The Times THURSDAY, JANUARY 2, 1941. “Living Through History ”

Manawatu Times, Volume 66, Issue 1, 2 January 1941, Page 6

The Times THURSDAY, JANUARY 2, 1941. “ Living Through History ”

If it is generally uncomfortable, tiio.se born to such epic times arc privileged, for they are indeed ' living through history.” xVll eras, of course, are literally to be acknowledged as contributing something to that story of mankind which is termed history. But after any period, when its events are gone over, only certain outstanding years make a final and noteworthy contribution to the chapter, lias there ever been another ycai which has provided so much as 1940 of historical consequence?

A year wherein great and numerous players have staged a mighty drama, whose theme has been the conflict between the forces of darkness and light; twiit evil and good. A drama whose audience were almost all participants in greater or less degree. A swift-moving drama, at times craskingly loud and at others tortuous and dandy silent. A story played through v\ith blood and thunder and intrigue, all inextricably mixed. One wherein the villain has, in the acts so far played, almost invariably triumphed over the hero. But as all audiences know, eventually the hero must and will triumph, and already we have been vouchsafed signs of this finale still to come.

llow quietly did the year start, and for over three of its first months the war that is now all dominant was reasonably termed a “phoney” war. That, however, was but a lull before the storm; a storm that raged for some 10 weeks of utterly unparalleled violence over some 2000 miles of Western liurope and saw the collapse of Norway, Denmark, Holland, Belgium and France, with some 64,000,000 people coming under a conqueror’s yoke. In Britain alone, “47,000,000 Churchills” defied the seemingly all-powerful destructive force of Blitzkrcig; withstood the world’s greatest air armada; stood up for the first time in history to an attack launched sheerly upon civilians; one wherein the front line ran through home, office and factory.

Do play or players count most? That provides an ever fruitful source of argument. In the case of this current world drama it must be admitted that the players dominate the play. Verily is one, the Fulirer, its author and chief character. But for him this play would not be staged. Then, too, but for the iron resolution and inspired leadership of her Churchill, Britain’s role might have been very different. Had France possessed such a leader, how different might her role have been? Millions more heroes, and heroines, too, play heroic parts; but in the drama’s colossal scale they appear but as stage extras. It is the stars who gain the limelight and set the tempo and spirit. Beyond those already mentioned, we have the mystery man of the Kremlin in Moscow, his part as yet undeeypherable. There is 11 Duce of Home, who has of late taken the unusual role of villain cast in comic relief. And most recently has a shining new player appeared out of the West, a Roosevelt of heroic proportions and great promise for good. And then the Greeks have produced Metaxas, another new hero to the stage, leader of a brave though small company, who have won loud applause.

The drama has wrung from us every emotion, boredom at the year’s opening; then shocked surprise at the invasion of Norway and Denmark; apprehension at what the next move might be; horror at the attack on the Low Countries a month later; a chilling fear as these and France fell; grim determination alone to see it through; much of disappointment; and grounds even for pessimism, had that emotion been permitted a voice. Then as the year closed, a wonderful heartening; the brave resistance and astounding counter-attack of little Greece; our own Libyan victory and the consciousness that a powerful friend had arrived in Uncle Sam.

The very last day of that fateful 1940 brought double good cheer. We had America’s policy clearly declared in “an unofficial declaration of war” upon our enemies and happy news of rescued victims of commerce shipping raids. These and much else besides provide a cheering augury for the new-born year of 1941. No easy year will this be, but all should feel confidence, determination and ability not alone to hold out, but to secure that triumph of right over wrong, of light over darkness; that is the only outcome that must result from the drama being played. And amidst whatever trials and tribulations must be endured, let realisation grasp that we are “living through history” and appreciate that as a privilege.