Let Us Pay

New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 70, 25 October 1940, Page 6

Let Us Pay

T would be a little reckless to argue that wars are won by the side with the deepest purse. Most of us can recall victorious campaigns by armies with almost no purse at all, long campaigns by bankrupt leaders, and revolutions run on paper. But it is difficult to exaggerate the advantage to a belligerent of being able both to purchase and to pay. If all other things were equal the power of the purse would be decisive, and although they never can be equal the purse is still a major weapon of war. It was a black day for Germany when all the wealth of Britain passed by a resolution of both Houses into the war chest. Ever since that day enemies and potential enemies have put more and more venom into their propaganda against "plutocracies"-each new sneer an alarm signal. But we have by no means yet thrown all our resources into our war effort in New Zealand. We have of course done well relatively. We have accepted new and heavy tax burdens. We have contributed to special funds. We have | lent the Government tens of thousands of © pounds free of interest. We have cut down personal expenditure. We have been prompt to answer national appeals. We have done, and will go on doing, everything that the Government says we must do to equip and maintain our fighting forces. No army has ever been better found, better fed, carried more comfortably overseas, made easier in its mind about relatives and dependents at home. We have been liberal enough in all these ways to excite the admiration of the other branches of the British family. But there is not one of us who does not know in his heart that he has not yet begun to give. We must give more. As the costs pile up we must cut down our indulgences and pile up our gifts. The slogan twenty-five years ago was to give till giving hurt. To-day we must give till our giving hurts our enemies-make the financial offensive as furious as the offensive by arms. We can do it if we are unselfish enough and take the trouble to realise what unselfishness in such a case means. A shilling a week from every wage-earner would provide a Spitfire a day.