EMPIRE’S DANGER

Waikato Times, Volume 128, Issue 21415, 8 May 1941, Page 3

EMPIRE’S DANGER

CROSS=ROADS REACHED MESSAGE FROM LONDON TOTAL EFFORT NEEDED NOW This must be a message meant to impress Australians how grave is the war outlook for the Empire, and how necessary it is to forget everything except the marshalling of every possible resource as quickly as possible, said Mr W. V. King, manger of the Sydney Morning Herald oversea service, cabling from London last week. You must trust me when I tell you that the Empire has arrived at the cross-roads of its destiny, where even days of hesitation by any of its peoples might lead to destruction. You are almost as near to the decisive theatres of the war as we are in Britain. You must forget for the moment recriminations lor plunders, party squabbles, and criticisms of this man or that. You must back up the Prime Minister, Mr Menzies, who is here fighting the Empire’s battle against itself and its own racial weaknesses—as well as against palpable foes—as never an Australian, even Mr W. M. Hughes, in the last war fought. You in Australia, as in every other single corner of the Empire, must show individual and collective determination and courage in adversity, as never previously has been shown. You must forget the frills which hitherto you have been able to keep —your racing and other sports, your working conditions, your general freedom from the war’s most extreme demands. No Time For “Inquests’’ I do not write as a stranger or absentee, but as one who left bydney only three months ago, who knows your conditions and those of Britain, and the conditions where the Empire’s fate is now being written. The Empire as a whole cannot afford time even for inquests. -The position can become worse daily. If the Empire nesitates to plunge into a total war effort—l do not except one Empire country—a foreign heel may be felt on the necks of Britons. This is intended as a call for war efforts with the utmost hastening, in the hope that it will resound bacK in Britain as well as where it is directly aimed. I write it as the only ! means I have of telling the stark | truth of the Empire’s danger period | —that is, the period between the pre- ! sent state of our armaments and a ! condition where we shall be able to match the enemy’s might. The call is for an effort as grim as that of the Anzacs fighting on Greek soil to bridge the gap—to enable the enevitabie wastage in the current and coming periods of battling against the Nazi power to be made up and a reserve to be built up for the Empire’s eventual thrust. It is no good thinking in terms of months. The Empire’s greatest ordeal is a matter of days, almost hours. With all Europe outside Russia in Hitler’s grasp, except three uncertain neutrals, the Nazis have attained a position not equalled by any other conquerors. * What is more significant and more menacing is that they are reaching a position where they can strike at any moment at the Empire’s vitals. New Brains Needed Thus, the Empire’s war effort has reached a point from which it must be ruthlessly re-directed, where new brains must be used, especially in military quarters. Resentment against blunders of judgment and execution must at present be forgotten in a determination to back up possible new commanders—perhaps some from the New World—in a new shift of military policy. The call to factories and workers is for practically every waking minute to be devoted to the production of munitions, tanks, armoured vehicles, anti-tank weapons, and aircraft. These are the Empire’s most vital needs, and they must be satisfied before the Nazi threat is staved off. Similarly, the call is for every soldier, sailor and airman, and theii instructors, to turn every three days’ training into one, to forget the more pleasurable side of life in uniform. I am satisfied that no Empire country, even Britain, has played a part nobler than that of Australia. Therefore this message is not addressed solely to Australia, but to the Empire as a whole. If it can return here endorsed with Australia’s “Yes,” it will do equal good. This is a time when the Dominions’ voices must be heard. Australia, with its leading spokesman here, is in a better position to show the way. It is best entitled to that role because thousands of its modern Anzacs are most vitally involved.