NEW ZEALAND IS READY

New Zealand Listener, Volume 6, Issue 133, 9 January 1942, Page 6

NEW ZEALAND IS READY

|W HAT you see above is the title shot of what is probably the best documentary film yet made in New Zealand, and one that technically can compare favourably with films of the same type produced anywhere in the world, especially when it is considered that it had to be put together in time to reach our theatres only a week or so after the Japanese crisis developed. "New Zealand is Ready," made by the National Film Unit at Miramar, is a spectacular and convincing answer to questions about this country’s preparedness against attack. Perhaps it might have been better to have labelled it "New Zealand Gets Ready" for there is a refreshing lack‘ of bombast or cocksureness about the film, but most people will be surprised as well as reassured to see with their own eyes this proof of how much has already been done. We reproduce below the main portion of the commentary for "New. Zealand is Ready":

HE new world! Riches. Precious metals. Material for a new world to outpace the old. Material for peace and prosperity ‘in the Pacific. Material for war! From the north across these peaceful waters comes a shadowJapan! _ At last war really comes to New Zealand. Japan strikes without warning-west, east, and south. "ae "yaa HE war has been something very far away- intimate for us only because of the young men we have sent to it across the world’s oceans. Now our own soil is threatened. We see for the first time the prospect of unfriendly feet attempting to despoil our land. What can we do? %* bag Ea E have heavy batteries at our coastal defence positions. Over the outer waters we maintain a constant aerial patrol. Behind the patrolling squadrons are the lines of our bombers. Yes-those are our bombers. In our own waters watching our shipping lanes are the continuous patrols of our minesweeping fleet. Some have been built -and are building-by our own industry. Some of the fleet have been converted from commercial vessels. Already one has been lost to the hazards of her task. Those round shapes in the water off our ports have already made this war seem more close to us. We think that Japan may have assisted the raiders that laid the mines. Against air attack, our cities are not so heavily guarded as the beleagured towers of Britain-but neither are they _

so seriously menaced. We have antiaircraft batteries-and they are good. We have had many difficulties to overcome in organising our defence-not the least of these the spaces of ocean separating us from our sources of supply. But this disadvantage is also our advantage. At the end of his journey to New Zealand what would an enemy find? What if he survived the sea, the storms of our weather, and the fierce spirit of defence in our citizens? He would find that our military forces have been armed and trained so that adequate strength can be rushed at short notice to any point of danger. We have been making our own munitions as well as strengthening our defence by importations. We ‘have tanks-and heavy tanks they are, too-heavier by far than anything an enemy could land against the strength we should throw to meet him -and against our rage at his temerity in disturbing our New Zealand way of living. We have artillery for all purposes. Let it be admitted that New Zealand followed the ways of peace while the Axis powers planned their thrusts and felonies. Let us admit that we are not as strong as nations which have planned for years how best +to wage their war against the world. But we are no longer unwary or helpless against them. We have our resolution and our arms. We have fast and exceptionally mobile gun tractors and gun carriers, many of them made in our own factories by our own workmen. They are being used to tow these modern guns-the 25 pounders- so successful in Libya-and ready here for any aggressor too hasty in his greed!

UR military forces are organised into lines of defence capable of cushion-ing-and finally shaking off any blow that might be aimed against us. Everywhere in New Zealand battalions of the Home Guard-ordinary men in rough and ready clothesarming now with modern tools of war are ready to help take the first shock of attack in any district, from sea to sea across our narrow islands, in towns and villages, over all our farm and mountain country. We have no cause to be too assured. But we are not without weapons of war. We have assembled much of the most modern equipment. We may not be Goliath, but we have David's sling. Ready now at posts all through New Zealand are men of the National Military Reserve. Since war began they have trained assiduously to fight from

the sands by the sea to the hills behind us. Most of them are already tried in battle-all of them,are waiting behind barbed wire and _ sandbags, armed to shoot and kill. Where armoured vehicles cannot easily traverse our countryside, so often rough and mountainous, we have horsemen, wild in their riding, reckless in their skill, and tempestuous in their charge. Where troops can be deployed in numbers and with the mobility of modern warfare, we have our Territorial Army. No single man need march to meet an enemy. The people have given up their trucks, cars, motor cycles and their petrol so that our army can move far and fast and hit hard. We can quickly throw into battle anywhere at any time a substantial force of troops. They far exceed in number the total of any force any enemy could hope to bring across the sea, unless all the rest of the decent world and all our ships from Britain and America were suddenly and impossibly gone from our support. And with our soldiers ready for that enemy are all our people; watching the sea and sky as sentries watch for danger from all quarters. We are standing behind the ramparts of the seas around us, and we are standing firm. If he comes across the sea, our enemy will find other barriers; and if barbed

wire and bullets fail to stop him, and guns, and all our many arms, then he will find us still determined. * * * T is not for us to be ashamed of our efforts nor over-confident. We need not be doubtful of our capacity, or cocksure about our strength. We do our part when we know what we possess, and when we understand how it must be improved. We do not shout our own praise. We do not bemoan past failures. We are not too calm. We are confident. We have our hope for the future as a free nation of free people. And we are dangerously angered that our earth and homes should thus be menaced by an aggressor so advanced in the art. of destruction and so reduced in the ideals of human progress. New Zealand is ready!