FATAL COMPLACENCY

Waikato Times, Volume 128, Issue 21373, 18 March 1941, Page 7

FATAL COMPLACENCY

ATTITUDE OF NEW ZEALAND I j WHILE BRITAIN SUFFERS j i ADDRESS TO ROTARY The complacency of many New Zealanders towards the nation’s war effort was adversely criticised by Mr T. Lamont, of Auckland, yester- * day while speaking at the weekly i luncheon of the Hamilton Rotary | Club. In Great Britain factories were working night and day, every | day of the week, despite the snort- \ age of food and falling bombs, in j this country, said the speaker, wool- I len factories were still working a . five-day week despite the urgent appeal made by the Homeland for more blankets. In Britain there were no union rules and restrictions as to the hours worked but thousands of men and women were employed long hours without complaint, turning out munitions ana vital equipment for the nation’s war effort. “I am convinced from my knowledge of New Zealand workers that if the matter were put to them fairly and squarely they wouia know what to do. We are proud of our airmen, soldiers and sailors, but we can’t survive without executive co-opera-tion.” In Great Britain, said Mr Lamont, the Government was spending 16s 6d j out of every £1 of taxation for war I purposes whereas in New Zealand I the amount was only 7s 4d. British Determination Mr Lamont reviewed the domestic situations in Great Britain and the United States, illustrating his address by observations made during his recent tour of these countries. A question he had been asked frequently since his return was: Why was not Britain prepared for the war? The answer was simply that Englishmen were like the people of New Zealand and the United States; they didn’t like to spend their time in preparing instruments for killing men and women. Even now they were fighting not for the love of it but to preserve their rights and freedom. When the mass-murderers attacked England they found that the men, the women and the children would all rather die than surrender. The King and Queen had set a wonderful example to the rest of the Empire in their courage and selfsacrifice. The speaker then discussed Germany’s objects in the war. Before the outbreak the Germans had declared it to be living-space but they had made no use of their own colonies when they had them and they had made no effort to purchase goods from British colonies in the open market. Their aim could be only one thing—<the overthrow of the British Empire, claimed the speaker. Cure for Indifference “I think it would be a good thing if a number of soldiers evacuated from Dunkirk were brought to New Zealand to tell their story,” continued the speaker. “We are asleep in this country.” IVfcr Lamont said that few New Zealanders realised what had happened at Dunkirk, wnen the Germans dropped flares on the oilcoated waters of the sea in the hope that the oil would catch fire and incinerate the unfortunate British soldiers who were swimming out to the ships. “The Germans have no chivalry for a foe and no fidelity for a friend. Our British civilisation is an ideal based on liberty and justice. Britain is too big spiritually to be destroyed,” concluded the speaker.