Navy. It might even serve to keep the initial force reinforced in a leisurely war; but it is emphatically not sufficient for intensified war. The invasion of the Low Countries is intensification of the war, and it may at any time mean spread of the war to more distant theatres. We must make ready at once to meet this in the area for which we have, through our troops, accepted a share of responsibility. Our duty to the Allies requires this. It should be our grateful response to Britain for the immunity which her mighty effort has hitherto assured. Finally, and most emphatically, bur promises to our own men demand it. We cannot let them down, but we shall be letting them down if we leave the

preparation of greater reinforcements until there are actual gaps to be ? filled. We shall be letting them clown, too, if, through delay in strengthening the force, we give a potential enemy encouragement to strike.

Further delay in preparing for compulsory national service might prove to be a most perilous course. If an invader came to our shores, or if invasion were threatened, as the Prime Minister said this week, every man and woman and every penny of money would be at the disposal of the State. But with what result, if action were left to the eleventh hour? There would be a mad scramble to mobilise, equip, and train —and the terrible loss that follows the use of half-trained or untrained men. The real test of whether an invader shall come here is being made now. Our first line is in Holland, Belgium, France, on the North Sea, in the Mediterranean, and the Middle East. We should organise to throw all our weight into the fight now. The old argument of conscription or anti-conscription is a dead thing. The real issue now is whether we shall be constrained by views expressed in totally different circumstances to retard our war effort, or whether we will immediately and vigorously take steps to make the maximum effort by the most efficient, fair, and sure means. We believe that a great majority of the people desire this, that they are waiting for it and would welcome it. No conference or other body can relieve Parliament of the responsibility if a decision is deferred. By Parliament only can a mandate be given, and the Government should call Parliament together at once to obtain that mandate. Compulsory national service is the sure road to the maximum war contribution; it would be a guarantee to Britain of our wholeheai-ted determination to fulfil our promises. It Avould be an immediate moral support and assure the utmost support in arms that it is in our power to give.