HOME GUARD

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 20 February 1941, Page 2

HOME GUARD

[To the Editorj Sir. —The urgent need for complete preparations l'or home defence in New Zealand, and. indeed, in every country in the British Commonwealth of Nations, is obvious to all, and Great Britain is giving a lead to all by the magnificently complete organisation of over 4,000.000 men trained in the various necessary activities for defence of the Homeland from which over 98 per cent, of our people in New Zealand originated. What. Great Britain has done on the colossal scale, we in the lesser Britain of the Antipodes can also do, proportionate to our numbers. Nelson, in the old volunteering days, had one of the highest percentages of enlistments in our local corps, among the military districts of the Dominion, and I have no doubt whatever that the necessity for organising complete home defence for Nelson is being recognised by our people to-day, and the immediate future will bring evidence in support by an increasing rate of enlistments in our defence organisations. Hitherto, to many, the war has seemed something remote from our fair land, but the news being received daily indicates a glaring probability that our period of relative immunity from war and its modern horrors, is rapidly passing. An American General asserted that “War is Hell,” and war of to-day is ten thousand times more so than it was in the days of the Civil War in America when the statement was made. No formal declaration of war is required to-day, apparently and a sudden descent on a peaceful land by raiders, or bombers, belching out destruction, or dropping death-dealing bombs on homes containing innocent women and children may bo anticipated, without any previous warning.

Hitler has set a record low standard for the brutalities and fiendish cruelties of war, and one of our Australian friends, Colonel Frank Bell, in an address to the Council of Churches, eloquently declared that Hitlerism has perverted the eternal truth of Christian doctrine at its source, and is foully violating the sacred conscience of mankind; is degrading human personality to the level of a mere cog in a soulless machine; and aims at the complete suppression of civil and religious liberty, and the merciless enslavement of the w'hole race, and its subjection to the most highly elaborated tyranny the world has ever seen; and that it is doing this by the use of the most diabolical methods that Hell itself could ever conceive.

On the other hand Britain is defending the freedom of humanity with all its correlatives, the most fundamentally precious of God’s gifts apart from life itself, from barbaric onslaughts, and in so doing its ordinary—or perhaps one should say—extraordinary people have displayed such unflinching fortitude, such patient endurance, and such a spirit of ready sacrifice as to evoke the utmost pride and admiration of the whole nation.

The Mayor in his excellent appeal rightly described our struggle as a Crusade for Freedom, and it behoves every one of us to do what lies in his power to prepare for the day of testing which may come at any moment with staggering rapidity.

Our v/omenfolk have organised in their thousands throughout the length and breadth of the Dominion, and whilst still carrying on their work in the home, are in numberless activities producing comforts for our men on active service, and no one will doubt that our men can acquit themselves equally well in the sterner duties which may devolve on them. The Home Guards require hundreds more recruits in their ranks, before our women and children and out horrtfcs may be considered reasonably safe in the event of a raid. Nations which are nominally friendly to-day, may be the ruthless enemies of to-morrow, and commonsense dictates maximum preparedness, whilst unpreparedness invites attack. Our men in Britain are covering themselves with glory in their marvellous and heroic defence of the Old Land—can we be content to do less for this New Land of ours? The Home Guards call‘for recruits, and they shall not call in vain! —I am, etc., HARRY ATMORE. 19th February.