LOYALTY CALL

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20124, 19 December 1939, Page 4

LOYALTY CALL

DOMINION'S PART APPEAL TO CABINET END PETTY QUARRELS CLASS CONFLICTS SWAY OF PROPAGANDA fPor Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, this day. An appeal to the Government to make a practical demonstration of its loyally to the Empire, ‘‘not only by forgetting past and petty quarrels, but by ceasing to set up one class against another by .insidious propaganda,” was made by the retiring chairman of the Christchurch Stock Exchange, Mr. H. Kitson, in his address at Ihe annual meeting of the exchange. Mr. Kitson quoted the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir John Simon, as saying in his Budget speech, ‘‘if the price of victory is high it is worth paying.” There were few in New Zealand, Mr. Kitson said, who would quarrel with that statement, provided the victory to be paid for was a victory over our enemies and not a victory of one class over another within our ranks, ‘‘We should, as a people, have today but one common object, the defeat of nazism,” he continued. “Have we? Are all our efforts being directed to one goal, or are side issues taking up too much of our attention? There are two sides to every question and it is folly lo disregard the minority entirely. Should Unite People “A common foe should bind the people together, no matter whether the foe is at our gates or not. “As it happens,” Mr. Kitson continued, “we have not had much to bring home to us the fact that we are at war, and at war with a mighty foe. Therefore I am not going to criticise the Government or produce figures that clearly indicate the trend of our finances. Rather lam going to ask that the Government make a practical demonstration of its loyalty to the Empire, not only by forgetting past and petty quarrels, but by ceasing to set up one class against another bv insidious propaganda. “This would enable our contribution to the price of victory to be not merely our sons’ blood and our treasure, but our combined efforts. “No one section of the community has a monopoly of brains. Ideals may be wonderful things, but tliey are apt to produce fanatical thinking and unconsciousness. Sleep-walking is the sport of the unconscious. “Let us awake and really combine our efforts. We owe it to the Empire and if we do not awake soon, we will be too tired and unhappy to care.”