Salute The Soldiers
as we write has been raging for 72 hours. Before we can reach our readers it will have lasted twice as many hours again. Before anything like a decision has come it may have continued for a month; and we shall not be so reckless as to pretend to see as far as that. But there is one piece of knowledge that we share with all our readers: thousands of men will be! dead when the decision comes, tens of thousands wounded and maimed. They are great days that lie ahead of us, but they are also terrible days. We are very dull human beings if we see no more in this stupendous battle than victory over Germany. Unless we go on to victory over the things that make other wars probable it is a mockery to salute our soldiers to-day; to greet them going into battle or to cheer them returning. But in the meantime let us not forget one thing that this and every battle means: that the fighting men are being called on to die for our follies and transgressions. Battle can never mean less than that. It is the ordeal that comes when everything else has failed: our arguments, our threats, our bargainings, our diplomatic tricks. We fight when we have not enough wisdom and worthiness to maintain our way of life without fighting. So let us salute our soldiers-really salute them; thank them with our tongues and thank them in our hearts, Let us not forget that the poorest, humblest, most ignorant, even the most foolish soldier who lands on a European beach is a better man this week than a carpeted philosopher or statesman. Next week or next year the scale of values may change, but it is the fighting man who counts to-day. By him we stand or fall, go bond or free. If we can pray for him, let us pray; if we cannot pray, let us carry him day and night in our mindssomehow or other lend him such strength as we have, and such gratitude, and such faith. Then we may be able to listen to his story day by day without the shame that dims our pride in him. 4 battle for Europe’s coast
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 10, Issue 260, 16 June 1944, Page 3
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378Salute The Soldiers New Zealand Listener, Volume 10, Issue 260, 16 June 1944, Page 3
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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