The Language of War

New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 30, 19 January 1940, Page 12

The Language of War

HE language used by the acting-Prime Minister in. his first review of the war situation was plainer than we commonly hear from men in his position, and bolder. For this he will be devoutly thanked. Most of us are cowardly with our words. We are afraid to express our emotions and to confess our thoughts, and our timidity is weakening our war effort. But Mr. Fraser said bluntly that we are fighting to defend our homes as well as our liberties; our bodies as well as our opinions; our possessions as well as the social fabric on which our way of life is based. That is war, and it is time we engaged in war without any further apologies. We have to beat off the attack or go down under it; and we shall not beat it off if we lose sight of the difference between victory and defeat. It is easy to say-though it is a lie-that the last war settled nothing: it settled our claim .to live cur own lives for a further twenty-five years. It is natural to shrink from the mental, moral, physical and material costs of war. We all shrink from them unless we are too young and too raw to know what they mean. But we are young indeed, and raw indeed-far too young and raw to be at large and in control of our own destinies-if we think that shrinking from them will save us from them. The Czechs shrank from them, and having no apparent alternative, surrendered without a blow. To-day thousands of Czechs are conscripts in the army of the oppressor; thousands are in concentration. camps; all are without even the shadow of liberty. Let us sweep aside all these dust-infected cob-webs with which fanatics would staunch the world’s wounds. Where there is honest doubt let us reason with it. Where minorities resist, let us respect them. But let us not give way to them. Let us face the fact that we ‘are fighting Germany and not the Bashibazouks. If we see it as a crusade, let us call it a crusade and not baulk at honest emotions. It is weak and crippling to Fearert every opinion but our own.