PER ARDUA

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 178, 26 June 1940, Page 3

PER ARDUA

Cur heading, as most readers v.'il) know, is the first half o! the motto of the Koyal Air Force: through difficulties. The other half is ati astra: to the stars. Taken together they mean that the- path of glory is hard; may be long; must be rough. Sometimes it is so hard,, so long, and so rough that the bravest can hardly endure to the end. But the stars shine nowhere else. Britain and France to-day are on that road. They know, and will seek to find, no other. It will be hard, it will be so long that some will never see the end. Some of those who come to the end will have tainted many times by the way. But there will be no turning back. Behind them are slavery and moral death. Ahead—and they arc facing the fact that It may bo weary years ahead—a light in Avhich their children will live and work again as civiliscd beings. We repeat that the way must be long. To cxpect anything else is madness to think that the end will never come. It is cowardice and treachery. If there had been cowards and traitors in Dunkirk, Leopolds and Quislings in Paris and London, twenty Allied divisions would now be German navvies. They are French and British soldiers still because they looked defeat in the lace and laughed at it. And they are far more now than mere soldiers. They are a light and an inspiration through all the battles to come. Whatever struggles lie ahead, Allied armjes will remember Dunkirk and fight on. Right may not always be might, but faith cannot fail to be. Per nrdua to-day. Ad astra when Dunkirk has cleansed us of our las! craven doubt."—"N.Z. Listener."