ATTITUDE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 199, 14 August 1940, Page 4

ATTITUDE

THE mental attitude with which British soldiers and civilians should approach the. battles of the war is the subject of an interesting discussion in Britain. Should the nation remain gloomy, if still determined to win, or should it enter the fray with a smile and an enthusiasm for the cause? Should it allow patriotism to burn and apportion a mead of glory for the gallant feats of arms, or should it continue: to regard war with nothing but horror and loathing and, modestly hide the daring and the triumphs of its armed men as much as possible from the public eye? In the first place it is beyond doubt that Britons abhor war as; such, wfith all its pain anc!.misery. Having said that it may seem paradoxical to add that the time for gloomy regrets passed with the outbreak of war, and that Britons should now go into battle with all the enthusiasm and cheerfulness they can summon. They are all agreed that Britain did, everything that was humanly possible to reach a settlement of pressing problems without recourse to war. They know as a certainly that the force represented by the Nazis was something that all the passive virtue in the world could not have silenced. They know that they alone stood between the civilised world and a new and evil monster which had to be driven back whence it came. In the minds of the vast majority of Britons there lis not the slightest doubt about those facts,. History has shiown that honourable men will fight and work with the greatest effectiveness when they know their cause is right and that resort to arms is inevitable if that cause is to be defended. Can Britons have any doubt now that they took the only right and honourable course when they decided to fight the evil threating the world? And having reached that high resolve; why should, they approach the great task with the handicap of gloom in their hearts? Had they been the aggressors with only lust for power as their motive, heaviness of spirit would be appropriate: to the occasion. But Britons in this war are crusaders for the right in the real sense of term, and they may go into the conflict with the cheerfulness that springs from a full appreciation of the high purpose to which they have been called- This is an occasion for pride in martial prowess rather than for shame. Why should not honest Britons feel the thrill of it? It may bring pain and death,, but what of the alternative?