SINCE THEN!

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 94, 21 August 1942, Page 5

SINCE THEN!

WAR'S GREATER REALITIES

THREE YEARS AGO

Do you know that its nearly three years since the declaration of war? Do you remember the first recruiting in Whakatane, the civic farewell and tlie fuss we made of those chaps who went with the First Echelon! A long time ago it seems, and yet I'll bet if some of those First Echelon boys could come back to-day they would scarcely recognise ; the life to which we have now become so used." The above remarks were made to a Beacon representative yesterday. J (linking the position over, we HAVE,' come a long way from the days when we waged war at a comfortable distance; when the armies of Hitler hurled defiance at the armies of Britain and France across the 'impregnable' Maginoi Line. In those good old days with the war still something of a myth in its unreality the official slogan Avas '"carry on.' 1 We did. Football, social fixtures, winter and summer shows. Good old days when restrictions were a jioke and the trade in petrol coupons gave all who wanted to the widest travelling

powers. But look now, blackout, coupons, travelling restrictions, tyre and petrol rationing, paper conservtion, censorship, potato shortage, compulsory Home Guard training and governmental control reaching down to every commodity which is a necessity for every day life. The slow transitional stages have been passed almost unconsciously until today the people of this country would be prepared almost to acceptwithout complaint the greatest burden or restriction wmch it was deemed necessary •to foist upon them. We have become "restriction ; minded." We expect it, indeed wp almost look for it. It is this complex however which must not be allowed to so grip our conscience that we become blinded to the true perspective of things. The time for adjustment will come just as surely as the dawn and if we fail then to assert our old rights and liberties, the war and its very objectives Avill have been in vain. However it is interesting in the midst of the whirl of Avar restrictions and Avar ideas to cast our minds both backwards and forwards in order to mallic a few comparisons. Whakatane to-day with its community street lights and its familiar neon signs obliterated, its limited crowds, its road blocks and its almost complete absence of. social life is a sad placc by comparison with its pre-war progress and activity. Nevertheless it must be borne in mind Avhen one is inclined to be downcast, that the Avar is not, and never Avill be a permanent state of affairs. It is temporary and transitory, though its repercussions and after-effects may long prevent the bloom of peace and the return of tranquility.