Wairarapa Times-Age DAY, DECEMBER 24, 1943. THE FIFTH WAR CHRISTMAS.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 December 1943, Page 2

Wairarapa Times-Age DAY, DECEMBER 24, 1943. THE FIFTH WAR CHRISTMAS.

T7JVEN to those to whom it brings a measure of relief and relaxation that, has been earned, the present Christmas season—the fifth occurring under the shadow of war—cannot be a time of carefree enjoyment. So far as life within the Dominion is concerned, it is true, we are as we have been a fortunate people. x In this country the hardships and deprivations the war has imposed are in most instances very light in comparison with those that are being borne cheerfully and with resolute courage by the people of our Motherland, not to speak of the more terrible fate, that has befallen the people of enemyoccupied countries over a considerable part ol the world. Any disabilities under which we labour for the time being in our sheltered and protected islands certainly should count as nothing against what is being endured and undertaken by the members of our fighting forces in the Old World and in the Pacific, on land and sea and in the air.

Being so far privileged, wo yet have our share in the tragedy of the war. In many a home throughout lhe land there is sorrow for those who will never return or searing anxiety for others whose fate is uncertain, if only on account ol danger faced from day to day. In the hard and bitter realities of war and in the sacrifices it has demanded and ■will, yet demand—sacrifices very largely of youthful manhood at its best and finest —there is much to abate the spirit of happiness.that was normal at the Christmas season in easier days. But it is to be said, too, that the Christmas message ol enduring faith and hope has never had deeper meaning than in these days of grim ordeal. Against the almost overwhelming tragedy of the world conflict and the terrible sacrifice it entails there is set the.hope that by valiant effort the foundations of a better and nobler world order are being laid.

In darker days than these, at the beginning of 1.9-11, when lhe British Empire stood almost alone against the forces ol totalitarian gangsterdom, the British Prime Minister (Mr Churchill) sounded a rallying call to the nation in a speech hi which, recognising that the road to be followed might be long and hard, he declared: —

I have absolutely no doubt that we shall win a complete and decisive victory over the forces of evil, and that victory itself will only be a stimulus to further efforts to conquer ourselves and to make our country as worthy in the days of peace as it is proving itself in the hours of war.

In three years of conflict since these resolute words were spoken much Ims been done to justify and give substance to the confidence expressed by Mr Churchill. There is still a hard and perhaps a long road to be followed. Great, efforts and sacrifices are demanded as imperatively as ever. But it is not in doubt that the United Nations are capable of overthrowing the forces of evil in Europe and in the Pacific and that the time is drawing nearer when they will have the opportunity of making peace and goodwill, once again supreme in the affairs of mankind. These are the commanding facts of the world situation on the eve of 'the fifth Christmas of the war.