FRIENDS IN ADVERSITY

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 101, 23 January 1919, Page 5

FRIENDS IN ADVERSITY

THE ALLIED NATIONS:

BEELEGTIONS. ON. THE WAR

AN EXCHANGE OF IDEAS

Interesting' speeches ..were (tefiyerei at the official dinner tendered!- to', the members of the French. Mission, bythe Government on the eve oft their departure from, this city; 'The:- Press were, not-present at the dinner; and. tlie;sub- ; joined account of the proceedings is , i portion of the official' report supplied , . The Bond. : Sir James Allen, Acting. Prime Minister;, in proposing; the--toast; of the evening, "Our Guests," said; proper, ; words of welcome; "I thi.nlfr we-. New iZealanders at the outbreak, of", tlie war," lie continued,, "were'very, very ; anxious indeed' to know what the atti|tude of the Mother Country would, he. i We knew, that our. word had' been given ito Belgium, we realised: that we had been in close... friendship. with Fraimejfor very many, years,, we. , were acquaintled: with, the peril,, the common danger : that threatened, and, I. think there was: 'something,like a sigli of relief in N«w> Zealand—great as, the- responsibilities I wore, and. terrible as -we , knew thucon- ; sequences- must be—when, the Mothers 'land-had determined, to. stand', foir lion--our. The- honour of the' Motherland: was at stake,, and, Belgium'was: ■in. danger, , ; France- was; in: danger— and 1 tliere- was. no hesitation'!. Where I say there* was np' hesitation I! mean; ■ there- was- no hesitation , ;, there' was great corisidaratibn,. but no: hesitation, when, it came- to thej point to> decide-.. And as I say,, there? was- almost a. sigh;, of relief, when. we. knew. that, lionmrr was to bo uphold , ; that, the- relittioirshipi withi France, was to bei stooi by.. Wβ; knew the sacrifices , we.- had! to make-;; we had some idea of wllat tiler- respon--sibility. would, be. though- at the- time, no, nation thought the- war would! last, four or five yeiir.s We: hoped., and it. /was generally hoped,, I understand*, that the war would; be over ire. from six to; nine: months;, and; it. possrblyr would; have; been, if all the nations, had: realised, the- conseqpences off: the war;, The! Fighting. Mem .' \ "At.the: time .we. came, in, our.-army was not: a. large: one;, but--it: w as well' trained,, it was efficieutr—pi-ohalily as: elßcient. aa : any army in> existence—but it -was-, called' "contemptihleV' T6>day,, Geuerali I'au,. with: the: co-operatiom ofii France- and;'the" aid\ of one Miesy thatrj 'contemptible' army ofJ 1914. lias join*: edi with; your forces in: being the , vie-. torious , army of 1918. Our country,-wafer unprepared', , asi we. , generally areunpreparedt to: meet contingencies; ofr tliiff kind; The'innate ' conditions whicb exist in. , our country, audi the; consequences-; of which''we- have-experienced; before,, wore there* whenjthis'- watf btoie out, andi we- had to> set. ourseittes; the* task of getting, ready late- in tlmi day.. And wei did: got ready,, and' we fbughfr; with you,, and; we have* won , .. Eam persauded you. are .satisfied' that, the.' British nationi puts; as, thn highest' test of .the qualities of the nationality of a people the question of honour. We had! entered into a bargain with Belgium, and into an- unwritten .bargain', per-' haps, with France;: but whether written, or unwritten , the word.of! a Britisher will be kept whatever the- consequences, may be. And so we have fought along, witli' you through 'all. ther-trovdiles-•of the last four or fee- years; , : and. we. have lenrned to know the French natioa. better than we knew it before.. Wβ; New Zeal'and'ers , especially have; learned to , know them better,, and I. am satisfied, that the NewJse.aiandi?rK comeback with a high; appreciation:' o£ the many high qualities that' go .to mate-, up the glorious French, nation. (Applause.) ; We thought that we were- .the people '-who more, tlian . any • other valued honour,, and we' supposed that the people of our Motherland were those who for it wouldi: go through.the.greatest difficulties and' stand fasts but we are satisfied to-day that the-French are as liigli. with- respect to honour, as , we are ourselves , ,, and that they can, stand as'fast as; ourselves; and we look with;,admiration. upon the trials and difficulties, your armies havogone through;'We , 'do nob forget the first great disastrous- advance of the Germans, to the : Maine,, or the providential 1 escape- that. then... took place through the genius-*-! think: ■I am safe iu. sa.ying,. very largely in.deed,' tfirough the genius, of the French, generals; and we have followed the-war all the- way. through up-.to .th>,. lasti great fight, and' we rejoice to know,, i notwithstanding it may touch, our pride* I somewhat, that in the French: natioa. ! was found the great, general who united: '. the forces of the Allies and'led them ito victory. (Applause.) lam sure, that. Sir Douglas Haijr. ind'all the. other ; commanders of the British forces are. williuc to recognise"" rridfit when -tbfly , find it,-and that'we,."have , found it,/ and that the Allies: have found it in. the , - great General—Foch. Hp waited his time, ho struck when he knew it w.atf the opportune moment to strike,, and there was no mistake "hout the stroke when he did strike. The- result is. we have won and we have paved not. ouly the nation of Frar.nc. our own armies, . and those tlwt have been fighting, n-itll. us, hut we liavo' snved our own nrition,; we have paved civilisation—we' hnve' savivl all that i.s- worth having in the world. 'Most of us know, and -we -have cause to realise what was tV dominant fpntairp of the German' wind. . It . wp scientific to n degree, .Jmfc' it. was scientific. ?o it s<?pms to nip. witlvotit t.lie spirit- of Jmmar.ilv, without ,i «d»«19 honnstv—Oionr.' liear)—and if. the rvstem lia ,1 he.cn imnosed -vnan. ♦he wo-M. impiswi■ • utvm "5 ; " New 7. n? Uvr\ T think w sV'iH. >av© : lived t« liitt"i'lv tl'p day wli°n w>' foiled to tiii , ' forth H>-> greatest effort to thwart it,.'. , . ■ .; TMtie after ♦h" war. Referring to possibilities of trade with France, the Minister said: "What New Zealand can do to help you she will do. You have discinsod with our chambers of commerce, with business men and others our trade i elationships. You have certain demands which you require fr'qjji us in. the way of raw materials, such as wool and. so on. and I can assure you that- second only to the demands of our own Motherland, which naturally *:ome' first, the demands of Belgium and France are paramount. We know your terrible losses in men and material, in damage to your country, and damage to your huiidings, and to your sacr-;;l possessions, and we will do what we can to heir* to restore. As I have said, and! will say again, the cruel hand which destroyed ought to he made to replace. Common justice and humanity demand that those who destroy should replace. Then, so far as our trade is concerned, this has been, speaking for the pre-war period, compiratrely small, but, we hope that after the war it niay ho very i much larger, and that■. thi-ipcs which) wo were importing from other countries mav be imported from France. Wo have, a deep friendly relationship lo Franop.| : . not only a blood relationship, but because upon the field l ; of France lie thousands and thousands' of the hpst and bravest of New. Ze.xl.inders. . Wβ can never look frith complacency on the possibility of that soil being .again disturbed by" the horrors of war: we •hope that it may be 'the peaceful land of France,' able to develop its prosperj ity, and that the Wood of our sons maj; J help to establish the nation. '