The Dominion. MONDAY, AUGUST 6, 1917. INFLEXIBLE DETERMINATION
All' who think will concur in the statement made by the Hon. W. li. Herries on Saturday night that inflexible determination is the keynote of the resolution passed on the war anniversary throughout New Zealand and in all parts of' tho Empire. It isnot an exaggeration to say that British determination is today the hope of the civilised world. If they could count upon breaking down British determination the German War Lords might still hope f» gain their ends. In 1914 they gambled upon a belief that time and prosperity had undermined- tho qualities of bulldog pertinacity to which Britain owes nor greatness. They hoped or believed, and taught their dupes to believe, that Britain had become flabby and degenerate, and that even if she entered the lists against Germany a test would speedily show that nothing remained of her _ ancient hardihood and determination hut a tradition. The test has shown instead that tho authors of tho war were nowhere more fatally astray than in reckoning upon weakness and lack ol determination in Britain. For three years, ; as Mr, Lloyd George remarked in'his anniversary speech, tho British Empire: has striven not unsuccessfully against the, most dangerous conspiracy over plotted against the liberties of nations. The spirit of tho British people has been demonstrated not only in a thousand achievements on land, and sea, but in efforts'of war organisation which have never been excelled. Since ISU Britain ' has given proofs of iuflexiblo determination which fill ;i golden page of her history. She was never worse prepared than when Germany plunged Europe into war. She has never displayed to_ better advantage than under the grim and searching test of the last three- years the national characteristics' which have earned her an honoured place amongst the nations. There is much in the history of these years to inspire pride and confidence and to give weight to the declaration of the inflexible, determination of the British people to continue tho war to a victorious end. It is nevertheless ,right and necessary that we should look ahead rather than back, and. I recognise that the national determination may be even more searchingiy tested in the future than it has been in the past. British determination has already oporated as the deciding factory in robbing the modern Huns of their anticipated triumph, but: it may still bo needed to save the world from tho unspeakable calamity of an inconclusive peace. Wo do not yet know how near the danger of such a peace may, como, but'it is plain that any faltering or wcakoning in British determination would speedily make it acute, and it is possible that we may bo called upon to play the part our forefathers played in earlier wars by standing firm when other nations failed. Russia at the moment is a doubtful bulwark of democratic liberties, and her condition may. bo worse before it is better. It is common prudence and no disloyalty to our Allies to recognise that some of them may tend to bo weak when weakness would be fatal, and that for a considerable, time to como Bri-tish-determination must represent the supreme obstacle to a peace whioh would permit Germany to go unpunished and sow the seeds of future and even more terrible wars. i Inflexible determination on the part of the British people implies something more than continued achievements in land and sea campaigns and untiring and unremitting exertions in tho field of war organisation. Above all thoro. is demanded a sane appreciation of the | fact that any weakening or falter,ing, any departure from the ideal of complete and dcoisivo victory, would nullify all that has been achieved and endured in this struggle for human liberty. There is an irresistible appeal to "British determination in the fact that an inconclusive peace would not only represent an act of base treachery to tho men who have died in order that their own nation and others may. bo frco, but would invite a continuation of the horrors which have culminated in this war. To make peace witli Germany on anything like even terms would be on the same moral plane as permitting the murderer or any other vile criminal to make terms with his judges. As the Prime Minister reminded us on Saturday ovening, we must never forget the atrocities of Which Germany has been guilty. The war in its inception was the greatest crime the world has over seen, and in conducting the war Germany has descended to appalling depths of bestiality. Tho early atrocities in Belgium and the fact that they were acts of deliberate policy will luridly brand Germany for all tune, but they fill onlv a, part of the tcrnblo indictment made out against her to-day. Grimes from which many savage nations would shrink with horror have a, recognised and constant place in her war tactics on land and sea.
There could bo no better stimulus to British determination than the fact that as the war settlement is decisive or inconclusive Germany's abominable crimes will be punished or palliated. An inconclusive peace would mean in the first place that tho master criminals who have shaped Germany and her vassals as instruments of murder and oppression would be given an open opportunity of resuming their projects at a more favourable opportunity. It would mean further that nations which have been outraged and stirred to their depths by Germany's .atrocious crimes would meet and treat with her as with .an equal. The nations leagued against' Germany must bring her to her knees cr descend to her moral level and give to her vile crimes—her murder and outrage of helpless women and children and her resort to infamous weapons—tho sanction of accepted procedure. It is with these issues before them that tho British people have recorded their'inflexible determination to continue the war to avictorious end. We arc strengthened in that determination to-day by the co-operation of loyal Allies and by the prospect of such aid from America as will in tho not. very distant future crown our efforts with that complete victory which will give tho worlcl permanent peace and re-estab-lish morality in international affairs. .
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Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3155, 6 August 1917, Page 4
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1,033The Dominion. MONDAY, AUGUST 6, 1917. INFLEXIBLE DETERMINATION Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3155, 6 August 1917, Page 4
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