A WAR-CONDITIONED LIFE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24372, 9 August 1940, Page 4

A WAR-CONDITIONED LIFE

A convincing call to a positive patriotism was. sounded by the president of fhe Associated Chambers of Commerce, Mr W. S. Mac Gibbon, in his address to the annual meeting of the Dunedin Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday night. In a reasoned estimate of the need for national sacrifice, the speaker envisaged the substitution of a policy of "give" for the perhaps more normal philosophy of "get." The two words cover a multitude of difficulties in times like these, and Mr Mac Gibbon was at considerable pains to decide the central issue of who does the "giving" when a whole nation decides to " give." The responsibility, needless to say, is universal. Only a spirit of unselfish resolve and ready sacrifice can meet the present situation. As Mr MacGibbon indicated, it cannot, of course, be stipulated that the national temper shall always find forms of expression from which all criticism of the Government, or any section of the people, is excluded. Criticism is necessary, criticism that is both fearless and informed; but most of all is needed the national unity that is represented by a wholehearted (»>oper,ation between all classes of the people. There have been quarters in which incapacity to recognise the extent, or the char-

acter, of the present danger has been apparent, but the excuses of complacency and misconception are disappearing daily as the country gets down to the serious business of organisation for war. The whole community is concerned in that grim business, and Mr Mac Gibbon was on very sound ground when he urged that, cost of living increases and taxation notwithstanding, industry could not carry on effectively without the maximum assistance from labour. "We must all. whether we be master or servant, learn that our country needs more work and j harder work," he said. In that thought we have a picture of what must henceforth be the normal life of the Dominion, and, indeed, of every unit of the Empire. From the grim prospect that has been thrust upon us one hope, and one only, emerges. Out of active and well-considered endeavours must be born an effective and conscious policy by which the initiative will belong to the people as a whole. Only thus can national unity be achieved and the national soul kept alive. We must visualise the goal and concern ourselves personally in the measures needed to attain it. The road /to victory and away from the dark shadows of war will be laborious and long. One slow step will have to precede the next. But it must never be forgotten that a country is favoured only in the possession of citizens conscious of their responsibilities to one another, and to the needs of the moment, and determined to discharge them to the 'best of their ability. The problem of equality of sacrifice must always be a difficult one, but it will be rendered infinitely more so, as Mr MacGibbon pointed out, "if the preservation of sectional interests is, by any of the parties, allowed to overshadow the great need for resolving peace-time differences, and welding and unifying all forces into a powerful weapon of economic warfare."