A MOMENTOUS YEAR

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26040, 2 January 1946, Page 6

A MOMENTOUS YEAR

IRRESPONSIBLE LEADERS We have received the following New Year message from Mr W. W. Mulholland, president of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union:— It is a momentous New Year, ushering in as it does the first year of peace. It is an occasion that has been hoped for, longed for through six weary years. They have been long years for many—years made up of days begun hoping that the dread telegram would not arrive and ended with relief that

it has not come. But not always. For many there came a day when the dreaded news flashed across the world that a loved one would not return. On the threshold of another year it is fitting that we pause a while to remember those who have given so much that we might enjoy peace agaih; those who are gone and those who are left. Peace, so desirable in prospect, has not. brought the halcyon days of which we dreamed. Instead it has brought a war-torn, starving world rent with the schisms of old and new hates. Great lands where people wander to and fro in the depths of despair without a leader. Peace has not restored happy care-free days, but has laid upon us a great responsibility. The reshaping of a world is given into our hands. And what a world! Millions starve while the wisdom of man has become so great that it is like to destroy the race. Man’s control of material forces has so outpaced his moral and spiritual development that the very existence of the world is threatened and man has become a danger to himself. The subjection of atomic energy to man’s will has placed in the hands of men a force so potent that no man dare trust his neighbour with it. Statesmen are trying to avert the danger by political formulae, but only the moral and spiritual development of the peoples of the earth to the point where righteousness is such a compelling force that they can be safely trusted with the terrible instruments which knowledge has given to them will do so. May the New Year see each of us consciously marching towards that goal. The New Year dawns upon a hungry world. The tragedy of peace threatens to be greater than the tragedy of war. Millions of helpless, hopeless people see no prospect ahead in this New Year but hunger and cold unless they are released by death. There is no food; nor fuel. The people of Britain, hungry because they have net a full supply of food, are deliberately going more hungry than they need in order that starving people m Europe may have enough to save some who must otherwise perish. Surely it is with glowing pride that we claim as our Mother Land this grand country which a little while ago stood alone and unarmed but unflinching before the mightiest concentration of military power the world had ever seen and saved freedom for the world; and to-day says to her neighbours “ I am hungry, but you are starving. Come share with me.” Food is the desperate need of the world at the moment. We in this country are fortunate in being able to produce certain foodstuffs that are of special value in the present crisis and every effort should be made to maintain our production at the highest possible level during the coming year. Peace has not eased our responsibilities in this respect, but has rather increased them. Food is the outstanding thought for 1946. In these circumstances it was surely an unprecedented lack of any sense of responsibility on the part of those who during the past year placed so many additional burdens ana discouragements on farmers with whom in the main must lie the task of producing the sorely needed food. In spite of this farmers will do their utmost in this New Year to supply the needs of the starving multitudes throughout the world.