FACING REALITIES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 170, 7 June 1940, Page 4

FACING REALITIES

IF last evening's meeting can be taken as an indication of public opinion throughout the Dominion centres where similar meetings of agitation have been held it must be patent to the Government that the existing war measures fa*l far short of what the people of this country consider adequate. The feeling in Whakatane is undoubtedly behind the movement for more intensified action and the prosecution of the war effort on a far more active and greater scale. Though the attendance might have been greater,, the meeting was nevertheless fully representative of town and country and all shades of political; opinion. It was a combined call to our legislators to drop partyism and get down to realities. With England under the threat of invasion for the first time since the Norman Conquest, this is scarcely the 'time for the preservation of old differences of opinion. If unity is strength then it were never so vital to the Empire as now. The Mother country has shown us the way, and as a recent correspondent put it "the best brains are needed to help the country!" New Zealand by the way of comparison with any country in Europe, (perhaps the world) has scarcely felt the war strain as yet and were it not for the fact that thirty thousand of our finest young men have enlisted for war service overseas, it would be. hard to realise that we were actually a belligerent state. There is no real or serious shortage of anything other than petrol and this by virtue of the system of rationing is under control and working satisfactorily. But no one can disguise the fact that there are grim days ahead. The sooner we prepare to meet them, the less will be: the shock of their inescapable impact. We must face the realities of war and, instead of trading on the imagined safety of our insular position set boldly to work to put our own house in order to safeguard against eventualities. Thousands are fit and willing to offer their services in a variety of ways which will cost the Government nothing. Thousands more will help in a lesser degree. Invasion or internal trouble from the sinister "fifth column" are far from remote and. thinking persons are alive: to their possibilities. Something of the spirit was shown at last evening's meeting and is behind the. resolution going forward as an honest and helpful expression of public opinion, to the Government.