THE VICTORY LOAN.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 18220, 7 October 1919, Page 6

THE VICTORY LOAN.

The subscription list for tho Victory Loan will closo* on Thursday, and it would be a very regrettable thing, under all the circumstance?, that tho date of closing, which has already been extended for a fortnight, should find tho loan still under-subscribed. The purposes of tho loan aro well understood, we hope, though tho paucity of subscriptions up till last Thursday week suggests 'that thero aro many citizens who have not thoroughly appreciated then' responsibility for tho furtherance of thoso purposes. Tho loan is primarily a repatriative one, intended to make possible the fulfilment of promises made to tho soldiers who have so worthily upheld the honour of this country in a war waged for the defence of the whole Those promises were neither extravagant nor unjustifiable. They amounted merely to an undertaking that this country would do its best to ensure that every man who had taken arms in the Great War should receive a helping hand when the time came to find him a niche again in tho civil life from which he had been withdrawn. It is a commonplace of cynical philosophy that when a war is over “ God is forgotten and tho soldier slighted,” but tPo people of New Zealand, who prido themselves . upon being citizens of a generous and enlightened land, will surely not wish to incur the sneer which has been flung at older communities. As a nation we are not impoverished by the war. Our coffers have been filled to overflowing by war demands for our 'produce, at war prices. Tho ships that carried our goods to market were protected by the Allied navies; onr market was protected for us against alien competition by the submarines of the enemy. Particularly prosperous is this country at tho present juncture, when the Government is appealing for loan money for purposes directly arising out of the war wkkh has brought all this pros-

pority. Our. exports for tho eight months ended August 31 last totalled in ’value £36,630,000, over £15,000,000 in excess of the value for the corresponding period in tho previous year, and a good £14,000,000 in excess of the value for any complete year beforo the tvar, while we still have in store several millions of pounds’ worth of produce, much of which has been paid for. Our bank deposits are greater than they over were before, and Now Zealand emphatically cannot plead poverty in reply to the request now made by the Government on behalf of the soldiora. Wo have heard it stated that tho cm* phasis laid in the prospectus of tho loan on tho compulsory naturo of the obligation to subscribo has led to a great many wealthy firms nnd individuals limiting their subscription to the exact amount for which they are compulsorily liable. Wo should ho sorry to believe that this is tho ease. The Minister of Finance might certainly have exercised more tact and diplomacy in framing his prospectus, but the absence of these qualities cahibited in official references to the subject should not be allowed to influence the public attitude towards so important a matter. Tho money is for the soldiers, not for tho Government, and to tho soldiers wo owe nothing but gratitude and honour. Tho most practical method of expressing that gratitude is by subscribing to the Victory Loan.