The Glory of the Common People

Manawatu Times, Volume 66, Issue 121, 23 May 1941, Page 7

The Glory of the Common People

Greatest sf All the Generations MR. MENZIES’ MOVING TRIBUTE TO BRITISH SPIRIT Per Press Association. AUCKLAND, May 22. Looking fit and well alter his lour mouths’ tour of the Middle East, Britain and North America the Prime Minister of Australia (Mr. R. u. Menzies) arrived at Auckland this afternoon by tho American clipper from 6an FrancLto. Mr. Menzies was welcomed at tne airport uy Wiug-Coni-mander H. C. Be van, military secretary to the Governor-General whose guest he is during his stay iu Auckland, and by* the acting Prime Minister (Hon. W. Nash) and the Minister of industries, Commerce and Supply (Hou. D. G. •Sullivan). Mr. Menzies was the guest at a estate dinner to-night and will accorded a civic reception to-morrow. A warm reception was accorded Mr. Menzies at the titate dinner. The acting Prime Minister (Hou. W. Nash) and the Minister of buppjy (Hon. i). u. fcjullivan) represented me Government. “In tne long aud glorious history of our race great fame nas been won by tho armies and navies, oy tho lighting forces, by generais and admirals whose names are recorded aud whose portraits hang on our walls. But this is the hrst war in which the honour aud glory belong not to a few men, but are the honour and glory of an entire people, ” said Mr. Menzies, who delivered a stirring speech. Mr. Menzies spoae o* the issues confronting the Bntisa Commonwealth aud showed clearly the magnitude of the menace by which the British people arc confronted. He said he had no thought of defeat but he was convinced that only the best that every man, woman and child could give would suffice to win. To give his audience a picture of the freedom with which the King moves among his people, especially those who have suffered most, Mr. Menzies told a story of his Majesty’s visit to a blitzed area. A cheerful bystander slapped him on the shoulder and said: “Thank God for a good King,” and his Majesty turned and put his hand on the man’s shoulder and said: “And thank God for good people. ’ ’ “We are going to win this war because we have good people,” Mr. Menzies said. “I could not have believed how valiant is the spirit of the common man.” The strange and almost divine thing was that in the back streets and slums of English cities there were men and women who had almost nothing to lose aud who had been dealt with by life with the cruellest injustice. Yet these were the people in whom the flame of resolution burned so fiercely that those who had seen it could never forget. Mr. Menzies sco.ned any suggestion that these people were putting their backs into winning the war because of the improved conditions they might expect afterward. “The people who are doing these things in Great Britain and by their spirit are winning this war have already made their own place in the post war world secure. I havo encountered no thinking human being in Great Britain who does not realise that if the price of victory is poverty (and I think it is) —and what is wrong with poverty provided it is the poverty of freedom I ?—then the business Of statesmanship after the war is to see that poverty is honourably shared.” The common people of Britain, and he used the word “common” in the same meaning as the House of Commons —these little people at whom before the German finger was pointed in scorn—were the greatest of all the generations who had found a place in history. He said he could not help feeling that there were no people in the world who could so magnificently have withstood the ordeal as the people of Great Britain. “We have read of them, but we do not even begin to know what they havo gone through,” he continued. “We see people in their thousands working cheerfully and magnificently and saying with enthusiasm: ‘Yes, we have had a bad time, but production was 20 per cent, higher last week.* “In our own countries we could do twice what we are doing and still stop short of the sacrifice being made by the people of Britain,” Mr. Menzies said. In those cities where death had fallen so suddenly that it had been necessary to have great community funerals of hundreds of unidentifiable fellowcitizens he would defy anynoe to find a single person who would call a halt or sue for terms. “Defeat!” he sa ; d. “The word has not been heard in any of those towns. The spirit of the people is such that they say: ‘lf everyone else in my house has gone into the common grave I am still here. I must work and sweat because this is not going to happen again to my people if I can help it.’ “We have one great inferiority to our foe,” he said. “We afe inferior in machines. We are not inferior in men. We are not inferior iu spirit. In the long run spirit wins, but it wins more quickly when the man who has it has tho instruments to fight the foe.”