English subtitles for clip: File:Country Lads (1941).webm

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Week after week thousands of us have been in training

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ever since we in New Zealand undertook to pull our

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weight in this war.

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We knew and the men in camp knew that the

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training was for a war that would be fought on

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the other side of the world.

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We knew that ships would take the New Zealanders there

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and already many of those who went have fought and

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suffered in the front line.

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Yet until now only a handful of us have known

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what troop departures look like, how it feels to say

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au revoir to soldier friends and relations at the ship's

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side, the sorrow and the pride of it.

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Just a few months ago these men were working alongside

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of us in shops, factories, cowsheds and offices.

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Good workers and good friends.

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We might be talking to a man in the tram

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or in the pub one day and find him in

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uniform the next week or we might be Anzacs ourselves.

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This is a war with everyone in it, women too.

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It is just a matter of taking our turn.

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In a few weeks or a few months we may

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be on the inside, trained, skilled and proud of it.

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So we look on at what might be ourselves.

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It's not just another army marching past but our army.

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They weren't used to marching in step then but if

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marching had been a useful job in civil life they

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would have done it.

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If it's milking they can milk, if it's building roads

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they can navvy, if it's banking they can bank and

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if it's fighting they can make a pretty thorough job

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of that too.

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Anytime we see them they are marching or on parade

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with only their shoulder patches to show that here's a

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group of men skilled in every trade and profession.

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Soldiers who used to be civilians and took all their

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skill into the army with them.

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Artillery, nurses, Army Service Corps, signalers, Air Force and plain

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PBI.

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Gunners, doctors, grocers, telegraph operators, men from the public works

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and women from the hospitals, workers and employers, our army,

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ourselves.

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Civilian into soldier.

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It's an old story but this time it is about

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us and that makes it different.

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There is no goose-stepping here, just the swinging stride

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of free men who have put on their working clothes

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and got into step for the biggest job ever tackled.

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They are soldiers and fighters because as things are only

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soldiers and fighters can make the world safe for civilians

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to live in.

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Safe for women and children and decent ordinary people.

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Poor deluded country lads Hitler called them.

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Though no army in all history has known better what

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it was up against or what it was fighting for,

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they helped to make this country the way it is.

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Happy, prosperous, free.

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Country lads and town lads they have gone right across

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the world to help those who feel like us to

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be free and happy too.

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Most of these men have never been to sea before

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except perhaps to cross the straits.

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In the good times in summer the surf at Muriwai

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has drawn them away from home or the pines at

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Waikuku or the scarlet carpet of Pahutukawa petals on the

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road to Ōhope Beach or maybe just the fun of

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taking the kids to Saint Kilda or Sumner or Takapuna.

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This time it is no picnic and the end of

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the journey is halfway around the world and back again.

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It is the adventuring of men going off to war.

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There's pageantry and excitement and laughter and under it all

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a grim purpose.

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A war to be fought by men who have the

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courage to say au revoir when they know that for

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some of them it must be goodbye.

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Canoes and ships brought the New Zealanders here long ago,

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fighting New Zealanders, pioneers looking for elbow room, men and

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women who couldn't be shut in against their wish.

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We still feel the same way that we cannot all

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stay here and remain free.

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Some of us must fight.

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These men and more of us when the time comes.

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And so ships still plough down through the Pacific, not

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for tourists any longer but for the men who can

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help to beat back repression and dictatorship.

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As a people we are a little reserved and very

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determined.

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We usually know which way we want to go and

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when we've made up our minds about it we go

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there.

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The men in the army know what they are fighting

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for and the rest of us feel with them that

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what they have undertaken is the right thing to do.

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We are proud of them and our pride is mixed

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with sorrow at their leaving us.

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But we have never gone in for anything without knowing

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what lies ahead, what difficulties and hardships there are.

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Our men know that too.

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They will be back amongst us sometime, not fighting then

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but helping to remake the world.

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A world fit for people who have risked so much

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for the right to be free.