The Home Guard

Southland Times, Issue 25691, 28 June 1943, Page 4

The Home Guard

AFTER MORE than two and a-half years of faithful service the Home Guard has been placed on a reserve basis. The news will be received with relief, but also with regret. There have been many changes since the organization was built up at the end of 1940. Its early career was made difficult by shortages of equipment, by lack of public interest, and by official neglect in

Wellington. Not until December, 1941, when Japan entered the war, did the potential value of the Home Guard receive some recognition. For the first time in the history of New Zealand the people had to face the fact that an invasion was possible. The extent of that danger may be the subject of future controversy. But it is known that for some months after the disaster at Pearl Harbour the United States Pacific fleet was seriously weakened. Fiji was defended hy, New Zealand troops - , inadequately equipped; and most experts agree that the Japanese could have taken Suva without much difficulty. Fortunately for - this country, the enemy followed a different plan. But in the early months of 1942 everything was uncertain and perilous. Men who had joined the Home Guard knew that if the invaders came they would at least be able to strike a blow in defence of their homes and country. There were many who argued that resistance would have been hopeless. Perhaps they were right. Yet it was better - to fight, even under grave disadvantages, than to wait tamely for a cruel enemy. Those were the great days of the organization. All the guardsmen were volunteers. They i came to know one another, developing a common trust and good fellowship that would have survived a hard testing. The spirit of those times has never been extinguished, although it suffered under the later methods of compulsion. ■ It would have been better, perhaps, if the Home Guard had been left on a voluntary basis. Compulsion came too late. By that time the danger was passing; men were beginning to feel that the heavy demands on their time and energy were no longer necessary. Some of the younger men are serving overseas. The veterans who remained in the Home Guard through all its vicissitudes will feel that they have earned the right to take their rest at the week-ends. They have made their effort, and they have found unexpected satisfactions in what was, at its best, a thoroughly democratic achievement. Unless there is a sudden, and at present improbable, deterioration overseas, their future role should be

merely nominal. But the friendships will survive. The spirit of the Home Guard is not the least valuable of New Zealand’s contributions to war and peace.