SACRIFICE IN DEFENCE OF EMPIRE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 14 April 1939, Page 6

SACRIFICE IN DEFENCE OF EMPIRE

AN ITALIAN PAPER'S GIBE

The totalitarian gibes at the unwillingness of certain persons in the British Empire to make sacrifices for its own safety are not uncommon in the Italian and German press. The Italian '‘Tribuna,” for example, had this recent comment to pass on the British appeal for voluntary national service:—

“The young Englishman does not wish to be a soldier. That means to say that the young Englishman does not feel obliged to defend his Empire at the risk of his own* life and by means of an assiduous training. In fact, he has 100 much faith in prestige and wealth. But to-day money is not sufficient to ensure power. Nor are arms and machines if the nation is not permeated in peace-time with an ardent warlike That is the profound difference compared with those peoples which, although poor, have the courage to overcome every obstacle.

“It is strange that a great empire, notwithstanding the nature of the heritage which it has to defend, should renounce such an elementary necessity which corresponds, nevertheless, to an essential duty. We must, therefore, infer that the spirit of the rich nations is not in keeping with abnegation and sacrifice.”