BAY OF PLENTY BEACON Published Tuesdays and Fridays. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 1947 BACKS TO THE WALL IN BRITAIN

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 11, Issue 96, 7 November 1947, Page 4

BAY OF PLENTY BEACON Published Tuesdays and Fridays. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 1947 BACKS TO THE WALL IN BRITAIN

Britain is in a jam. Despite the active campaigning of many sections of the community, there are still many in this country who just don’t seem to realise how serious- the repercussions can be for New Zealand if we do not rally to the cause and do our utmost to help. In many, if not in most, homes in this country there are strong sentimental ties to the Old Land. It should mean something to us that our kith and kin are living in conditions of austerity such as we never knew even in the depth of the war crisis. In most cases it does.

But there are New Zealanders of the third generation who have no direct associations with Britain. There are those who are left cold by sentimental and even humanitarian appeals. To the materialists, to the apostles of self-interest, it can be said in all seriousness that Britain’s crisis is our crisis. Like it or not, our economy is inseparably bound up with Britain’s, unless we jettison all our accepted ideas of economics and Empire unity and cut loose on our own—a small entity at the mercy of the winds of fortune, a prey for foreign avarice.

In plain and simple words, Britain has suffered a money breakdown. To withstand the Nazi attacks she suffered wholesale destruction, lost twelve million tons of shipping, had four million homes damaged. She forfeited overseas investments, borrowed ruinously. Now the creditors have presented the bill.

Let no one have any illusions about it. Unless we rally to the side of the Motherland in the peace as we did in the war we will find ourselves sharing the consequences to a much greater extent than is now the case. Willy-nilly, we must help. If we don’t do It voluntarily, we will do it under force of circumstances.

This is an appeal to all to get behind the Aid to Britain campaign, to do everything reasonable that is asked of us—if not for the sake of a gallant people that faced a man-made hell with unbelievable fortitude —then, on the basest level, for our own selfish ends. .

Where she stands, we stand. The cards are stacked that way, so we might as well face facts and get our shoulders to the wheel.