THE GATHERING STORM

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 164, 24 May 1940, Page 4

THE GATHERING STORM

THAT the fate of the Empire and indeed the freedom-lov-ing people of the world,, hangs in the balance and will once aga'in be: decided on the battle-scared fields of Flanders is now generally accepted by British people the world over. Likewise is it also patent to the world that the full (impact of the rival armies is still to come and with its fury and slaughter will spell out the destiny of the human race for untold centuries. From our distant position in the universal grandstand it is possible to obtain only a dim impression of what course the war is taking, yet in Whakatane there is only but one topic of conversation and there are no delusions entertained regarding the extreme gravity of the situation. By whose blunder, the German armies were enabled to cross the: Meuse,, by whose la.ck of foresight they brushed aside the feeble French resistance at this point only history will tell. The facts as they obtain today must be faced, and the spear thrust across the face of France is the subject to which the Allies must direct their best efforts, to encounter or parry. Out of the Seigfried Line has sprung a disciplined, armed and powerful horde whose avowed objective is nothing short of world conquest. Unscrupulous to a degree, its animators are prepared to violate every law of humanity or decency in order to obtain their end. The law of oppression, concentration camps, persecution and, intolerance follow 'in their wake, yet as a people of eighty millions more or less united under the hypnotic dominance of a power-drunk tryant they present a threat to civilisation which cannot be- unc\er-estimated. The test of Empire is with us today, and under its strain it reassuring to see the reaction. There is complete lack of panic at home, or abroad and daily the bonds of unity are tightening about the British race. There is now more than ever before the determination to rid the workl of the nightmare of Nazism. The race which created the Empire covering a fifth of the land surface of the Globe, which formulated the first charter of individual rights, perfected the trial by jury and sowed the first seeds of democratic government, is called upon to face its greatest trial and every Britisher knows—it cannot fail.