SPIRIT OF DUNKIRK

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 64, Issue 4536, 13 February 1942, Page 5

SPIRIT OF DUNKIRK

“THE SUN SHALL GREET THEM” MAN’S TRIUMPH IN ADVERSITY • There have been many stories of the evacuation of Dunkirk. Many are purely narrative, others have tried, more or less successfully, to record the human aspect, but none, I think have so searchingly and intimately recorded the reaction of man’s soul in triumph over adversity as has a newly-published book by David Rame, “The Sun Shall Greet Them.” I took it up a" “just another novel.” I have laid< it?C&wn as a classic record of the capabilities and heroism of man’s'endurance. It is fiction, yet more than fiction. It is a story of war, yet of more than war. It is a story of England, yet of more than England. It is a story of fear, yet of fear that was conquered. ( It is all these and more; it is the story of the spirit of mankind that will overcome “the evil things” that we are fighting and restore to the world the sanity and peace which is worthy of the best who live in it. The book is dedicated to “The Little Ships of Dunkirk and the Men Who Went With Them,” and tells the story of one man, who, imperilled by a force greater than himself, sustained shattering blows and yet came through. NINE CROWDED DAYS In the crowded nine days of the Calvary of Dunkirk there were in all probability packed more tales of endurance and heroism than have had precedent in so short a period in all the remainder of the world’s history. And yet history abounds with such tales. Thermopylae of the Ancient Greeks with its modern counterpart, Gallipoli, the Alamo of United States history, the Jervis Bay, the daily ordeals of meh of the Merchant Service, these are but a few of them. And all record the stories of men who lived and died that freedom may live. Nearer still to us are the stories of Tobruk, of Leningrad, of Moscow, of Greece, of Crete, of Malta; stories of men prepared to sacrifice all that is dear to them in order that true i humanity may triumph over bestialism. When time has cast its true perspective upon the struggle going on in the world to-day it may well be that men will point to the early half of the 20th century and say, “These were great men and women. By their fortitude was freedom and humanity made secure in the world.” GENERAL MACARTHUR A few short weeks ago few people in the British Commonwealth had heard of General MacArthur, Com-mander-in-Chief of the valiant United States and Filipino troops who so gloriously maintain their position on the Batan Peninsula against overwhelming odds. In him is another example of the same fortitude and endurance. Supported to the uttermost by his men, regardless of personal sacrifice, he carries on his duty and holds back an exasperated enemy from other aggressions. The story is told that when General j MacArthur was recalled from well- • earned retirement to organise and command the defence of the Philippines he was well aware of the great responsibility put upon him. He knew an ultimate clash of United States and Japanese interests was inevitable and would bring the United States Asian outpost into extreme jeopardy. “I must not fail,” he said. “These islands are the key which opens the door for the United States. It must not be lost.” And in this spirit of devotion to duty, with men of similar fibre and fortitude throughout the troops under his command, he is contributing to the ultimate emancipation of the world from the threat of tyrannic despotism. TRIALS TO COME 1, But before emancipation comes to pass there are likely to be many more trials of man’s endurance. In Singapore we see, in all probability, the beginning of another epic of heroic resistance such as may even become necessary at other points in the south Pacific. But men may take comfort from the history of the past and present that mankind, even as the men in • the little ships of Dunkirk, can pro- ' duce that necessary heroism and fortitude which finds a triumphant outcome from danger and adversity.