War Atmosphere Reflected In Christmas Crowds

Northern Advocate, 26 December 1940, Page 2

War Atmosphere Reflected In Christmas Crowds

There was a festive air in the business area of Whangarei on Christmas eve.

Early in the evening, traffic officials, in a broadcasting van, cleared the streets of parked cars, and traffic was diverted from the main streets. Crowds overflowed into the roadway.

Last minute shoppers thronged the shops and departmental stores.

“It’s our third ‘Christmas Eve’ this year,” remarked one shop assistant. Friday night had been a “Christmas eve,” Monday had been a “Christmas eve” and Tuesday had been a “Christmas eve” so far as the amount of business turned over was concerned. Younger Section Celebrate Younger sections of the crowd were in carnival mood. Paper streamers went snaking across the streets to fall and become entangled in the jostling crowds. Confetti was strewn everywhere. Youths engaged in confetti fights and among them were a few men in khaki. Volunteers in the overseas forces, among them some married men, were having their last Christmas shopping in the old 'home town before the New Year took them to foreign shores. Next Christmas might find them in Cairo, London—perhaps Berlin. Absence of Noise Apart from a few isolated crackers and an occasional mouth organ, played by a Maori in from the country for the day, there was an absence of the usual noise of whistles and bugles. “It’s about the only thing we have to thank Walter Nash for this Christmas,” a shopkeeper remarked.' People were out in their hundreds. But somehow there was an air of restraint. Confetti and paper streamers suggested a Christmas atmosphere. But underneath there was a feeling—- “ But we’re at war.” Older People Restrained Older people, particularly men who had served during 1914-18, stopped occasionally to discuss the latest reports and hazard guesses as to what was happening on the desert front, and what Hitler’s next move might be.

There was no lack of confidence, no fear expressed as to what the outcome of the conflagration would be. But war at Christmas struck a jarl'ing note. “Peace on earth, goodwill to men” and yet Hitler had plunged the entire world into an orgy of mass murder. And that seemed the thought that dominated the atmosphere, despite confetti and streamers and dazzling shop windows.