The Timaru WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13, 1945. Victory Loan

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVII, Issue 23226, 13 June 1945, Page 4

The Timaru WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13, 1945. Victory Loan

four days left for public subscription just over £5,000,000 is required to fill the 1945 Victory Loan. There need be no doubt that the loan will be fully subscribed, but more important than the full subscription of the loan is the manner in which the investments are made. If there were any appreciable flagging in public interest it wjould be possible for the large financial institutions to increase their contributions to save the reputation of the Dominion; it would be possible also for larger private investors to dig a little deeper and place their money where they know it to be secure. The loan, however, will fail in one of its important subsidiary purposes unless it is widely spread over the whole community. South Canterbury is a good deal further down the districts list than the local War Loan Committee had hoped, and it must be said this is not due to any imperfection in the committee’s campaigning. The people of South Canterbury have been made well aware of the necessity for subscribing to the loan. The money is required largely for war purposes, and a war of obvious interest to New Zealand has yet to be fought and won. General Stilwell, one of the great American leaders in the war against Japan, has predicted that the Pacific war could easily last another two years, and as long as this war lasts New Zealand will be compelled to meet expenditure for its participation in a struggle which has among its primary objectives maintenance of the security of New Zealand and Australia. The Pacific war is New Zealand’s war, and not until it is won can there be any relaxation of effort in this country. New' Zealanders on the home front, with memories of the peril in which they stood three years ago, should be glad to pay their fair premiums on an insurance covering their future safety as a nation. That war in the Pacific will be fought to its victorious conclusion whether Nei4 Zealand participates further in it or not, and there is no need either to say that New Zealanders fighting in the Pacific will go short of essential equipment if the Victory Loan is not fully subscribed. Nevertheless, it is a matter of national honour that this country should not reject legitimate demands made upon it until the war is won.

The winning of a modern war demands more than victory in the field; it is equally essential to win the peace, and the peace can only be won by the most prudent preliminary economic preparations. Thus the secondary purpose of all the war loans subscribed by New Zealanders has been to remove to some extent the financial and economic abnormalities created by war conditions. The paradox of this world conflict has been that while some countries have suffered terribly, others have prospered, and New Zealand has been fortunate to find itself among the prosperous countries. The wages of the workers are higher now than they have ever been; most businesses are booming, and even the farmers have no cause to complain about the way in which the war has treated them financially.' This prosperity has been bought at the price of suffering in other countries, and at a price which New Zealand soldiers and airmen have paid on active service. There is one certainty which New Zealanders must face: wartime prosperity, which is founded upon abnormal economic conditions, will not continue indefinitely. There must come a time when the tide will recede and the shock of deflation will only be lessened if there is a large store of real money to be released gradually in the post-war period. The only way in which an equitable spreading of post-war financial resources can be guaranteed is to have every section of the community investing now in war loans and National Savings to the limit of their ability. Those who are profiting from wartime conditions have a clear duty to put their surplus, after living expenses have been paid, into the national exchequer. There are no reasons sufficiently strong to dissuade them from the faithful discharge of this obvious responsibility. There are people who may not like the personnel of the Government, or its policy. They cannot further their fight against the Government by holding out on the war loan. There are wage-earners who imagine that their present prosperity will go on for ever. Those who are gambling to-day or dissipating their money in other ways can reflect with certainty upon the prospect of being short of life’s necessities in five years’ time. But it is open to them to protect themselves against this melancholy fate. A stable post-war economy will benefit everybody; it can be reasonably assured by financial prudence now. New Zealand itself, its rich lands and natural resources, and its people is the security for repayment of the war- loans and National Savings. There is no better security in the world than that.