NOTES AND COMMENTS

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 288, 3 September 1942, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS

On this, the third anniversary of the outbreak of the present world war, a tribute is due to the nation that so undauntedly faced the first shock-of the conflict, Poland today is lying prostrate under the German, vandals who so flagrantly violated the pledge of non-aggression to which Hitler subscribed. Her ancient capital and other centres have been laid waste, her countryside despoiled, and her people enslaved and most cruelly maltreated. Yet with all that her spirit is unconquered. In almost every theatre of the war, fighting on the side of the Allies, thousands of Poles who succeeded in making their way out of their devastated country are giving national service, and their lives, for the cause of world freedom and the liberation of their native land. Many have won honours in battle on land, sea and in the air. Poland’s fight for liberty and independence is a centuries-old story. As often as she has been conquered and her territory disintegrated in the past, as often have her people rallied to renew the struggle. With heroic endurance of spirit they are, today, looking forward to a future in which their independence, sovereignty, and their rights aS free citizens, will be assured to them without fear of violation.

It will have come as a surprise to many people to learn that the traffic authorities apparently have not the power to remove derelict motorvehicles from the streets. In the meantime, to quote the chief 'traffic officer in Wellington, “residential streets are becoming cluttered up with these cars.” Mention of nine of them in two neighbouring streets showed that there had been no over-statement of the position. There appear to be many cars that are garaged, as it were, in the street. Some have covers over them as the shortage of petrol probably has prevented their use, and the careful owner' wants to prevent any depreciation of value. But the derelict is another matter. It. has an uncared-for, indeed, an abandoned appearance, and cannot be left standing at the side of some street indefinitely. Tn the United States, where tho tally of derelict cars has reached huge proportions, the old vehicles are now being used as a source of scrap meta], and probably they could be put to similar use here. The idea (bat. the vehicles cannot: be dealt with because they are —or were—someone's property will not do. 'Tliey could be classified as the flotsam of the streets and dealt with accordingly.