“WIZARD OF OZ”

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 85, Issue 10, 13 January 1941, Page 5

“WIZARD OF OZ”

AUSTRALIANS’ WAR-CRY NEW YORK PRESS TRIBUTE LAUGHTER OF DEMOCRACY ,By Telegraph—Frees Association—Copyright] Received Jan. 12, 8.3 U p.m. NEW YORK, Jan. 10. The New Yorx limes in an editorial says: "it is not merely a picturesque detail that Australian troops in Airica went into battle singing the chorus irom 'The Wizard ol Oz.' It is hard to get a song Hom a soldier retreating or from one not knowing quite wnat he is fighting for. The Australians made a noise because they sensed victory—not just an immediate victory in a desert skirmish but oeyond to-day's horizon the great final victory. They were formidable troops in the last war. Perhaps they are more formidable now. In a wide new country free from the narrower customs of Old England they are yet loyal at heart to English tradition. They have grown tall and rangy in spirit as in body. Such is the gut of the Colonial to the Motherland. In Britain we have seen the same spirit miraculously born. The dangers ol battle create a new frontier in which there are new pioneers. Distinctions of rank and wealth lose their sanction. He who believes so firmly in his cause can charge with gaiety into the Valley of Death and carry the seeds of the future. There is no spark of this splendid mirth in any dictatorial army. This is the war-cry of free men. This is the laughter of democracy at Mussolini. The singing troops that took Barci a carried an immediate threat that the 'Hermit of Berchtesgaden' would have done well to listen to. Their song was meant for his ears.”