New Zealand Listener – August 10, 2019

LISTENER AUGUST 10 2019

EDITORIAL: NATIONAL

EMERGENCY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1939

The hour has struck and we

are at war.

 Oliver Duff

IN EUROPE: THE WESTERN FRONT,

OCTOBER 13, 1939

Poland no longer exists.

HOW THE WAR HAS AFFECTED YOU,

OCTOBER 13, 1939

Postage has been increased

by 1d. Correspondence with

enemy countries and countries

occupied by the enemy is for-

bidden. Income tax has been

increased by 15%.

EDITORIAL: APPEAL TO MEN,

DECEMBER 29, 1939

The government asks men

to rally to the defence of

their country and their way

of living. It is an appeal to

reason first and to emotion

second; and by emotion we

do not mean hatred or greed

THE WAY

WE WAR

Nineteen thirty-nine, when the Listener was

launched under editor Oliver Duff, is more

memorable as the year World War II broke out.

RUS

SEL

L^ CL

ARK

FROM THE ARCHIVE

or flamboyant nationalism.

We mean pity, fear of brut-

ish things, devotion to our

families and to our inherited

liberties. We must defend our

liberties or lose them. If we

do less than that, there will

be a victor, and it will not be

ourselves.

 Oliver Duff

MESSAGE FROM THE MINISTER:

FARMERS AND THE WAR,

SEPTEMBER 29, 1939

In time of war, the farm is a

munition factory. The slogan

of New Zealand farming must

be: “Production, and still more

production.” The motherland

needs every ounce of produc-

tion we can give her. She shall

have it.

EDITORIAL: MUSIC IN WAR,

DECEMBER 15, 1939

For just on a hundred years,

music has been about as

important nationally as paint

on an outhouse. But those

within reach of the exhi-

bition studio this

week will hear, or

have heard, our

first national

orchestra. We

are not at war

with the people who created

that music. We are not at war

with the people it has created –

the millions of kindly, earnest,

honest Germans who are as

much the victims of Hitlerism

as we are ourselves.

 Oliver Duff

EDITORIAL: THE PROPAGANDA

FRONT, SEPTEMBER 22, 1939

Whatever posterity says about

the present war, it will be

remembered as the first war

conducted by radio. Radio has

nowhere been used yet with

the irresponsibility that most

people anticipated. This is a

tribute to the BBC, whose “one

stern and eternal” principle is

that its news bulletins should

be true.

 Oliver Duff

EDITORIAL: WORK FOR WOMEN,

OCTOBER 20, 1939

There is definite work to

be done which no one but

women can do. But at this

stage it does not mean farming

and working in factories. It

For just on a

hundred years,

music has been

about as important

nationally as paint

on an outhouse.

does not mean driving trams

or drilling or getting into uni-

forms. It means simply being

mothers and sisters with busy

hands and thoughtful but not

worrying minds.

 Oliver Duff

WOMEN AND THE HOME: WAR

SHADOW, SEPTEMBER 29, 1939

Because we are so engrossed

with our fears and our appre-

hensions, we are apt to forget

that our children, too, walk

in the war-shadow. The other

day I met a small girl, crying.

She was on her way to school,

she said, but the radio had

said mother must come with

tickets, and she had suddenly

remembered that her mother

hadn’t been listening in,

hadn’t understood, and now

perhaps there would be no

ticket and she would never

be called for ... Poor small

The horror, the humour and the common humanity of the Listener’s WWII reporting.

The April 26,

1940, cover

image.