SCOURGE OF WAR

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3118, 23 June 1917, Page 6

SCOURGE OF WAR

WHAT THE CONFLICT MEANS REMARKS BY MR HAROLD BEAUCHAMP The chairman, of directors of tho Bank of New Zealand (Mr. Harold Boauchamp) concluded his address to the shareholders at the meeting yesterday with tho following reference to the war:— "it seem* unlikely that tho war can be, brought to a close this year, but I make no prediction, for I am in no bettor position than you are to vonture a forecast. Nothing that has ' been predicted in this war has happoned exactly as foretold, and even those beet informed hesitate to express any decided opinions with regard to its duration. "An early termination is very desirable from a New Zealand standpoint, for, if it be prolonged, it must have very serious economic effects in tho Dominion. Wo have very nearly exhausted the number of men of military. age in, tho First Division, and must soon be calling upon those in the Second Division. When this happens there is bound to be a serious dislocation of the labour market, and many industries must be affected. .It is imperative itEat wo should faco this matter squarely, and not content ourselves with moro hopes or valueless opinions. Tho British Empire is determined upon victory, and we must do our share towards that end, whatever sacrifice may be involved. The ono great ray of hopo in. tho troubled prospect is the holp (hat the United States of America is able and willing to give. Tho Americans havo been slow to move, but, now that they have begun, their efforts aro increasing in momentum, and the Allies are assured of the fullest support that Amerioa. can afford. There can be, and there must be, no premature peace. Such a peace would be dearly bought. It would be but an armed truce, with no relief from militarism—the spectre which has haunted European civilisation for the post forty years.

"When the American Eepubljo, now our close Ally in this war, was itself in the throes of that terrible conflict between its Northern and Southern States which ended in the emancipation of the negro and the abolition slavery, the then President of tho Republic, the great Abraham Lincoln, urged upon tho Northern States the continuance of the struggle for right in tho following memorable words:—

Fondly do wo hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pose away. ■ Yet, if God wills that it continue until all tho wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn by the sword, as was said three thousand years ngo, bo still it must be said that 'The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether,' With malice towards none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to See the right, let na finjsh the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wound's, to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphans, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and a lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.' "This exlfortation I repeat to-day, because it is equally applicable to the conflict in which tho great nation to which, it was first addressed has now made common cause with us, for this is a fight for freedom—a fight for the emanoipation, not of a section of the human race, but of the whole human race, from the wretched thraldom of military despotism."