Readers Write

Northern Advocate, 1 March 1939, Page 6

Readers Write

[Readers are invited to send letters | for publication in this Column ,l A letter should be written in ink | cm one side of the paper, and\ must bear the name of the writer ,l not necessarily for. publication . | but as a guarantee of good faith.] i

In your issue of Monday, last there | appeared, in a sub-leader, reference | to improvements, etc., to public parks I within the boroughf IMPROVEMENT area, full credit] ..OF PARKS. being given to the| Parks Commutes | for the work. , A f

Now, sir, I believe in giving credit where it is due. The . improvements referred to have been brought' about through the present Government having kept employed forty men under Scheme No. 13, and paid full standard wages from the Promotion of Employment Fund, no subsidy being received from the Borough Council.

Your remarks otherwise about the improvements are most commendable, and I have no doubt in the years to come the work done will be greatly appreciated by the citizens of this town.—“RATEPAYER.”

Your recent leading' article on the above subject is interesting, as showing the difficulties in settling the problem, but does not THE PALESTINE offer a solution. PROBLEM. The solution is to

be found in a position which will be favourable to the Jews, for I believe we are now in the epoch of Prophecy, which states: “Thou shalt arise and have upon Zion; for the time to favour her, yea, the set time, is come” (Psalms 102: 13).

The prophet Ezekiel, in chapter 38: 11-13, visualises a time when the Jews would be. in Palestine, dwelling confidently under British protection; that position has yet to be attained, for the Jews are not dwelling confidently in Palestine at present. The solution of the“ Palestine Problem” will bring about this desired end, but for a short time before Armageddon. ...

The world-wide persecution of the Jews is the compelling force, and, though drastic it is yet not perhaps more so than the bondage under PhaKaoh. The present persecutors will receive i punishment to that of Pharaoh in the coming Armageddon, now looming into view, and for which all nations are preparing. It will only be effectually settled by the return of Jesus Chript to the earth again (Isaiah 2; Psalms 2; Rev. 19:16).—K. R. MACDONALD.

Your correspondent on this subject certainly strikes the right note when she refers to equality of sacrifice. One of the objects of DEFENCE AND the N.Z. Defence DEFENDERS. League is to endeavour to bring about a state of affairs where every fit man, whatever his age, does something towards the defence of the country and that those who are not fit, contribute the equivalent financially; in other words, the league believes in “equality of economic sacrifice” in so far as defence is concerned.

In future, conditions will be different from those prevailing after the last war. Then, we soldiers came back to a country, remote from the war zone, which had not suffered one iota of damage from enemy action or of hardship. Upon our return we were treated reasonably well, considering that fate had so willed it that we were of an age when our duty to the community was best fulfilled by our becoming soldiers and bearing arms in the defence of that mode of living to which we had been reared, and which we wished to continue.

In future, if war come (and no one wants it to come) the chances are more than ever that there will be no going overseas to fight it, but that we will fight our particular part of it here in New Zealand, and, if we are not well trained and strong enough, the question of pensions for veterans of post or future wars will simply not arise.

The league believes that if this country is immediately and efficiently organised, in peace time, for defence, it would be so strong that any potential enemy would require to move such a large force to overcome us that it would be vulnerable to attack 'and disorganisation and that, therefore, such a force would never set out.

That we are living in & mad world, not of our making, is our misfortune, but it will cetainly be our fault, if, living in such a world, we sleep on in fancied security until a crisis does arise, and then attempt to rely for defence on a partially trained and scratch defence force, unfamiliar with its arms and hampered by an unorganised and probably panicky, civilian population around and behind it.

1 leave it to the imagination of your readers to visualise what could happen in this Northern peninsula should an invading force land and an unorganised population be compelled to evacuate at short notice. Ask any Bigger who went up the Amiens Road in March, 1918, what it is like to see the retreat of a civilian population, uprooted from its homes at short notice.

Therefore, to your correspondent and others like her who seem to sense what is necessary, but walk alone in

the wilderness, I say, “G)et behind the league and give expression to your REINFORCEMENT.”