History As It Happens

New Zealand Listener, Volume 8, Issue 186, 15 January 1943, Page 3

History As It Happens

tories of the Second New Zealand Division* is now available to everyone who has two shillings. It is an interesting survey to read, a very interesting production to look at and it will soon find its way into our homes. For they are of course rare homes now that have no representative in uniform, and to have a husband, son, or brother in a New Zealand army is a reason for having the printed story of that army’s activities where every member of the family can follow it. These surveys will be bought, and will be read, as they appear, and it is as well to admit frankly now that the majority of people will never read anything else. History’s last word is for scholars: it is the first ‘word that the man in the street hears, and that is why it is so important that popular histories should be true as far as they go. More than that we cannot expect them to be, since some of the facts are not yet known, and some, though known, cannot yet be told. We shall in fact be lucky if the official story of the present war is ready ten years after hostilities cease. A more cautious estimate would be twenty years; and if in the meantime research is to be silent many of us will not hear it when it speaks. We are entitled to hear what it can tell us now, and the fact that these surveys are being produced in the office of the Army’s Official Archivist is a guarantee of their tentative accuracy. Narratives may of course be accurate and dull — as many military despatches are, This survey is accurate without being dull, and is lit up by an,admirable series of illustrations — maps, photographs, and drawings -well reproduced and arranged with great skill. Whoever is re-sponsible-Army Board is a blanket signature-has initiated something for which two generations at least will be grateful. first of the popular his-

*Prelude to Battle. First of a series of Surveys describing the work of the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force, Printed by Whitcombe & Tombs for the Army Board, Wellington.