CALL FOR LEADERSHIP

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 156, 1 June 1940, Page 6

CALL FOR LEADERSHIP

f (To. the Editor.) Sir, —I came to New Zealand because I had wanted to come ever since I was a little girl, and having come 1 loved it and shall always love it but to-day all my thoughts—all my heart and soul —are back in England. The friends of my school days on the Continent are already driven from their homes, the shores of my own land are being hastily prepared to resist the invader. The coast towns of my home country have already suffered the devastation of aerial attack,,my kinsfolk are fighting and dying in that traitors’ trap that is Flanders, and I stand afar off and am helpless unless someone will lead. There are thousands like me, New Zealanders by birth or adoption, who cry out for leadership so that we may not waste the precious hours in heartaches and vain tears. Many who listened in to the Parliamentary broadcast on Thursday night must have felt as I did that" sickening nausea, verging on despair, when they heard the same old party bickering, the “smart Aleck” quips and paltry jests and laughter. Laughter that reverberated round the sad world to let all men know that there are people at large here who smack their chops over the standard of living and their fortyhour week whilst our young men give up all the hours of all the years to come. Let the women of New Zealand arise and like the unhappy Queen of Holland make our “flaming protest,” let us cast out conscientious objectors, party politicians, and standard of livingists. Let us say to them as England said. “For God’s sake go.” Give us a leader in our , war effort before it is too late.—l am. etc.. ANN KATHLEEN JACQUES. 447 Albert Street, Palmerston North.