NO LONGER ON DEFENSIVE

Southland Times, Issue 24836, 31 August 1942, Page 4

NO LONGER ON DEFENSIVE

Allies After Three Years Of War The Allies were at a disadvantage three years ago and although the gains of the enemy had been extensive, after three years of bitter fighting the United Nations were no longer on the defensive, said the Hon. Adam Hamilton, a member of the War Cabinet in a national service talk entitled “Three Years of

War” last evening. Mr Hamilton declared that the Allies still had vast, well equipped forces at their command and that the Red Army, although weakened, was still a mighty and disciplined force. In occupied Europe, the embers of revolt were glowing, ready to burst into flame. These factors together with the vast resources of Africa, India and America, at the disposal of the Allied nations would eventually prove to be the deciding factors. The Americans were only beginning the fight, but the enemy knew that the Fighting French, the Poles, the Dutch and Norwegians had long been imbued with the same determination as the Allies to win the struggle. Mr Hamilton declared that with the combined war-production of the countries ranged on the side of Britain there would be no shortage of strong arms. The Allies had been paying the price of the many mistakes and past unpreparedness for the first three years of war, said Mr Hamilton, but they would go forward optimistically into the fourth year of the war. PROFOUND MORAL CHANGE

Mr Hamilton emphasized the need for a “profound moral change” in our mode of living. “We have learned that national well being is impossible to achieve without the power to control it,” he said. It was not the democratic aim to follow the lead of tyrannical dictators and with the struggle over, to appropriate for our own use the resources of the earth. The Atlantic Charter had created a clear understanding of that policy. Before the world could arrive at a new order the virtues of truth and honour would have to be practised among the inhabitants of the earth. Mr Hamilton said there would be no short cut to the new order. The utmost conviction that we would eventually be victorious should not delude us into thinking that we could not fail. Everybody would realize that there was yet time to fail, he said. Every branch of national effort should be keyed up to a pitch consistent with the demands of war being made upon it. No hardships would be too great to endure, in order to drive the German invaders from the countries which they had occupied.