Wairarapa Times-Age TUESDAY DECEMBER 24, 1940. OUR FORCES OVERSEAS.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 December 1940, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age TUESDAY DECEMBER 24, 1940. OUR FORCES OVERSEAS.

QOME excellent items from our forces overseas have been put ° on the air of late by the New Zealand Broadcasting service. At times the broadcasts, on internal evidence have been rathei mature in vintage, but others have been notably timely and informative. The other day, for instance, a young ofheer was heard giving an account of a dust storm in the Y este n Deseit and a very telling and impressive account it was. There hav . been personal messages from members of the fighting forces and from nursing sisters to kinsfolk and friends in New Zealand and some broadcasts of camp entertainments. Much interesting o-round is being covered well and capably by Captain Kin hr a series of weekly talks on sporting activities m Egypt and last Saturday evening Colonel Waite gave a description of the arduous task undertaken, largely by women, in dispatching parcels from this country to all New Zealanders serving m Britain, in the Expeditionary Force and m other fighting services.

These broadcasts undoubtedly will be valued and appreciated by the people of the Dominion and it may be hoped that thev will be continued and as far as possible amplified. lie radio serves no better purpose than in keeping the members of our fighting forces in direct touch with their homeland. Incidentally, there can be no more effectual method of ensuring a free flow of contributions into the patriotic funds than in letting our soldiers speak for themselves over the air as to how they are faring and of reasonable needs that might be satisfied. The latest appeal for funds has dragged a little thus far in Masterton, though committees of both women and men are working untiringly and in a fine spirit in support of the appeal. No doubt any shortcoining thus far in the public response will be made good in the New Year.

Many people are sending parcels to their kinsmen and other soldiers in whom they are interested and some liiay feel that they are achieving their purpose better in this way than by contributing to the patriotic funds. Calls of many kinds are being made on these funds, however, and more will be made as time goes on, and account has to be taken, in any case, of those who otherwise might find that they had been overlooked when parcel mails arrive at the front. There should be a general determination that no soldier shall be denied the comforts that can be forwarded from the country for which they are sacrificing and achieving so much. That determination can only be carried into effect by general and geneious contributions to the patriotic funds. The fullest-possible information as to what is being and might be done for the members of our fighting forces represents the best means of inducing the universal flow of contributions that is needed.

At this Christmas season the thoughts of all New Zealanders must be very largely with those who are defending them on land and sea and in the air, and it is no doubt to be taken for granted that the matter of well-sustained contribution to the patriotic funds will not be overlooked in New Year resolutions. This, after all, is for most of ns only a part, and by no means the hardest part, of the bounden duty we owe to the men, and some women too, who are venturing life and all that makes life worth living in order that the liberty we enjoy as a nation may be maintained inviolate. Those of ns for whom the question of overseas service does not arise have at least our working part to play as citizens of a nation that is fighting for more than life. In playing that part worthily, without grudging effort or sacrifice, we should not find it difficult to gi>ve constant thought to those who are facing for ns the ultimate tests and ordeals of war, nor to do what we may individually to provide the comforts and touches of home which mean so much to the soldier, the sailor, the airman and those engaged in other branches of war service.

LORD HALIFAX FOR AMERICA.

JT has’been observed justly that the appointment of Lord Halifax as British Ambassador to the United States has its bearing on'our relations with that country, not only in regard to war needs, or to the present co-operation of the two great English-speaking democracies against the forces of totalitarian barbarism, but in regard to the whole future of the civilised world. It is not in the normal or routine course of events that a British Foreign Minister, of good standing and repute in that high and responsible office, should relinquish it to undertake a task of ambassadorship. That Lord Halifax has made this transfer no doubt is an indication of the importance attached by the British Government and possibly by the American Government as well, and certainly by a great many thinking people on-both sides of the Atlantic, to the development of Anglo-American relations in the immediate future.

The root questional stake is not the conditions in which American war materials are to be made available in a conflict in which the fate of American democracy, as well as that of British democracy, is visibly at stake. It is true that, the question. of war supplies has its own great and even overwhelming importance, not least where shipping and the protection of shipping against attack by surface and undersea raiders and aircraft is concerned, but it is overshadowed by the very much larger question of the extent 1o which the two, greatest democracies are capable of co-operating for the preservation and development of world democracy, not only in the immediate emergency but as time goes on.

It is perhaps not too much to hope, that as Ambassador to the United States, Lord Halifax will be able to do much to concentrate practical attention on the need for increasing cooperation between the British Empire and the United States in promoting a better world order. There was a time not so very long ago when Lord Halifax was looked upon doubtfully by many of his own countrymen as an appeaser. Probably no Englishman of standing was brought more reluctantly to an acceptance of the inevitability of war as the only means of cleansing the world of the foulness for which Hitler and his associates stand. If he had to be converted, however, Lord Halifax is an entirely convinced convert. He is as he always has been a man of deep religious belief and sense and also of ideas at once boldly radical and open-minded as to the methods by which the foundations of future peace may be made strong aiid secure. He goes to Washington as an envoy of the highest standing, fresh from a responsible part in the inner councils of the British Empire. His appointment opens up possibilities of no ordinary kind.