THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS THURSDAY, JANUARY 4, 1940 MARCHING FEET

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23545, 4 January 1940, Page 6

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS THURSDAY, JANUARY 4, 1940 MARCHING FEET

The streets of Auckland echoed yesterday to the sound of marching feet as the citizens bade farewell, for the second time in 25 years, to a first draft of young manhood from city and province, soon to embark for war service overseas. Again the trumpets have sounded, again the flower of the nation's youth has answered the call of a cause that cannot be denied. Peaceloving peoples, hopeful until not long ago that the world had outgrown the use of arms to resolve its quarrels, have been forced to face that dread arbitrament or see their ideals of freedom, justice and fair dealing perish from the earth. They have chosen. The British have cast their weight into the scales against the drag of tyranny, oppression and ruthless force. New Zealand has elected to go the British way, and something of what it will mean to the people was revealed by yesterday's sober, purposeful display. ! Auckland is not sending its young j men to war with acclamation or : pealing of bells. Pride and confidence in the high quality of those who have offered themselves, pride in the simple fact that they have so offered, could be read in the bearing of the watching crowds; these feelings are far different from glorification of the fighting man solely because he goes forth to fight. That can be left to an enemy who extols war. Reluctant but resolute, New Zealand, as one small unit in the great combination of Empire and Allies, turns to face the ordeal which cannot in honour be escaped. So the marching feet sounded in Auckland's streets as they did in southern cities, as they have done on ancient highways elsewhere, with great armies converging to take up the gage of battle. . Inevitably the minds of all old enough went back yesterday to that day in 1914 when men of the Main Body marched from Domain to ship's side. There was no reason then to doubt the reality of the war which had come like a thunderclap upon an unsuspecting world. Millions were locked in deadly combat in Europe, east and west. The mighty German thrust through Flanders into France had been stopped. The first battle of the Marne had been fought. The invaders had been rolled back to the Aisne, there to take their stand, and the war of movement had died away to a stalemate. The new drive, with the Channel ports its objective, was preparing, the British force was moving north to help stem it. The stage was being set for the first battle of Ypres, where the original Expeditionary. Force perished gloriously while writing that name indelibly into the history of Bi'itish arms. This was the world setting as Auckland's quota of the Main Body marched to embark. There could be no wondering whether the war had begun; the easy belief that it would be over before New Zealand's force could reach the scene was dying fast. Kitchener's inspired forecast, "at least three years," no longer seemed fantastic, but was sounding more and more like grim fact. On that grey and windy day, .therefore, a thoughtful, not a wildly demonstrative, crowd saw the men march. It was accurately prescient. Many things to come—Anzac, the Somme, Passchendaele, the Jordan Valley —were mercifully hidden from marchers and spectators alike, but even without knowledge of them, all gathered there seemed to sense there was more than gay adventure ahead of the men under arms.

The same atmosphere was recaptured yesterday. If to the ordinary citizen the war still seems unreal, officers and men on parade showed they were preparing for it in earnest. The rhythm and swing of their marching, the precision of movement, gained after so short a term of training together, were proof of concentrated effort in the work already done. Such features can be taken as evidence of equal thoroughness in learning battle drill, the handling of arms and the use of modern warfare's many technical appliances. The very workmanlike nature of the parade deepened the impression. It might have been the assembly of a unit to march into the line. To the thoughtful mind this sobriety meant more than any glittering show could have done. It may be taken as emblematic of the Empire's spirit in this war—a calm and resolute determination to carry out the work to which it has dedicated itself until the appointed end has been reached; to fight on until there shall have been achieved a true and lasting peace under which men can live their own lives without perpetual fear of what the next day or the next week may bring. To that end New Zealand has resolved to render aid. How precious the contribution yesterday's demonstration proved. A body of men any country might gladly claim walked the streets in the flush of their manhood. Mingled with sorrow that they should go at all must be pride that they are so worthy to uphold this country's reputation for sending of its best. They have answered the earliest call. Nothing can rob them of that distinction. On them has been laid the task of upholding the reputation their forerunners built up from 1914 onward. Those who saw them clear-eyed were left with the feeling that New Zealand's name is in safe-keeping as they follow the trail blazed for them 25 years ago..