A Message From America
EW ZEALAND heard two moving speeches last week, both within half an hour. In the first the Prime Minister welcomed Brigadier-General Hurley as the representative of the great American republic and the personal representative of a great man. In the second Brigadier-General Hurley saluted our Dominion and our Empire, and pledged to us "the resources, the lives, the honour, and the power" of a hundred and thirty million Americans. Each in fact disproved the theme of his own address, namely, that the time for words is past. Each showed that the time for words never passes when they are the right words, as they so conspicuously were on that occasion. For of course no one who heard one or the other can have remained indifferent to what they said. We were either doing something for the cause, and are now doing more, or we were doing nothing, and are now ashamed of ourselves. It was a brief, dramatic, and genuinely impressive demonstration of the power of the word. In a little more than ‘ten minutes Mr. Fraser brought home to us what we are and what we are fighting for, who is on our side, and how wide a sea of misery lies between victory and defeat. In a shorter space still General Hurley brought millions of pledged helpers to our side, convincing us that our principles are America’s principles, our cause hers, our fight hers, and that she will neither desert us nor leave the field till the battle has been won. r Nor are we arguing that battles can be won by words alone. If they could be we should already be drawers of water and hewers of wood, since Mr. Churchill is not at all skilful in merely pouring out words and Mr. Roosevelt is hopelessly incompetent in twisting them. We must attack our enemies with other weapons, hurl them back, and bring their crazy castles down on their own heads. It will take time, and it will take our last reserves of strength and courage. But it is encouraging while we stand so far from help, and so far short of the material things we require, to be told so convincingly that we are neither forgotten nor alone.
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 6, Issue 148, 24 April 1942, Page 4
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376A Message From America New Zealand Listener, Volume 6, Issue 148, 24 April 1942, Page 4
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