PLAIN SPEAKING

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 52, Issue 3252, 14 April 1943, Page 7

PLAIN SPEAKING

REACHED A VERY LOW EBB PATRIOTIC ACTIVITIES R.S.A. PRESIDENT’S OPINION At the monthly meeting of the Coromandel sub-branch of the R.S.A. the president, Dr. F. T. Birkenshaw, declared that in his opinion patriotic matters ;and patriotic activities in general had reached a very low ebb. Many people were nobly persevering in their individual efforts, and the women especially on the Peninsula were carrying on with their knitting and the collection of parcels. But, he said, there was littlp or no sign of a co-ordinated effort, and without coordinated effort morale declined. Dr. Birkenshaw said that this lack of interest was not wholly due to the fact that there was no local patriotic committee and only a moribund inter-zone committee. The fault, he declared, if traced backwards, was to be found in the zone committee, and probably the main blame was to he traced to the Auckland Provincial Patriotic Committee. Wai’s, said Dr. Birkinshaw, were won by the fighting forces; but they could be lost on the home front. The magnificent efforts of our men overseas could be nullified by the somnolence of those who remained at home.