CALL TO NEW ZEALAND

Greymouth Evening Star, 17 February 1942, Page 2

CALL TO NEW ZEALAND

APPEAL BY MR. FRASER WELLINGTON, Feb. 16. “The fall of Singapore is a severe blow to the Allied cause, said Mr. Fraser in a statement. “To the Democratic nations of the Pacific, it is at once an increased menace and a further call to additional effort, and even more unremitting work, to stem the advance of the enemy to prepare with all possible speed and efficiency to meet any further attacks that may be made on Allied territory, and to lay surely and truly the foundations of ultimate victory—a task in which all the Pacific Allies are very closely and effectively co-operating. In my opinion, Mr. Churchill’s speech struck a true, realistic, unflinching note. He hid nothing of the seriousness of the loss. He faced the adverse consequences of the fall of the city and the naval base, analysed its effect upon the whole world war situation generally, and examined very frankly the position in all fields of war activity. Mr. Churchill’s speech was again a clarion call to all of us neither to falter nor fall. New Zealand responded instantly. In every New Zealand heart to-day . there is an increased determination to strive more strenuously than ever for victory. Our future as a nation, the safety of our own shores, the fate of all the people, of our children, and of future generations in our fair land depends upon the sincerity, energy and efficiency we put into our national war task, and discharge our respective responsibilities.

“It would be idle and wrong to pretend that the fall of Singapore has not brought danger nearer to our shores. It has done so, but, while there is ample cause for well-ground-ed concern, there is no room for foolish or frantic panic. We vvill neither wince nor tremble. We will not fall into undignified complaining, or weeping, or grizzling, or growling, or indulge in stupid, . uninformed, unhelpful, carping criticism about those who had had the higher direction of our joint war effort, and who, with the forces and means at their disposal, could not possibly overcome huge handicaps of time and material which confronted them. New Zealand will face courageously whatever situation will develop. It will do so with calm assurance and dignity, as well as with courage. Our danger, which I do not minimise, will decrease in ratio to the effort we all make to build up resistance to any possible attack, and contribute to the programme for victory now being planned in the Pacific, ano progressively and increasingly operated by our Mother Country, Great Britain, by our sister Dominion, Australia, by our great Ally, the United States, and by our brave partners, the Netherlands East Indies and China, as well as India and Burma. At the nerve centre of the struggle, the courageous example set by the United Kingdom, Holland, Belgium, Norway, and other European Allies, particularly the tenacious and indomitable fight put up by Russia, is a stimulus to all of us.”