KEEPING ONE'S HEAD

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 141, 13 August 1941, Page 4

KEEPING ONE'S HEAD

"IF you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs these lines of Kipling's come to us as we receive the latest ominous news of the steadily increasing aggression of the Japanese invasion as it penetrates the mainland of Asia. Sound adivice,, from the pen pf one of England's greatest of modern sages. But we in New Zealand have become somewhat innured to war and its rumours. We have stood for two years on the verge of the maelstrom; as yet untouched, watching the other multitudes of the world being buffeted and, tossed like helpless derelicts in a tropic storm. A few of its victims —pitiable flotsam have come to our shores for haven., but still the rumbles of the conflict remain faint and unreal. In our own hometown and district we have learnt to 'carry on' by transforming out normal social life into a. maze of war and patriotic activities. In our own small way we have given wellf; we have accomplished all that was set us to* do and our response might Indeed give us cause to become self-satisfied. But do we really appreciate the new situation which is dawning on the oriental horizon. Stabs of pain in the past have brought realities home to us as each casualty list has; been published. This is war as we have been taught to know it. So it was in the Boer War; so again in the Great War; and so again it appears to be in the present struggle. Yet today we have heard the Australian Prime Minister warning the nation of grim'possibilities. Our own. Prime Minister's words have a sinister ring. Why should we hope to be forever able to keep war at a distance. "The Dominion is ready" says Mr Fraser and we are with him. Whatever emerges out of the Japanese restlessness New Zealand can be depended upon to give a good account of herself. We naturally will continue in our trust that our isolation shall remain unbroken., but it would be folly to be blind to the newthreat which is developing from militant Japan. In this war we cannot afford to forget that 'anything is possible/ How often in the past has the most astounding news reached us in the morning broadcasts from swift developments overnight. Preparedness is the watch ward, though as individuals the time is still ripe for quiet thinking; 000 l ami deliberate action, and the borrowing of a little advice from Kipling's classic 'IF.'