“NOT ON YOUR LIFE”

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 July 1941, Page 6

“NOT ON YOUR LIFE”

FORTY-HOUR WEEK IN WAR. Some conception of the spirit of the New Zealand troops after their gruelling experiences in Greece and Crete and a tinge of bitterness at the war effort in their homeland compared with the efforts made in Greece are features of an extract from a letter received from a sergeant who was through both campaigns. “I don’t worry, so please don't you,” he writes. “I am conscious of doing my job and it is a job well worth doing. The rest of the boys are the same, and I shall write a little phrase that is heard on every side: ‘I would rather die fighting a free man, fighting for the freedom of my country and my people, than live for 100 years without being able to call my country my own.’ And what a splendid example we have in the actions of Greece and Yugoslavia. They knew they had no chance—not one chance in a million—but it was worth trying. “And the people of. Greece who could not fight, what did they do? Quarrel among themselves, strike for higher wages, work a 40-hour week, and protest to their Government about this and that? No, they put up with moat once a week, and the old people tilled the soil while the young boys and girls and women repaired the roads to enable convoys to get through in good time. Yes, worked on the roads breaking and crushing metal, and using the pick and the shovel. Forty hours a week? Not on your life! They worked from dawn till dark. You see, they are patriotic.”