ON WITH THE JOB

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 June 1942, Page 4

ON WITH THE JOB

■ OF WINNING THE WAR GENERAL HURLEY’S ADVICE TO PEOPLE OF NEW ZEALAND. TOO MUCH TALK ABOUT POST-WAR PLANS. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, This Day. A plea to the people of New Zealand to get on with the job of winning the war, before making plans for world reorganisation after the war, was made today by the United States Minister to New Zealand, Brigadier-General Hurley, in replying to a civic reception. “Our ancestors fought, bled and suffered to maintain their rights and liberties,” said General Hurley. “We should ask ourselves if, in this fateful hour, we are worthy of our ancestors. Are we willing to pay the price they paid for liberty? Are we worthy of our destiny as free men? I am one who believes we will measure up in every respect to the task which confronts us. Our confidence in ourselves should not deter us from acknowledging that we have not, up to this time in this war, shown the qualities for which our ancestors were so abundantly regarded. We should come quickly to a realisation that this war is cur war. We should quit boasting about the glorious qualities of our failures and face the stark realities of the present situation. The challenge by which we are confronted cannot be met by words. We should quit complimenting ourselves on our capacity to ‘take it’ and show the world that we have the capacity to dish it out. We are grateful that China and Russia are in the war on our side, but we must quit relying on Chiang Kai-shek and Joseph Stalin to win the war for us. We ourselves must attack, defeat and destroy our enemies. The attention of the people is being drawn away from the problems essential to the winning of the war by time-consuming debates that are being printed and broadcasted regarding how we are going to reorganise the world after the war. We must have plans for the future —we have the Atlantic Charter and the Four Freedoms as a basis for a union of all free people —but first things should come first. At present we should devote all our minds, all our strength and all our courage to the • defeat of our enemies. All of the angels in heaven, and all the patriots on earth singing and praying for one of the splendid new after the war plans will have no avail if we do not defeat the Axis .in battle. I would remind my kinsmen who are still debating our social, political, economic and diplomatic objectives that all these objectives will be lost if we lose this war. Only by the defeat of the enemy can we perpetuate our hard-won rights to life, liberty, justice and the pursuit of happiness. This war is a total war. Every leader of industry, every farmer, every stockman, every man and woman who works, is fighting and if they shirk they are breaking faith with the soldier who dies in battle. To win this war we must unite, work and fight.”