COMMON DESTINY OF PEOPLE

Southland Times, Issue 24236, 20 September 1940, Page 6

COMMON DESTINY OF PEOPLE

Formation Of Home Guard

CREATED TO PROTECT LIVES (United Press Association) WELLINGTON, Sepember 19. Discussing the formation of the Home Guard, the Minister of National Service (the Hon. R. Semple) said the only reason it was created was to protect the lives, property and liberty of our people. It had been said that the Government was creating a fascist organization. That was deliberate misrepresentation. An organized nation could discover where traitors were and put them out of action. A disorganized country was fertile ground for a traitor, a term he preferred to “fifth columnist.” Every country in the world today had a percentage of traitors and New Zealand was no exception. The Home Guard would serve to bring the New Zealand people closer together so that they would understand they had a common destiny. “Even if there is no need to use the Home Guard in the defence of the country, and God forbid we should,

we would be a better nation for having rubbed shoulders together and created a better understanding of one another, true tolerance and comradeship.” Referring to the vanquished countries, Mr Semple said that every vestige of liberty in them had been wiped out and if the British Empire fell we would have to face the same fate “But the British Empire will never fall: There’ll always be an England,” he said.