THE EMPIRE'S WAR ACTIVITIES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 93, 19 August 1942, Page 3

THE EMPIRE'S WAR ACTIVITIES

DEBT TO MOTHERS

WHAT WAR LEADERS OWE MARSHAL CHIANG KAI-SHEK I shall let Chiang Kai-shek tell you of. his mother himself. In an autobiographical passage he pays this beautiful tribute: "I was born in a little village where my ancestors tilled their fields and pursued their studies. Through sheer diligence and frugality they acquired a little wealth. My father died when I was nine years of age. "It must be remembered that the Manchu regime was then in its most corrupt S'tate . . . My family, solitary and without influence, became at once the target of their maltreatment. Illegal taxes and unjust public service were thrust upon us. "11l is entirety due to my mother's kindness and persevcrence that the f amity was saved from utter de< struction. My mother loved me dearly, but her love was more than the love of an average mother. She was as strict a tcachcr as, a loving mother. When 1 returned from school she would question me on the lessons of the day. She taught me how to behave myself as well as other valuable things. "I am always mindful of two things—that, so long as the people are still in distress I have not fulfilled my mother's wish, and that so long as the 'task of national tion is, not accomplished I shall be responsible for the distress and suffering of the people." His mother was a devout Buddhist.

WOMEN PADRES

WAR OFFICE APPOINTMENTS Ehe British War Office has approved the appointment of 12 women padres and lay assitants 'Lo work under the direction of Army chaplains. They will wear a special badge and an armlet blazoned with a gold cross on a purple background. The Archbishop . of Canterbury, Dr. Temple, will bless them before they are drafted into camp. They have bean chosen by the Church Committee for the AVomen's Forces and includc eight Anglicans and four Other denominationsMrs Fisher, wife of Dr. G. F. Fisher, Bishop of London, and the chairman of the* committee, said: "The women chosen have had great experience in the welfare of young people. They differ considerably in age, because we hop:; to find out whether young or older women are more acceptable to the g'irls. "Tlieir duties will include visiting the girls, helping them with their social problems and leading discussion groups."

"THE STORM THAT IS TO COME" (The following verses arc not current commen't, since they were written nearly 40 years ago by the Australian bushman poet, Henry Lawson. But read them and judge whether thej- are opposite to current times). By cur place in 'the midst of the farthest, seas we are fated to stand alone-— When the nations fly at each other's throats let Australia look to her own; Let her spend her gokl on the barren West for the land and its manhood's sake; For the South must look to herself for strength in the storm that is yet -'to break. | The rain comes down on the Western j land and the rivers run to waste. While, the town folk rush- for the special tram in their childish, senseless haste. And never i\ pile of a lock we drivebut a few mean tanks wo scratch— -. For the fate of a nation Is nought compared with the turn of a cricket match, I have pictured long in the land I love what the land I love might .be, Where the Darling rises from Queens land's rains and the floods rush out to the sea. Ami it 1s is our fate we wait too late to the !trulh that we have been blind, With a .foreign foe at our harbourgate and a blazing drought behind ?