NEW ZEALAND AT WAR

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 66, Issue 5634, 28 June 1943, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND AT WAR

“DOGGED DOES IT”

A VISITOR’S IMPRESSIONS OF OUR MEN

Mr Kyle Palmer, the writer of -this article, is a war correspondent representing the Los Angeles Times. At horn,2 he is the political editor of the Times, and was formerly its Washington correspondent. He has been a member of the staff for twenty-one years, and is well known in newspaper circles throughout the United States and on the Pacific Coast as a political writer. Mr Palmer has just visited New Zealand, and was so pleased with what he saw of the Dominion’s war effort that he has placed the following article at the disposal of the New Zealand Press.

(By Kyle. Palmer, Los Angeles Times Staff Representative)

AUCKLAND, N.Z. Dogged does it- New Zealanders are among the world’s first-class fighting men. They have been in the war since it started. They did valiant service in Greece, in Crete, in Libya, in Tunisia. They have been flying with the Royal Air Force throughout the war, and in the Pacific they have stood toe to toe, flown wing to wing, with our own United States men wherever the fighting has been thickest. There was no need to come to Auck. land or Wellington to learn of the fighting- qualities of these sturdy, tenacious islanders. 'Our Army, Navy, and Marine commands sing their praises in Guadalcanal, in the New Hebrides, and in New Caledonia.

Long before the United States was drawn into the active fighting, New Zealanders were rallying to the defence of the British Empire. And when the Japanese struck their desperate treacherous blow the people in this Dominion had every reason to anticipate that they would be among the important points to be attacked. Everv resource of the population of slightly more than 1,600,000 people was marshalled. But the New Zealanders did not recall their fighters from the Middle East. They buckled down to the job on their own account with what they had.

One working man out of three has gone into uniform. Upward of 200,000 men have been mobilised for the armed services since the European war started. More than 80,000 New Zealanders have gone into the various services overseas. The Royal New Zealand Air Force overseas numbers approximately 10,000 men. To match New Zealand’s fighting forces on a basis of comparative manpower the United States would have at this time 13,000,000 men in the Army and Navy and an additional 8,000,000 men in the Home Guard. And of the 25,000 casualties suffered up to April of this year by New Zealand forces 8000 represent prisoners of war and 6000 have been deaths. Some estimate of what such figures would mean to the United States can be gained by checking up on the respective population totals of the two nations. TO PRESERVE HERITAGE

But even the figures which seemingly show that this Dominion stands first in the British Empire for the proportionate number of men sent overseas, wounded, taken prisoner, or killed, and for decorations for valour, do not tell the story. The story is actually of a solid, self-reliant, hard-working, and peaceloving people to whom liberty is the breath of life. Their dogged, matter-of-fact, ancj, undramatic determination to preserve their independence as a people and their liberties as individuals is both a heritage and a national characteristic.

They are fiercely proud of their British ties, but are equally firm in a strong sense of individual nationalism.

Fundamental in the New Zealand character is a homely practicality. Distinctions of class arising from wide differences in standards of wealth are not emphasised. In an agrarian country where most of the wealth comes ’from dairying, the raising of cattle and sheep, and where strong effort has been directed to assure the small farmer an important place in the scheme of things, a distinctly wealthyclass has not evolved.

Moreover, the tendency to sustain the small business man and the small manufacturer which dominated peacetime policies has been carried over into the war effort. Contrary to the trend in the United States, war has brought no general consolidation either in business or in industry. Doubtless such conditions explain why, despite a virtually complete turnover from an economy of peace to an economy of war, the ordinary structure of New Zealand’s economic life has not been greatly dislocated. Changes in the actual fighting requirements of the United Nations and the shifting theatres of war have greatly altered the man-power problems here, and a gradual reduction of the armed forces to permit a much more vitally-needed supply of labour for war industries is immediately in prospect. New Zealand’s main fighting emphasis in the future will gradually be placed in her air forces. In the Pacific at this time these are merged with the American commands. 82.1 t as the 25,000 air trainees complete their preparation for combatand are supplied with planes and the essential equipment from the United States, an independent New Zealand Air Force will be created to work in partnership with the American air arm. NEED FOR FOODSTUFFS

The supreme need here at this time is lor men to work in war industries and on larms developed exclusively to supply foodstuffs for Allied fighters m the Pacific area. now stands, about 250,000 persons are employed in activities directly related to the war effort. Such effort includes manufacture of munitions, bombs, mortars, shell fuses, radio equipment, gun fittings. small arms ammunition, and the manufacture of boots, shoes, and clothing. There is marked tranquility about New Zealand procedure which sometimes slightly ruffles the aplomb of the faster-paced American. But the New Zealanders get things done.

They get them done despite the fact that everything in this busy little corner of the world moves to the left. The street cars (trams) go up the left; motor vehicles go to the left; horses, dogs, cats, men, women, and children all move to the left. This is a little confusing and at times slightly embarrassing after a life-time of faithfully keeping to the right. I’ve done several one-two-three’s with bewildered pedestrians who have tried to out-guess me in passing. It gets to be a sort of waltz, but when the New Zealander perceives he is dealing with an American he smiles—and serenely passes to the left.

For the use of her own and Allied forces in the Pacific, New Zealand is now building more than 390 vessels of various sizes and types, including ocean-going tugs, lighters, and small motor boats.

The two main islands which comprise the Dominion are destined jointly to become one of the major replacement, repair, recuperation, recreational, and hospitalisation centres of the South Pacific. Hospital units for the accommodation of thousands of United States fighters are under construction. These centres will be among the most modern and fully equipped in the world. They will spread over scores of acres, and will include entire auxiliary communities. Great repair shops for planes and ships are a-building. CONSTRUCTION PROGRAMME In practically all phases of this tremendous construction programme due notice of all possible post-war adaptation has been taken. War-time hospitals will be used for schools; scores of war housing units will be converted into dwellings; other strue. tures will be used for industrial purposes.

Significant, also, is the fact that when the war is finished and the books are balance on the financial side between the Allied nations, goods and services received by New Zealand and goods and services supplied by New Zealand are expected to reach a nearbalance under the provisions of lendlease agreements. There has been no great increase in the cost of living here as a result of the war. New Zealanders are not luxury-loving, and had few unessentials to forego. There have been some shortages and a certain amount of rationing. Further rationing of food commodities is anticipated because of additional commitments to the Forces.

New Zealand is financing the Dominion’s share of the war with high taxes and the sale of war bonds. Fairly successful efforts have been made to stabilise prices, wages, and farm costs. .Profits are held down and price ceilings are enforced. Instalment buying is discouraged, and campaigns are waged to induce the population to spend less, save more, and buy war bonds. Thus, fighting or working, New Zealand is carrying its share of the load.

Until to-day this statement could truthfully have been made that this remote hive of industry, courage, and accomplishment had experienced virtually all of the war’s major hardships, sorrows, sacrifices, terrors, alarms, and confusions except one. But after to-day that one, too, will be eyer present. To-dav a member of the Dominion Parliament rose in his seat in the Legislative Chambers at Wellington and proposed that this baffling problem be also added to the perplexities and burdens of a war-conscious people. He said it was a scandal that the matter had not heretofore received attention. He proposed a pay-as-you-go tax programme.