The Waikato Times WEDNESDAY, MAY 9, 1945. DAY OF DELIVERANCE

Waikato Times, Volume 106, Issue 22605, 9 May 1945, Page 2

The Waikato Times WEDNESDAY, MAY 9, 1945. DAY OF DELIVERANCE

No other day in all history can compare with this Victory Day as an arresting period in the tide of human affairs. While the hearts of all free men are uplifted in gratitude for deliverance from the horrors of six years of war, few have yet grasped the full import of the event which they are celebrating. It is enough for the day that they should give expression to their emotions in their various ways in prayer to the God in whose-name they have fought, in demonstrations of joy or in quieter meditation upon the unaccountable actions of men. In Europe and the oceans surrounding it a mighty revolution is taking place. The power that once belonged to the Axis is passing into the hands of the United Nations. The wings of the great air fleets that have darkened the skies for six years are being folded to rest or are bearing relief to starvin'* people. The ships that have striven for the mastery of the ocean ways are streaming home to their bases. The sinister submarines with which Germany hoped to win the war are slinking back to harbour, robbed of their prey, and dejected. All the vast machinery of war with which Germany challenged the United Nations is at the disposal of the victors. There is no longer a German terror in all Europe. Its dread consequence will remain for many a day but its power to perpetrate further evil has been broken. “For better or worse,” as the German Chief of the General Staff said, “the German people and armed forces have been delivered into the victors’ hands.” The Hitlerian order having failed, it remains for the victors to give back to the world the way of life for which men fought and for which millions sacrificed thciA lives. With the celebration of victory goes the firm resolve that tLs new responsibility shall be met bravely and with the determination that where brutality and oppression failed democratic liberty must succeed. And there will be joy in the endeavour although everyone knows that many trials still lie ahead. The opportunity at least has been vouchsafed; it might have been denied for Hitler’s thousand years.

And while the people rejoice there will yet be a thought and a kindly action for those who gave sons, brothers, sisters or friends as a sacrifice in the cause of liberty. Sorrow lies heavily on the hearts of many. The casualties of war have been monstrous and grievous. Even though the sorrow is tinged with pride in the nobility of the sacrifice it is still hard to bear. And there are those who still face a strong and cruel enemy in the East. For these there is no relief for a time of celebration, but there is the encouragement that on the other side of the world the greatest enemy has fallen and that soon the victors of the West will come flooding eastward to add their weight to the Allied host. The blows that smashed the Wehrmacht have also staggered the Japanese and left them alone against the triumphant and determined aggregation of the United Nations which possesses the greatest array of military and moral power ever assembled on earth. It is little wonder that consternation reigns in Tokyo.