THE HOME FRONT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25455, 9 February 1944, Page 2

THE HOME FRONT

DANGEROUS TRENDS BRIGADIER SPEAKS OUT Brigadier L. M. Inglis, D.S.O. and bar M.C., V.D., who is at present on leave from the Italian front, said in an interview yesterday that as a result of his observations during his present short visit to New Zealand, he was prompted to comment on certain aspects of the Dominion’s war effort. Brigadier Inglis was in command of the New Zealand Division, with the temporary rank of majorgeneral, during the time that Lieuten-ant-general Sir Bernard Freyberg, V.C., was recovering from a wound and also while General Freyberg was visiting the Dominion last year. “ One is asked all sorts of questions about personalities,” said Brigadier Inglis, ‘‘ but if I were to praise or blame those set in authority over me

I should be arrogating to myself superior knowledge a_.d opinions that I have no right to claim, while if I were to single out the names of people serving under me I should, willy niliy, omit the mention of many who were equally deserving of it. ..“There are, however, some aspects of New Zealand’s part in the war that I am not only prepared to discuss, but ought to discuss. They are matters of morale, which not only affect the wareffort here, but also have a direct bearing on the efficiency of our armed forces abroad.

“ People are so prone to get hot under the collar at censure or criticism that I had better state at the outset that what I have to say does not apply to all New Zealanders, for thousands of them, thank God, see and realise just as clearly as I do the deficiencies I am. going to underline. The astounding thing i s that there are other thousands who do not, or who at any rate act as if they do not. Unless there is a constant, positive moral lead given to this country, which was so good a starter in the war, it will degenerate into a poor finisher. And it is the finish that tells every time. A Word to Women

“ First, a word to women,” continued Brigadier Inglis. “The good ones—and they are legion—do an infinite amount of good. The weak sisters—and there are far too many of them—do an inestimable amount of harm. Many a woman has been the direct cause of making some soldier a neurotic wreck by writing querulous letters from home. This is a fact. I have seen the letters and know the men. Many a soldier has had his use fulness destroyed by the knowledge that his wife or fiancee has been play ing ‘ hanky-panky ’ with some moneyed stranger or some safe slacker. Yes, we all know the boot has sometimes been on the other foot, but two wrongs do not’ make a right. “ I am remembering some of the things my.own men have thought and said. I am remembering the storm of indignation among British soldiers in the Middle East when an illustrated paper - published idyllic pictures of smiling Italian prisoners arm in arm with smiling English girls in English harvest fields. I am pointing out that there are some kinds of play and some kinds of hospitality that do not help the soldier to do his job as a fighting man.”

The average soldier realised only too keenly the difficulties of the women at home. Brigadier .Inglis said. He was well aware of their constant war against loneliness, against the difficulties of bringing up children without the help and advice of fathers, of dealing with housing, money, and a hundred and one other things that were the man’s province in the piping times of peace. He keenly appreciated all the help given to his womenfolk by those who had it in their power to help; and “he loves, as he loves a German or a Japanese, those who through intolerance, avarice, or selfishness make things harder for them.” “ The most dangerous moral cancer of all,” Brigadier Inglis added, “is .the one engendered by those who say to others, ‘You have done your bit. Now it is up to someone else to take your place.’ When that sort of thing is constantly said to good soldiers home on leave, it is only too likely to undermine their will to fight—especially when they see other men, apparently fit, encsconced in safe and profitable jobs at home.” But it was a false doctrine, Brigadier Inglis continued. In these times every man had one clear duty—to lend a hand wherever that hand could most benefit his country in a total war. No one had a right to measure his own effort by that of the most shameless shirker. If he had, no one would ever do anything. “The first thing to remember,” he said. “ is that the apparent shirker may be the proper round peg in the proper round' hole. The second thing is that the weeding out of the shirker is a matter for those who administer this country; and the inevitable conclusion is that the existence of can never rightly be used by any one of us .as an excuse for not' doing his own ‘ bit.’ “If one is a soldier or a sailor or an airman, then he has never ‘ done his bit’ until either the war is won or he is dead or incapacitated. Anyone who has met our enemies in this war knows that it can never be won by people who are looking back over their own shoulders. The quality we need above all other things is staying power.” The Furlough Scheme

It was as well that people at home should understand the real difficulties of arranging any regular furlough scheme on a large scale, Brigadier Inglis said. A scheme like the one recently carried out from the Middle East would have been impossible unless the Second Division had had time for complete reoragnisation and training between the end of the Tunisian campaign and its departure for Italy. Parting with a large proportion of battleexperienced men from any formation meant the loss of extra lives in the next campaign. A small percentage of reinforcements could be absorbed without much harm because they were carried along by the experienced majority, but, when whole sub-units consisted of men who did not know from the noise whether it was “theirs” or “ ours,” and whose eyes could not interpret the sights of battle, then many men were unnecessarily killed and wounded. “ That Is why you notice so many recent reinforcements in casualty lists whenever new men have been posted in large numbers,” Brigadier Inglis added. “ That is why, on these occasions, the proportion of officer and n.c.o. casualties rises so steeply—they have to do so much more than they ought because others do not know their jobs. People ought to know that three are times when to clamour for the return of one of their own folk means the loss of two of someone else’s. “The point to be emphasised,” concluded Brigadier Inglis, “is that high morale and right thinking on the home front are just as important as the active battle front in the winning of the war.”