Wairarapa Times-Age MONDAY, AUGUST 12, 1940. MEETING WAR DEMANDS.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 August 1940, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age MONDAY, AUGUST 12, 1940. MEETING WAR DEMANDS.

FULL-HEARTED pride must be felt in this country in the spirit and quality of its men who have gone and are going abroad to play their part in a war in which justice and liberty and all that makes life worth living are at stake. In these days of grim conflict hopes of easy victory, if they were ever entertained, have gone by the board. A maximum demand is made upon the members of our fighting forces in order that the right cause ultimately may prevail and they are correspondingly to be respected for the sacrifice they are making and for the service they are rendering to their country and the Empire.

It is not enough that we should appreciate and admire what is thus being done and will, be done by the pick of our manhood. As Major Williams justly observed at the public gathering in the Opera House on Saturday evening, every member of tlie community has a part to play in this war, in the first place in doing whatever may be done to second and support the efforts of our fighting forces. There can be no question in these days of grudging any effort or shrinking from any sacrifice that will advance the good cause to which our own nation and all that prize their freedom are committed. What must be demanded is that our total national resources shall be applied wisely and well to the task of winning the war. Taxation of course must rise to tlm limit, but it is more than ever necessary in these days of extreme emergency that every item of expenditure should be scrutinised and every pound made to go as far as it will go in serving a just and valid purpose. There is much yet to be done in adjusting our national economy to war and the problems involved must be attacked vigorously, not only in the interest of a full-powered and well-ordered war effort, but in order that we- may put our national affairs in such order that justice will be done to our fighting men when they return with their task acomplished.