A CHALLENGE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 56, 3 September 1943, Page 4

A CHALLENGE

DOMINION'S RECORD

MR. FRASER'S MESSAGES

Marking the fourth anniversary of the war, a message has been issued, by the Prime Minister (Mr. Fraser) to the people of New Zealand. Messages have also been sent by Mr. Fraser to Mr. Winston Churchill and President Roosevelt. In his message to the people of this country Mr. Fraser declares that New Zealand's record of achievement in the past four years is a challenge to continue the fight. Mr. Fraser, in* his messages to Mr. Churchill and Mr. Roosevelt, reaffirms New Zealand's pledge] to carry on until final victory has been won.

Four years ago, said Mr. Fraser in his message to the people of the Dominion, New Zealand ranged themselves unhesitatingly alongside the Mother Country in declaring war against Germany. "We did so," he added, "with full knowledge of the fateful consequences of our decision, but with equal sureness that there was no other course if we were to survive as a nation and preserve the liberties and the other moral values by which we guide our lives. "Today our people face the _ fifth year of war as staunch and indissolubly uniled as they were in September, 1939, heartened by the knowledge that the worst days are over and that the United Nations are everywhere on the offensive with increasing strength," said the Prime Minister. "We I have the satisfaction of knowing that we have amply fulfilled that historic i pledge in which Michael Joseph Savj age expressed the sentiments of Government and people— a pledge we renew today in wholehearted determination to fight on with all.the strength and all the resources we possess till final victory has been achieved. MAGNIFICENT SERVICE. "It is my privilege, as Prime Minister, to express the Government's admiration for, and gratitude to, our forces on land, sea, and in the air, wherever they may be, for the courageous and magnificent service they have rendered for New Zealand, for the British Commonwealth, and for the United Nations. I take this opportunity of acknowledging, also, the splendid co-operation of the people in building up and maintaining the nation's war effort, both in the fields of battle and in the fields and factories of production. "The past four years of war have brought great changes in the lives of all of us. We have known defeats and faced their consequences with stout hearts arid resolute will. Many have known the bitterness of the deaths of sons, husbands, and friends. We are not the same people we were four years ago, but we have, I believe, become a greater and a finer people. In those four years there have likewise been changes in the lives of all nations. Apart from the sorrows and horrors of war, new experiences, changed conditions, deeper friendships have wrought a new world, and to look back with longing at the old would be as unreal as it would be disastrous. . NEW BONDS OF FRIENDSHIP. "New Zealand has made new bonds of friendship, firmly tied in the common struggle, and we have, at the same time, made more^secure those links of blood and tradition which are an essential part of our heritage," the Prime Minister continued. "Such changes and adjustments cannot cease with the peace now in sight, though at the end of a hard road still to be travelled. In that peace, based on justice and, we' trust, on the wise conceptions of the Atlantic Charter, New Zealand has by its own endeavours and by the efforts of its fighting men earned the right to make its voice heard. The record of achievement which is behind us will not blind anyone to the enormous tasks which loom ahead. Rather must it be a challenge to continue the fight for justice and freedom against fear- and. want. Our experiences have, without doubt, prepared us to meet the new demands of a new world, a world in which New Zealand will take its rightful place as a country bent upon pursuing the peaceful ways of ordered progress and peopled by men and women who realise that reconstruction, wisely planned and wholeheartedly carried out, will render dearly-won victory enduring and complete." THE OTHER MESSAGES. The Prime Minister's message to Mr. Churchill is as follows: "For four years we have fought shoulder to shoulder, sharing alike defeat and victory. These fateful years have strengthened still further the cherished bonds of blood and friendship which link us with the people of Britain. With victory in sight, though we know further great sacrifices lie ahead, we welcome this anniversary to express to you our gratitude for the confidence and trust you have breathed into our common cause, and to reaffirm our pledge to continue to fight on with all our strength and all our resources till viptory has been won throughout the world." The following is his message to President Roosevelt: "On the fourth anniversary of a war which New Zealand entered to preserve those basic principles of justice, democratic liberty, and tolerance which vwe hold in common with the people of the United States, I take the opportunity to express our deep sense of the value of the help the United States has rendered to the cause of the United Nations, and in particular our debt to your great leadership. Side by side with the forces of the United States and the other United Nations this Dominion will continue to apply all its strength and resources towards the achievement^ Of full and final victory."