THE WAR EFFORT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 167, 14 June 1940, Page 6

THE WAR EFFORT.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —I listened into Parliament again last night until my head ached and I prayed, “How long, 0 Cod, how long?, This morning we heard M. lteynaud’s desperate cry for help to the United States—“ Send help before it is too late”- —and our Prime Minister, who last night again assured us of his Government’s confidence'in its own ability to run this war without any help, told us a few days ago to do nothing about refugees “in a burst of enthusiasm.” It would take more than a burst of shrapnel, let alone enthusiasm, to shake some people out of their party rut. It is not a matter for enthusiasm; it is just plain, straight duty. Our young men are not risking their lives in any “burst of enthusiasm” ; there is something which some people cannot hope to understand—that something is noblesse oblige. Mr Lee’s suggestion 'about buying wedding rings at highest market prices‘savoured of Box and Cox- —and a nasty sordid Box and Cox at that. Is not money in the Government’s hands and wedding rings on the women’s as financiallv sound as wedding rings in the Government’s hands and currency in the women’s, or is there something radically wrong with the currency ? Mr Lee dishonoured us and those women in Europe long ago by that suggestion. Those women did not sell their wedding rings, proudly they gave them, and to each giver the king returned an iron ring to wear in its stead, and those iron rings are to-day the most treasured heirlooms of the families that possess them. If Great Britain wants our wedding rings then we women of New Zealand will be proud to give them, but let no fantastic financiers come offering us “highest market prices” for them. Women of. New Zealand, the destiny of this countrv is in your hands, whilst your sons, brothers, and husbands are fighting for the survival of freedom on earth. Shall we do nothing, must we be passive? Are we flesh and blood, or just tea and sponge cake?—l am, etc., ANN KATHLEEN JACQUES. 447 Albert Street, Palmerston North.