SOBER CONFIDENCE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24945, 18 June 1942, Page 2

SOBER CONFIDENCE

RECENT PACIFIC VICTORIES SNARE OF OVER-OPTIMISM (P.A.) WELLINGTON, June 17. Impressive speeches, having as their keynote sober confidence in victory for the Allies' cause, were made at the opening of the twenty-sixth annual meeting of the Dominion Council of the . .ew Zealand Returned Services' Association to-day. The speakers were the Governor-General, Sir Cyril Newall, the Prime Minister. Mr Fraser, and the United States Minister, Brigadiergeneral Patrick J. Hurley. The meeting was opened by Sir Cyril Newall, who said the annual report showed clearly the immense amount of work the association had achieved and the very wide field covered. He thought the change of name to Returned Services' Association was a wise move, since it brought in some elements which for one reason or another were perhaps reluctant or diffident about joining the association. Unity was strength, and anything which would help to that end was to be encouraged. The association was also to be congratulated on opening its membership to ex-servicewomen. A Grim Situation

Mr Fraser expressed appreciation of the vigorous and enthusiastic support the R.S.A. had given the war effort since the outbreak. "I have had particular responsibility during all that time, and never have the returned soldiers failed," Mr Fraser said. He was confident that that support would be continued. , One glance at Kharkov, Sebastopol. Tobruk, and the fighting in Libya, the Prime Minister added, would show that the Allied Nations were still facing a verv grim situation, and the tide of war might oscillate forward in their favour or backwards in the enemy's favour. Times like the present, and times perhaps even more severe that they might be called upon to face, tried men's minds and souls, and he knew that, as in the past, the R.S.A. would lead a strong victorious sentiment among the people of New Zea°ln the Pacific, the Allied cause had made some considerable progress, but they must not be caught in the snare of over-optimism, and no effort must be relaxed, Mr Fraser said. Any person who imagined that there was immunity from attack on New Zealand was living in a fool's paradise. But. whether there was an attack or not, whether bombs rained down from the skies or not, whether the enemy set foot in the country only to be hurled back, if the spirit of the R.S.A. animated the whole of the people of New Zealand there could be nothing but victory for them in the long run. Wave of Over-enthusiasm General Hurley said it had been an inspiration to him to find how wholeheartedly New Zealand was in this fight. "I find that all the citizens in this Dominion are anxious to do their part if they find what is their part to do, and gradually they are all finding it," he said. There was a wave of overenthusiasm at the moment when people were talking about the results of the Coral Sea and Midway Island actions and the wonderful attacks being made on Germany by the R.A.F., but it should be remembered that the offensive spirit was not in boasting about what had been accompished. The offensive spirit was just as essential as war material and man-power. " We can make up our minds that we will fight and that we will win, but let us not claim it until we have done it," General Hurley concluded.