“MIGHTY ATOM”

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 April 1943, Page 4

“MIGHTY ATOM”

OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE GLOWING TRIBUTE TO NEW ZEALAND. BY LONDON “EVENING STANDARD.” (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 9.40 a.m.) f LONDON, March 31. The “Evening Standard,” in a leading article, says: “The New Zealanders, under General Freyberg, were entrusted with the task of turning Rommel’s flank at El Hamma. To these tough veterans of many campaigns in Greece and the Western Desert goes the envied honour of being the vanguard of the advancing Eighth Army. The honour is well earned. New Zealand is an ally as big in loyalty as small in numbers. New Zealand is the mighty atom of the British Empire. Always militarily well prepared, the New Zealanders covered themselves with glory in the South African War and Great War as they have done in this war. Always Great Britain’s cause has been their cause. Of the male population, twenty per cent is in the fighting forces, while 260,000 of the total population of 1,600,000 are doing war work in fields and factories. Bren-gun earners, bombs, mortars, shell fuses and radio equipment are being produced in great quantities in New Zealand and mine-sweepers and anti-submarine vessels are rolling out from new shipyards. Boots, shoes, shirts and socks flow from the islands to all our Middle East and Far'East armies. Flax-grow-ing has been initiated and also the culture of medicinal drugs. Canned meat by millions of tons is feeding the Allies from a larder that has always been famous for its quality. For nearly seventy years after Cook had charted the Archipelago, the colonisation of New Zealand was a subject of dispute and discussion. The debate was not fruitless. When the New Zealand Company's ship Tory carried the first settlers to Cook Strait, the Home Government had decided on a development policy which produced two exciting results. It preserved the vital interests of the Maoris and ensured that New Zealand's population would be of British stock and that this magnificent land should remain the most British of ail British overseas outposts. New Zealand immediately became a laboratory for social experiment. From the beginning harmony between farm and town was the dominating theme of Dominions politics. When Vogel based his faith in New Zealand campaign upon a vast public works programme, the whole world awoke to the meaning and significance of British freedom and democracy. A combination of private and public enterprise did not satisfy the partisans of either creed. It failed to solve the problem of unemployment, but nevertheless gave New Zealanders good standards of living and social security, helped to save the country from the blight of a falling birth-rate and provided living proof of the British genius for fostering unity without imposing uniformity. The courage and enterprise of this mighty atom spring from the greatness of the British race and an assurance that it will destroy every tyranny that assails it.”