Nelson Evening Mail WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1941 1941: WAR GIRDLES THE EARTH

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 31 December 1941, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1941 1941: WAR GIRDLES THE EARTH

THE melancholy rdcord of the year about to pass from us will be stamped forever in the annals of mankind. It will have beside it the black mark of total war waged in full fury on all the oceans, through most of the continents and in the skies over many : lands. Untold misery, brave deeds, world-shaking events, sacrifice and aggrandisement move in strange company across its canvas. The clash of engines of war which man’s inventiveness has produced for self-de-struction will resound down -the centuries. In the future near and distant it will be said of 1941 that it was a year in which almost all the I nations of the world stood on one of two sides and fought one another. , And it will be remembered that the peoples of the earth allowed themselves to be led unsuspectingly like sheep to the slaughter through the vaunted ambition of one man determined to im- | pose his godless and fanatical will on j the millions. That is a dreadful les- | son to hand down to generations yet ! unborn, but it will be worth the sac--1 rifice of last year, this year, next year and we know not how many beyond that if those who follow make sure that it will never be possible to repeat what Hitler has done. Complacent humanity slept while the Beast roamed abroad wreaking his vile will. Even after he had preyed upon and trodden down those closest to him people across the seas stirred uneasily only to comfort themselves with the delusion that it could never happen to them, and went on pursuing their accustomed way of life. But from evil forces which aim at nothing less than world domination escape is not so easy. Blows which fell on the victims re-echoed far away. They kept on echoing to disturb the peace of mind of millions, then to threaten their way of life and then to put their very existence in jeopardy. The instinct of selfpreservation is still strong in men. It remained for the events of 1941 j to rouse them everywhere to a sense : of their own danger. No longer is j there much illusion amongst inteli ligent people about what is in store j for them unless they work and light land win. I Coming down to the year’s events themselves one of the sagest comj ments made on them is that of our own Nelson soldier V.C., who played a humble but glorious part in fashioning them. He said-that we now know whom we have to fight and can go ahead and do it. 1941 will be remembered as the year when the world Powers took sides. As they are now aligned, so they will decide; the issue and the world’s future. ! Those small nations who still cling to : non-belligerency may influence the course of the war, but they can have but little effect on its ultimate outcome. World resources and world man-power, the two predominant factors in war, are now for the most part ranged on one side or the other and they will combine to fight it out. Wilful aggression by Powers whose restless ambitions impelled them to strike first played the greatest part in producing this alignment. They unleashed forces which turned apathy and even sympathy into strong defensive action for self-preservation. | On a Sunday morning in June the

j Nazi Fuhrer turned a formal friend j ! into an unrelenting enemy because j j he thought it suited his fell purpose. He will live long enough to regret j ■ 1 22nd June, 1941. On a Sunday morn- j itig in December perfidious Japan, j having hitched its destiny to the Nazi i chariot, stabbed America in the back,! i cloaking the deed in overtures of ! peace. The New World awoke with | a jolt, but can any reasonable being j j'vdoubl that t he Japan of the future I J Vill curse the memory of that military clique which set the Pacific afire' land completed the girdle of world j Those are the two tremendous j events of 1941 which will find a place in history as long as it is read and written, and when the epic deeds j of our own Now Zealand warriors on | the sands of Libya, on the beachesj of Crete or on the mountains of Olym- I pus and Thermopylae have passed! into legend along with those of Leoni- j das and his Spartans. Such deeds | have brought both glory and sorrow; to many New Zealand homes. They ' are not finished yet. The New Year ! will hear the din of battle and will I bring with it more suffering and | anguish of heart, though in im- j mensity, ferocity and destructive I power, nothing in this war is likely to surpass what 1941 has witnessed in Russia. And it is in Russia that 1941 lias kindled the flame of hope for the champions of freedom. The life-blood of the Nazi Beast drips heavily on the Russian snows. He will still turn and fight, thrusting this way and that like an animal at bay. When his accomplices are cornered and when the Beast at length, with his brute strength ebbed from him, lies prostrate at the feet of those who fought for liberty, then we shall be able to look back and view events on the crowded canvas of this world- , wide struggle in their proper perspective. Certain of them will stand out in bold relief as turning points • of the war. What will 1941 have to I offer? In addition to the two cited ■ there may be two others: first, the day when Churchill addressed the j American Congress; secondly, the I time when a Soviet marshal named i Timoshenko rallied a retreating army j and turned again to hammer at the | gates of Rostov.