The Hutt News. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 1929. NELSON DAY.

Hutt News, Volume 2, Issue 21, 17 October 1929, Page 7

The Hutt News. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 1929. NELSON DAY.

As a race, we Anglo-Saxons, are too often prone to forget what some of our great men —statesmen, philanthopists, writers, soldiers ,sailors —have done for V.-S-. how much of mrr "greatness as an. -Empire, how much of our freedom, of our security, of our prosperity, is due to the unremitting toil —toil of "brain and body spent by such as we have moniioaed. Mucth. as it X9to be deplored, we have to admit that, while we

«njoy oil these privileges, we too often . fail to remember those to whom, in a large inwirmro, we owe these priceless (privileges. True, we have erected 'statues to their memory—statues which stand as mute evidence of what we have, for a time, felt for such "Empire Builders" but." Siave we not, through familiarity with the stone or bronze, failed to feel the thrill their

deed* a,nd works should call forth^

Monday next, 21st October, will be the anniversary of one of the greatest sea fight.h any nation ever engaged in: it is one hundred and twenty<-four years since England was engaged in a life and death struggle with. Prance during

nearly twenty years—years of gloom

and depression, years when our very existence as an. Empire was threatened.

Thanks to the genius of Nelson, to the wise policy of Pitt, to the grim determination of our people and to the

grand lighting qualities of our seamen, the menace was removed, and after Trafalgar, England enjoyed a long period of peace. At the expressed desire of the Navy League, a body of Empire wide activities, the anniversary of the battle was known as "Trafalgar Day." Wreaths are laid at the foot of Nelson'a monument in London, public ad-

dresses were delivered throughout the

Empire when the supreme importance of tihe Navy was stressed and a quiet agitation set on foot and persisted in

to keep ever before the eyes of out Legislators the necessity to maintain a supremacy in war-vessels. The 'mdage "The best way to prevent war is to be prepared for it," was thoroughly believed in, hence the cry for more and more fig-hting machines. But what a change has come over the scene.

Wihen the World War broke out in

1914, when civilization itself was threatened, when thrones tottered and some fell, we as an act of courtesy

and firm friendship for our gallant

allies, the French, decided to d-rop the term '' Trafalgar Day' ' —a name that could bring but unenviable feelings to that great nation —and we substituted

the name of "Nelson" Day. The admiral was still remembered, we

continued to pay tribute to his amazing and successful work for the Empire and it is well that something be said and done on that day "lest we forget." But the woTld is trending towards a very different way of securing peace to-day, not by the might of engdnes of destruction but bj- a nobler under-

standing -of each other, by a full re<36gnition of all races to live their lives in their own way and by tke fullest recognition of the brotherhood of man, or, as Bobbie Burns has it: •"That man to man, tihe world o'er, Shall 'brithers' be for a''that." This means to peace is nearer fruition than ■ever before because of the fine spirit of harmony existing between t>3ie two ' great English-speaking nations (England and America) and all eyes are today on Eamsay Macdonald who has had almost a triumphal tour to the United States. While we continue to honour Kelson who, by epoch-making; victories made peace for a time secure, shall we not honour even more those ' who will, in the near future we hope, make peace permanent, and whose

names would thus be written large on tihe scroll of fame.