VICTORY CELEBRATION

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 80, 6 April 1945, Page 3

VICTORY CELEBRATION

END OF EUROPEAN WAR VIEWS OF MR CURTIN IN SYDNEY Sydney, Apl. 4. How Australians should celebrate the news of Germany’s expected early capitulation is arousing considerable discussion. The view of the Prime Minis'er, Mr Curtin, is that any display of “the carnival spirit” should be discouraged since its release would only “prolong the struggle with Japan.” It has been indicated that Australian Government offices are unlikely to close when the European cease-fire is sounded. Hotels, however, will probably close for two days and the insufficiency of beer to satisfy the appetites of the more exuberant revellers is only one reason for this. The projected closing of the hotels has evoked a storm of protest. Last week, Melbourne’s Lord Mayor, reacting to the s<smbre official view, cancelled the proposed armistice celebration programme embracing “a procession, speeches, school children’s demonstrations, carols, and hyms.” Mr Curtin subsequently denied that the ceremony had been cancelled because of his disapproval. “SOURPUSS DEPRECATION” Nevertheless, newspaper cartoonists seized the opportunity to lampoon the Prime Minister as Australia’s "Mister Gloom,” while the Sydney “Daily Telegraph” commented editorially: “Mr Curtin’s sourpuss deprecation of public rejoicing over the end of the war in Europe becomes irritating. One might be pardoned for suspecting that the Prime Minister’s public utterances are often dictated by the state of his liver rather than by his commonsense.” With 20,000 of their countrymen, awaiting liberation in Japanese slave camps and with heavy fighting in the Pacific still ahead, Mr Curtin is manifestly anxious that Australians shall not be distracted from their main war task. For these reasons, it is generally concurred that restraint, though not unrelieved solemnity, should mark Australia’s rejoicing at the European armistice. “But it is absurd to talk of the war against Japan being prolonged because Australians take time off to rejoice over the defeat of Germany,” said the “Sydney Morning Herald” in a leading article. “What the Prime Minister deprecatingly calls ‘the carnival spirit’ should not, of course, be carried to excess. The other extreme to riotous revelry, however, is to expect the public to behave as if nothing out of the way had happened.

Australians are unanimous that public thanksgiving should be the first celebration of the end of the war in Europe. Church bells will ring, and special services in all churches will mark the European peace. # The great majority of Australians are in evident contrast to Mr Curtin, and also support a public holiday, with band music and processions following the thanksgiving services.