TRIED IN THE FIRE

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2897, 9 October 1916, Page 8

TRIED IN THE FIRE

HOW BRITONS HAVE PROVED THEMSELVES IN' THIS WAR ROUSING SPEECH BY HON. A. L. HERDMAN The Hou. A. L. Herdman (Attornoybeneral) delivered a rousing speech on tho subject of the war to tho mombers of the Wellington Orphans' Club on Saturday evening. After congratulating tho club upon tho success of its past year's operations, Mr. Herdman said: IT On such a night as this, ono subject only cau interest the gentlemen who have assembled in this room. It is tho war. When I was your president two years ago the fire was blazing furiously. To-day it is burning inoro vigorously than ever, and no ono can say with certainty when the flames will be extinguished. Of two things wo aro certain: One is that wo will win the war. The other is: That there is abroad throughout tho British nation at tho present time a stubborn and doeplyfixed determination that the war Shall not end until our foes receive a punishment which is commensurate with' the crimes and tho horrors which they have perpetrated. (Applause.) I confess to being profoundly ignorant of military matters. I would not dare to hint even at the strategy which is to bring the struggle to a triumphant end. I would not venture to sugegst tho various steps which are to give us victory. Anyone will tell you that. (Laughter:) This war has produced an amazing crop or military experts. (Laughter.) You meet thorn on Lambton Quay. You read their statements in tho daily newspaper. ' They aro numbered amongst your most intimate friends—l have a friend who, when sitting in. front of my fire, will solve all tho riddles of tho war. He will take tho fireirons Tor purposes of illustration. He will make life shovel represent the Eastern front, the tongs the Western front; tho poker will represent General Joffro, and a piece of coal the Emperor of GermanyThen ho will manipulate these implements in a most dcxteroas fashion, and he will succeed in demonstrating conclusively to me in a few minutes that the war will certainly end in our favour on December 31, 1916, and the Kaiser will be suitably punished by being lianged in front of St.haul's Cathedral, London, on tho Ist day of April, 1917. (Laughter.) / "Stick to the Facts." But 1 don't think ihat we should speculate. Wo had hotter stick to facts. The question, is—How are wo as a nation coming out of this war? I think tho question can be answered simply in this way:. Since we were drawn into the war, grave error's may havo been committed. It may ho true that some of the public men and some of tho military authorities of tho nation may have been' tried and found wanting. Events may have revealed defects in the Imperial mechanism. Ouv organisation may have been faulty and our judgment sometimes wide of tho mark. At the commencement of the war wo were so unprepared in a military sense that the nation was in peril. At the outset few realised tho magnitude of the task that confronted lis. .To a certain extent, at any rate, we may have adhered British tradition of giving the job to' the mail who does not know it, and of refusing it to the man who does know it; and tons of thousands of precious lives havo been lost and millions of pounds' worth of property havo been destroyed. Yet, despite all this, 1 be- _ lievo that we are as a peojlo'emerging-, from tho cloud of battle-smoke triumphantly —made stronger" by contact with a powerful adversary; made more sober because of the atmosphere of tragedy that we have breathed; made wiser because of the formidable experiences through which .we have passed; and proud because from the day the first shot" was fired never can it- be said that our people havo done anything mean or disreputable. (Applause.) -i-1 i It can never be said of British soldiers that they raised a white flag, and from beneath its shelter shot down a defenceless enemy. Nor can it be said that British soldiers raised their hands in token of surrender, and then attaoked a' foe taken at a disadvantage. Our sailors havo never sunk defenceless vessels, and sent women and children to the bottom of the sea. without -warning; and it can never, be said of us that when once our word was given, it was afterwards broken. (Applause.) Many things have interested me' since this war commenced. I have been struck by tho calmness ot the people. The nation does not appear to havo realised that during the last two years the life of a great people has been in grave danger. I have been struck by the extraordinary, sense of fun and humour which has characterised tho British soldier even in grave danger. (Applause.) But perhaps above everything else I have been struck by tho remarkaWe talent for improvisation wluch .the people have, developed since the war commenced. (Applause.) It is true that to begin with we hiad a S"® Navy manned by the boldest sailors and captained by some of the most cx perienced commanders that have cvei trod a vessel's deck. (Applauso) But\wo had no Army, or rather we had nn Army that in point of numbers was small. We have in two years improvised a marvellous Amy which is not only holding its own apmst but s heating the- machine-mado Gciman article which it . has taken 50 manufacture. (Applause and laughtei.) We had no artillery. But we have improvised thousands of guns, not forgetting '"tanks," which lean against a hriclc wall, and the wall crumbles to pieces. (Applause.) We have improvised artillerymen out of men who never in their wildest dreams expected to be called upon to fire a shot in anger. We had no munitions, but mountains of ammunition have been built up bv improvised munition workers ui improvised factories. (Applause.) We had no air-fleet to speak of, but wo ■have improvised one which outfnes and out-manoeuvres, and outfignt s the fleet of the enemy. (Applause ) lou will remember how, in tho early stages ot the war, the submarines of the enemy destroyed our shipping. Wo improvised a method of hshmg for submarines, and satisfactory bags havo been tho result. (Applause.) Tho problem of oversea trade and cneiny trading has been one of enormous difficulty but it has been faced and solved. i„ain, we have improvised, and so successfully, that to-day the Navy, assisted by a multitude of State officials scattered throughout the world, have given tho Allies almost the control tf tiio world's trade. (Applause.) '

The Army We Created. But probably the most wonderful achievement of all is the improvisation of an Imperial Army (Applause.) When war became inevitable, England, lifted her hand and beckoned to her people over the seas; and in far away parts of the world her people, seeing the beckoning hand, sailed in their thousands, their tens of thousands, their hundreds of thousands, across tlio ocean to stand beside their fellowcountrymen in the tight for peace and for right. (Applause.) But there is ono tiling that it may Jiofc be necessary to improvise—the spirit of the people. (Applause.) It is the same as it was centuries ago—as strong and as'vigorous as ever. (Applause.) It is the spirit that prompts a son to fight for [ the land of his-fathers. ...and for the

honour of his people. The spirit that makes a father place his hand on his son's, shoulder and say to him, "Go thou and stand in.tho ranks!" The spirit that makes brave women take stunning blows with calm dignity. The spirit which Shakespeare made his Henry V give utterance to, _so many centuries ago, when he said; : - "By Jove I I am not covetous for gold, but if it be a sin to covet honour, then I am the most offending soul alive."