WHAT WE MAY DO

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 May 1941, Page 5

WHAT WE MAY DO

TO SPED) WAR EFFORT

IN CAUSE OF JUSTICE & FREEDOM.

ADDRESS BY MR. NASH.

(By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON. This Day

The principles for which the British Commonwealth of Nations and its allies are fighting in the present struggle were emphasised by the Acting-Prime Minister. Mr Nash, in an address last night. They were fighting, he said, for the principles that the democratic peoples held dear; they were fighting to maintain freedom and for the right to elect their own rulers. Mr Nash recalled his meeting last week with Mr E. van Kieffens. Netherlands Minister of Foreign Affairs, and with Mr R. G. Menzies. Prime Minister of Australia. In his book. “The Rape of the Netherlands," Mr van Kieffens had set out in simple objective language what had happened to his country: he had told of the treachery and the cruelty. Mr Nash said he had never read a more moving story than that related in that book. It was good to have had a talk with Mr van Kieffens because he was now able to understand more than he understood before exactly what was at stake. Mr Menzies had also set out in conversation with him and in two speeches the issues at stake in a remarkable way. He had never met a man more convinced of the imperative needs of the present situation than Mr Menzies. > The Prime Minister of Australia had spoken of the need for more machines, and it was by hard concentrated work, in some cases 24 hours round the clock, that it would be possible to produce the machines and the equipment required to win through. They in New Zealand had to make sacrifices to ensure that their own kith and kin in the Homeland and elsewhere overseas were sent the goods required in the form of clothing, munitions and other equipment. “The war is being fought in all the elements and in many spheres,” Mr Nash continued. It was being fought, he added, to decide whether civilisation as they knew it would continue or not continue. They in New Zealand had privileges greater than in any other country. There was no other country with that fullness of freedom as they knew it here. There was not even the same freedom in England today' because of circumstances due to the war, for there they had not even the same food available that.we were able to obtain in the normal way. If it were necessary to turn ships round quicker and to work longer hours to produce goods for those of our people requiring them then it should be done. Nothing was more outstanding than the courage and- fortitude of the people of Britain, said Mr Nash. Britain was the bastion of the new order. They knew what Nazi Germany did to Europe, and could there be any doubt as to what Nazi Germany would do to the rest of the world if it had the opportunity? Britain and her allies were fighting for the right to belong to the nation to which they were born instead of being made serfs of another nation. “Bv faith in our ideals." concluded Mr Nash, “the principles for which wo stand —those of justice and freedom and the democratic way of life—-will in the end prevail."