BE OF GOOD CHEER.

Hokitika Guardian, 14 November 1917, Page 3

BE OF GOOD CHEER.

GOVERNOR GENERAL’S ADVICE

WELLINGTON November 12. Speaking on Saturday afternoon at the .ceremony of the unveiling of a memorial to the ex-pupils oi the Roseneath School who have fallen in the war, his Excellency the Governor, General made special reference to the not very cheering news wo have been receiving over tlie cables in the last few days. “Perhaps to-dav there may be an uncomfortable feeling because things have not 1 gone as we should have liked them to go in the last few days,” said His Excellency. “We are perhaps a little bit inclined, although not willing to own up to it, to he just a little bit downhearted. Ladies and gentlemen, if you are students of history you. know that there has never been a war equal to this one, in its size, on in the number of men engaged, and’m no great war has the end been 'achieved without ups and downs. I can see nothing in the present situation to indicate that our race and our ideas or liberty and honesty wll not yet come out on too. None of us like to own up to being downhearted hut probably there are numbers of people who have-

been.reading.the cablegrams from day to day in the past week, * wondering what ,is going to happen. I know no more than you do about what has hapoened. But, recollect this, that in the biggest war in which the. Empire was engaged before this one—the war at the .beginning of the last century—we had no easy ride. In the Peninsula Sir John Moore and Crawford both had their aips and downs in what was then considered a great retirement, the retirement of C'orunna. (And if we. take the other side of the picture, and see how the people who are now our enemies fared in their wars of i the century previous to that, we shall [ see that they had a considerable numI her of nos and downs in the time of 1 Frederick the Great. It is hardly r.eaj son able to expect that in this war we i are goin.-* to have everything our own way. In France we have a great- deal to be thankful for, and it is on the j French and Belgian frontier that this I struggle is finally going to he won. ; Things have undoubtedly gone wrong ! with our Italian allies, hut that is not i going to be the end of all things for us. i Sorry as I am that things have not gone smoothly I think that instead of being downhearted we should he proud of the way in which our troops in France have

won out of a most difficult situation. Nor let us forget the action that lias heon carried out in Palestine by troops from all parts of the Empire in meritorious manner. “T have taken this opportunity of speaking i n this way because I heard that there, was among the people of this city a disposition to be disheartened. I ask you to take courage, and I believe that the men to whom I am about u> unveil this memorial would wish you to do the same. lam certain that the troops in France are not downhearted and when ■ things don’t go right let uf take courage. It is a little tiling for the men who have the hard tasks ahead ■of them to ask of us what we should be of good courage. ... I wish everybody here and all the people of New Zealand not to be downhearted, but rather to look to the great deeds that have been done ami that are going to be done by your sons, your kith and kin, and t< think that in this fight right, and liberty are goin gto .triumph.” (Apnlnuse).