A Personal New Year Message from our Prime Minister

Camp News, Volume 1, Issue 3, 29 December 1939, Page 2

A Personal New Year Message from our Prime Minister

I appreciate the opportunity of sending a personal message through the “Camp News” to the soldiers who are undergoing training in different parts of New Zealand.

Let me first congratulate the promoters of the journal on their aim at supplying news of special interest to the young men who have shown zeal and enthusiasm in preparing for the defence of their country either here or overseas. They have responded to the best traditions of British people in all the lands of the world’s greatest commonwealth of free nations.

Before and since the outbreak of war with Nazi Germany, it has. been the purpose and consistent practice of the New Zealand . Government to establish and build up a sound system, of defence on land and sea and in the air. Results to-day emphasise the value of that policy. We are better prepared and equipped for effective defence than at any time in the past. And the whole system has been developed on modern lines.

Already our sailor lads have done extraordinarily well in the first naval battle of the present war, and on various occasions our airmen have shown the same qualities of efficiency, courage and resourcefulness. They have been true to the traditions of their race. I am confident that our soldiers, if and when the time of testing comes, will attain the same high standard of duty and achievement.

I extend to the men in the training camps and also those on guard along our coasts and on active service in the Navy and the Royal Air Force my heartfelt wishes for a Happy New Year and an early triumph for the cause of the British Commonwealth of Nations.

Prime Minister.