A CALL TO ARMS

Grey River Argus, 18 March 1942, Page 7

A CALL TO ARMS

Perhaps within days, perhaps weeks, almost certainly within montns, the Japanese barbarians will attack and possibly attempt to land in New Zealand.

Not yet do thousands of New Zealanders realise the imminent and terrible fate that threatens to overtake them; not yet do they realise that everything they claim to hold dear—their native soil, their homes, their freedom, the safety of their womenfolk and their children —is at stake.

There is still an air of complacency hi the community as though the scourge of war was still many thousands of miles away, instead of at our very doorstep.

There is still too much clutching- at straws... Let it be clearly understood by everyone that if New Zealand is to be saved it will be saved, not by Americans, or by* Russians, but by the New Zealanders themselves. Whatever happens elsewhere, it cannot remove the immediate menace of invasion of this country.

In Greymouth we have an E.P.S. organisation built up by compulsion to about 1,500 members—mostly on paper; and a pitifully small Home Guard of whom about a hundred regularly attend for training.

What a tragedy of under-estimation of the real position! We need to-day, not a gigantic E.P.S,. but the greatest possible number of trained fighting men ... I

(The Government "has now introduced compulsion for Home Guard service. Such compulsion should have been unnecessary).

To those men who have consistently given up to Home Guard training a portion of their well-earned leisure after doing their toil in factory, mine, mill, office, and shop, we extend our commendation. They are entitled to the gratitude of the whole community.

To all those m,en who are fit and able to bear arms, yet have so far been content to simply allow their names to remain on an E.P.S. list, or else just play some very minor role in that organisation, we say:—“Drop.this pretence that you are doing all that is required of you in the war effort. You do not even fool yourself! Your jofy as a man, is to handle az gun and learn to fight—to fight to protect those who are unable to protect themselves. We know his means giving up some of your accustomed pleasures; but you will enjoy mighty few pleasures if the enemy succeeds in occupying your country!”

A few people still deride the Home Guard and doubt its value as a fighting force. Let us tell these ignorant few that the Home Guard of Russia—the guerrilla units —are worrying the German invaders to death. Operating in country they know, and which the enemy does not, the Soviet Home Guard units are so disrupting the mighty German Afimy that the Red Army regular troops have been able to, inflict a whole series of telling blows. We dare to state that nothing can take the place of the invaluable Home Guard in ourl scheme of defence.

It is the bestial practice of Japanese army leaders, after the successful occupation of a town or city, to turn their soldiery loose on the civilian population—to pillage, rape, to torture, and murder, to their heart’s content. Remember 1 the Chinese city of Nanking in 1937! Forty-two thousand people —including manv women and children-—massacred! fhc persistent reports of horrible atrocities committed by the Japs on a defenceless population at Hong Kong and Singapore, are not to be discredited after what has happened elsewhere on previous occasions. Must similar horrors happen in New Zealand—in our towns and cities? Must the proud New Zealand nation of free people suffer the fate cf other, once-proud, nations? Or Will these merciless savages be driven back into the sea whenever and wherever they manage to set foot on our native land? The answer can only be given by the manhood—and the womanhood—of New Zealand. But the answer must come quickly. ‘Every day now—yes, every hour—is precious. Give YOUR answer NOW!