THREE FATAL TEMPTATIONS

Waikato Times, Volume 128, Issue 21418, 12 May 1941, Page 6

THREE FATAL TEMPTATIONS

To the young people who will take their place in the leadership and in the rank and file of the rising generation the GovernorGeneral, Sir Cyril Newall, gave arresting advice in his speech at the capping day ceremony at Auckland. Sir Cyril based his address on three “ temptations ” that would face young people in the remaining period of the war and the peace that follows. First, he said, the magnitude of the task would tempt them to lose heart; secondly, they would be tempted by the sudden reversion of popular feeling that would come when the war was over; thirdly, while learning the lessons of history they must not slip into the habit of blaming their predecessors for all difficulties and problems that were to be faced. The magnitude of a nation’s task is too apt to daunt individuals if they fail to remember that a nation can do nothing without individual effort. Therefore the need is to impress upon every man and woman to contribute a share to the common weal. If that is done the national objective is achieved. The “ reversion of popular feeling ” at the end of the war is something against which the common people must be on their guard. There will be an inclination when hostilities cease to regard peace as an end in itself without heed for the quality of that peace. When the long and heavy strain is lifted many will want to relax and persuade themselves that there is nothing more to wish or strive for. That is what occured after the last war, and that may be one of the reasons why the war has to be fought again.

Sir Cyril’s final point—the temptation unreasonably to blame those who have gone before for all the ills of life—is equally important. “It is an easy habit to catch, and a fatal one,” Sir Cyril said “because it leads to apathy.” The fatal attitude may be that the new generation will say to itself, “ War came because our fathers had not the sense to avoid it; it cannot happen now and here.” But it will happen again and again unless there is positive and continuous action to make it impossible. • Millions remember how in 1918 they were convinced that the world was done with war for ever. The slaughter and suffering had been so terrible that mankind would shrink from a repetition. How vain those beliefs were everybody knows today. The truth is that the struggle of peace must be as real as that of war, but with the aim constant constructiveness instead of destructiveness.