Item 04: Memoirs of a Colonial Boy by Robert Joseph Stewart, ca. 1971 - Page 457
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[Page 457]
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-ellect: I always received a friendly enough welcome from their mother. My whole weekend was free from work, and with Madge's blessing and connivance, I often took them out on picnic or sightseeing excursions on a Saturday or a Sunday, going as far afield as National Park and the Hawkesbury River. It was a distinction to own a car in those days, as only a minority of people owned one. Consequently the roads and pleasure spots were not nearly so crowded as they became a decade later.
But once again war clouds were gathering over Europe. The League of Nations had imposed sanctions against Japan for invading Manchuria, mainly to relieve her pressure of population, and shortly afterwards did the same thing to Italy for invading Ethiopia. The result was that both of these nations, our staunch allies in the first world war, walked into the welcoming arms of Hitler, who had already re-occupied the great industrial Rhur basin of Western Germany without much opposition, and then had marched his troops into Austria and taken it over with only vain wordy resistance from the other Powers. Now, with the moral and military backing of these two new allies, this fanatic was emboldened more than ever to go on the rampage, and march his Nazi armies into Czechoslovakia. Poland was to be his next victim: appeasement failed, and the second world war began with the Nazi invasion of that unhappy country. It has always been my very convinced opinion that the League of Nations (which didn't exist much longer) by its futile move to impose sanctions on Japan and Italy, really precipitated World War II.
When I became a resident of New Zealand, I was placed on the Reserve of Officers, Australian Military Forces, with my substantive rank of Major. Shortly after my resuming residence in Sydney, I was transferred back to the Active List and appointed to the command of a Field Company, Royal Australian Engineers. So early in 1939 I found myself again attending night parades and administrative orderly-room nights at the Engineer Depot on Moore Park Road, and also some weekend campings there.
Immediately the second world war broke out, our military