THE GREATER TASK

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 167, 31 May 1940, Page 4

THE GREATER TASK

INVASION, treachery, sabotage, bombing raids and general ruthlessness, all these, figuring in the news so prominently of late ha,ve served to spell abroad a certain despondency, a certain apprehension bordering on fear. In our own small community there is only one topic of conversation —the war, and the latest bombshell caused by the Belgian surrender. But 'if we are to win the war, (and any other thought is out of the question) now is the time for a hardening of the old fighting spirit of our forbears. If the task becomes greater if fresh difficulties daily beset our way, then all the greater will be the glory when the victory is hailed, and greater too will be the Empire which barred the way of the oppressor and fought for the freedom of mankind. We come of a proud and mighty race, rich in traditions of steadfastness and rugged fearlessness. The oppressor will yet feel the full weight of our arms, for .as the Nazi Navy has been SAvept from the seas so shall the soldiers of Brittania the imperish able, sweep the land horcles of the Reich far back beyond their own boundaries. Though the outlook at present is dark ancl forbidding, the situation is not one to be viewed' with timidity or dread. We are Britishers and true to our race we will rise above all the adversiities which beset our path. Our fighting men are the finest in the world and the reckless spirit of their sires still animates each and every one of them. From out the tangled mass of rumours from Northern France, this we know wiith certainty—The British Expeditionary Force has stood firm withstanding the repeated onslaughts of the armoured German divisions. Man for man the forces of Freedom are more than superior to the millions who compose the merciless Nazi machine, We have much to be thankful for, and by the grace of God will show posterity again that it was the British Empire which having set the example of freedom to all its subjects black or white, brown or yellow once more exerted its might and by its willing sacrifice burst asunder the Nazi slave-chain which was about to bind the universe. So, to those who :in silent anxiety, watch their sons, husbands and brothers marching to the field of battle, there is comfort and strength in the knowledge that they are proving themselves true Englishmen, apd are answering the highest calling to which our race and nation stands the unflinching guardian—the preservation of freedom. More comfort still perhaps is the further knowledge that every state of extreme emergency in the past has produced from th|. British people those amaz ling reserve qualities which have never failed to achieve final victory.