POST-WAR PROBLEMS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 6 December 1940, Page 4

POST-WAR PROBLEMS

GOVERNOR-GENERAL’S WARNING “VERY VIOLENT REACTION” [United Press Association] WELLINGTON, This Day. In the course of a speech at a State luncheon given in his honour yesterday, the Governor-General asked his hearers to be on guard against some great difficulties that were liable to come upon the country after the war. After the last war people rather lapsed into a fool’s paradise and forgot some of the difficulties. “I am not a pessimist,” Lord Galway said. “I am an incurable optimist. But it is in your hands that these matters rest and perhaps it is just as well that one should look a little bit ahead and see some of the difficulties. We are convinced that our cause will triumph, but you must look to it then as to what is going to happen. It is almost certain that there will be a very violent reaction, particularly among the young. It happened after the last war. There will be a sort of revulsion from the douche of cold water which goes over the nation in wartime. There comes the sort of feeling: ‘The war is over. Now we want pleasure. Throw open the dance halls and cinemas and let us forget what we have been going through.’ ” Lord Galway remarked that we lived in an age of speed. Everything had to be done in a hurry. But speed without balance was liable to cause accidents. It was the same in public life. There would come a feeling of restlessness, and the adjustment necessary would require a great deal of forethought.