GRAVE DAYS.

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 156, 6 May 1940, Page 4

GRAVE DAYS.

THOUGH it was never the intention of the BEACON to adopt a role of anything other than a local news-organ, the news from overseas occasionally makes it necessary to give some reflex of what is prominently figuring- in the public mind. Thus to-day with the intensification of the second world war, and the far-reaching complications which appear to be so imminent, it becomes the duty of all papers to deal with matters which have thrust themselves to the fore, and demand the urgent attention of all who are following the course of the growing international struggle. No Britisher will even doubt the outcome, for it is ingrained in our being that right must always triumph, but at the same time time there are few who fail to realise, that before victory can be achieved,, the sacrifices must be very great. The Empire faces grave d.a,ys ahead and the acid test of our right to supremacy lies in the manner in which we stand up to the trial as individuals. The progress of Nazi Germany within a short six months has been one of brute triumph, over a further group of prostrate, unsuspecting, and wholly inoffensive victims. First Poland was crushed under the heel of the Swastika. The open connivance of the Nazi state with Russia, led to the martyrdom of peace-loving Finland Denmark has been engulfed, and now the hungry hand reaches out over Norway. In the Mediterranean the brother Fascist state has offered lone applause to the aggressor, supplying the only relief to the shocked expressions of surprise and horror which have arisen from the civilised world. Now our erstwhile ally sways uncertainly on the brink of an early declaration which will bring her side by side with the Dictatorship which knows no law. Two issues will influence the Italian decision, to enter the war. Both however will result in her throwing in her lot with Germany. After six months as a spectator nation, she may consider that she has picked a winner,' and is therefore losing no time in ranging herself alongside the. most unscrupulous of the combatant nations. Or on the other hand she may think the fa,te of Hitler, and his Dictatorship, sealed, unless some help is forth coming from her old partner of the Axis agreement. The kinship of these two regimes is so close that 'if one falls it is inevitable that the other must go, or fade into insignificance in the face of the victory of the democracies. Despite all to the contrary the entry of Italy into the war would bring about a state of affairs which would tie up British commerce in the Mediterranean, and release at once a well trained and equipped military force, the fighting propensities of which, however, have yet to be proved against the troops of a first class power. Whatever lies in store the nation can .be relied upon to respond in the same splendid manner, with which it has met all emergences in the past, In the whole grim picture of the future, there is one heart ening feature which supplies the fullest hope and confidence to Britishers the world over. The navy still retains for Britain, the traditional title of 'Mistress of the Seas.