Per Ardua

New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 51, 14 June 1940, Page 12

Per Ardua

UR heading, as most readers will e know, is the first half of the motto of the Royal Air Force: through difficulties. The other half is ad astra: to the stars. Taken together they mean that the path to glory is hard; may be long; must be rough. Sometimes it is so hard, so long, and so rough that the bravest can hardly endure to the end. But the stars shine nowhere else. Britain and France to-day are on that road. They know, and will seek to find, no other. It will be hard. It will be so long that some will never see the end. Some of those who come to the end will have fainted many times by the way. But there will be no turning back. Behind them are slavery and moral death. Ahead-and they are facing the fact that it may be weary years ahead-a light in which their children will live and work again as civilised beings. We repeat that the way may be long. To expect anything else is madness. But it is worse than madness to think that the end will never come. It is cowardice and treachery. If there had been cowards and traitors in Dunkirk, Leopolds and Quislings in Paris and London, twenty Allied divisions would now be German navvies. They are French and British soldiers still because they looked defeat in the face and laughed at it. And they are far more now than mere soldiers. They are a light and an inspiration through all the battles to come. Whatever struggles lie ahead, Allied armies will remember Dunkirk and fight on. Right may not always be might, but faith cannot fail to be. Per ardua to-day. Ad astra when’ Dunkirk has cleansed us of our last craven doubt,