ALL MUST PREPARE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 January 1942, Page 5

ALL MUST PREPARE

TO HELP IN RESISTING ENEMY SIR C. NEWALL ON DUTY OF CITIZENS. FORMS ATTACK MAY TAKE. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, January 5. “Every man and every woman must prepare to resist the enemy,’’ was the message the Governor-General, Sir Cyril Newall, gave to residents of Lyttelton today when responding to a welcome extended to him and to Lady Newall. on their first official visit. “The events of the last few weeks have brought war very much nearer to us all,” said Sir Cyril. “Till December this Dominion was not actually in immediate danger of attack. Today that danger is very real. The danger increases the responsibilities of every one of us, and calls for greater sacrifices from us all. “It is the absolute duty of every man and woman in New Zealand to be prepared to resist the enemy should he dare to set foot on our shores and to drive him back into the sea. If, as is more likely, he attacks us from the air, it is the duty of each one of us' to prevent him from achieving his objects. “Those objects will be twofold. He will try to do all the material damage that he can. He will try to burn our cities and our towns, to block our harbours, to destroy our wharves, our aerodromes, and our oil tanks, and he will try to break our nerves, to spread despair and panic amongst us. “If he should bomb us or bombard us he will certainly do some damage, but how serious that damage is will depend not on him but on us. on our readiness to extinguish the fires he, lights; to tend to the wounded and injured, and to carry on the essential services of the country. “The work of the E.P.S. does not therefore merely deserve our sympathy and encouragement; it demands the co-operation and support of each and every one of us. “The man who makes no preparation for dealing with an incendiary bomb which may drop on his house is not merely imperilling his own house or his own life; he is a danger to his neighbours and he is failing in his duty as a citizen. “Similarly, it is the duty of everyone to have some knowledge of at least the rudiments of first aid. It is not merely for ourselves that we must be prepared. New Zealanders who are

serving overseas are risking everything for us. They left us behind confident that we would look after their homeland. That is our sacred trust, and it must never be said of us that we have failed them.

“Let us, therefore, prepare ourselves to meet whatever may be coming to us, gladly sacrificing time, money, and personal ambition to this, our foremost duty. “Let us not blind ourselves to the seriousness of the situation. . This is no time for unthinking optimism or unnecessary pessimism. We can face the future with sober confidence, born of the realisation that so long as we, each and all, do our duty we cannot fail.”