THANKS TO FIGHTING MEN.

Hokitika Guardian, 29 December 1917, Page 4

THANKS TO FIGHTING MEN.

MR, LLOYD GEORGE’S INSPIRING TRIBUTE. House of Commons, Oct 29

A targe House assembled to-day to pass the resolution of thanks to the Navy, the Army, the medical services, the women, the over-seas forces, and the mercantile marine for their devoted services in the war, and to acknowledge with grateful admiration the valour of those who have fallen. Mr Lloyd George spoke first of the Navy. The tact that the Army contains representatives of some millions of British homes may have obscured in some respect the services rendered by the Navy to this country and our Allies. It is like one of those internal organs, essential to life, the existence of which we are not conscious of until something goes wrong with it. “ The Navy is taken for granted. But in this war it has been the anchor of the Allied cause. (Cheers.) If it lost its hold the hopfes of the Allies would be shattered. To realise its power and might one has only, to imagine what would have happened, not if we had not commanded the sea at the beginning of the war, but what would have happened if it had been defeated even a year ago and if the sceptre of the seas had been snatched by our foes.” Our armies abroad would have languished and finally vanished for lack of supplies and support. We should have fallen a ready foe to our vindictive enemies which, added the Prime -Minister with quiet, emphasis, we have not done yet, 7 and will not do. (“ Hear, hear ”) THE NAVY’S WORK.

t; I have no hesitation in saying that but for the British Navy overwhelming disaster would have fallen on the Allied cause. Germany would have been the insolent mistress of Europe, and through Europe of the world. Never has the British Navy been a more potent and more beneficial influence in the affairs of men. In spite of bidden foes, of legitimate naval warfare, arid of black piracy, it has preserved the high way of the seas for Britain and her Allies'.” (Cheers.) Mr Lloyd George gave some amazing figures of men and material transported across the seas to Allied Armies :

13,000,000 men. 2,000,000 horses. 25,000,000 tons of explosives 31,000,000 tons of fuel. 130,000,000 tonsjtiT food.

Of the Li,000,000 men who have crossed and recrossed the seas only 3,-509 have been lost, and only 2,700 of those by the action of the enemy. “ That has indeed been a' triumph.” (Cheers.) It was too early fo summarise the effect of the blockade on our foes. As to lighting “ the Grand Fleet has not had many opportunities such as those which built up the fame of the British Navy, but that is not their fault. On the contrary, it 'is a 'recognition of their merit. (“Hear, hear”) Germany knows they are there ; and since the Battle of Jutland Germany has never seen fit to challenge that great Fleet. That is the best proof that they do not trust the veracity of their own chroniclers, who say that they beat ns at Jutland.” (Cheers'.

EHIHTINO TRAWLERS

To the work of the smaller craft of the fleet, and to the officers and men of the mercantile marine, Mr Lloyd George paid a sincere tribute “ Through their action security and plenty are enjoyed by the population of these islands. It is a great distinction for any civilian body to be placed in the same category as the soldiers of the British Army and the sailors of the British Navy, and they have won that distinction.” (Cheers.) With piracy more rampant and ruthless than ever before, men are hit by an invisible foe and left in open boats scores of miles'from a friendly shore, yet among those who go down to the sea in ships there has not been found one who failed to return to his duty ; they go back with greater alacrity than in times of peace.

“ There is no time to deal with the dark deeds of our foes, but—they are all in the reckoning! Our seamen abhor the degradation of seamanship shown by the enemy, and steadfastly refuse to have any traffic with them until the stain is vhped out.” Sixty per cent of our fishermen are in the naval service, patrolling and minesweeping, and the number of mines they have swept up is incredible. But for that Great Britain would be blockaded by a ring of deadly machines. Air Lloyd George recounted two characteristic stories told by an admiral : A trawler was attacked by the gunfire of a German submarine. Though armed only with a three-pounder gun she refused to haul down her flag, even when the skipper had both his legs shot off and most of the crew were dead. “ Throw the confidential books overboard,” the skipper said in the end, “and throw me after them. 1 ’ He j went down.

Another trawler was attacked by a submarine. Her funnel destroyed, ber steering gear disabled, she patched up with canvas and went on fighting. At last she went down ; bnt by then her fishing fleet was safe in port.

“ That,” said Mr Lloyd George, amid ringing cheers, “is the spirit of the Navy and the mercantile marine.”

OUR Ol,l* ARMY SAVED EUROI'E

He went on to speak of the Army. When war broke out we had an Expeditionary Force of 160,000 men; to-day we have over 3,000,000 —probably the greatest feat of military or ganisation in the history of the worW. “ It never would have been accomplished bnt for the heroism and sacrifice of the Old Army,” he said amid ringing cheers—“ the Old Army, the finest body of troops in the world at that time ; more highly trained, more disciplined, more perfect in physique than any Army in Europe!” The retreat from Mods, which delayed overwhelming hordes of the enemy; the Battle of the Marne ; more than .all, the great battle of Ypres, one of the decisive events of the Aval' (it was fought three yoars ago tkia week), quite ntspufc&ltejsd

sacrifice against forces of superior strength—no reserves; cavalry, cooks, 11 servants, all in the fighting line! Yet : it saved France, and saved civilisation ! ” (Loud cheers.) “The Old, the Old exclaimed Mr Lloyd George with fervid enthusiasm, “ the Old Army gathered the'spears of the Prussian legions into its breast, and in perishing saved Europe !” (Loud cheers.) Then, most of the veterans gone — 10,000 lost, out of 12,000 in one division—came the Territorials. Somebody had to occupy the water logged trenches, somebody to stand against the shot and shell of a well-equipped army, though their own orders were that only two or three shells could be spared for each gun—somebody bad ■ to do that for months, while the New Army was created. And the Territorials did it, fighting with the ardour of recruits in their first charge and the steadfastness of veterans in their hundredth fight. (Cheers.) )Ve 1 owed a debt of gratitude, too, to the man who created that organisation which came to the rescue of the Empire in her critical hour. Never had British courage been put to such a test as was that of the New Armies; never had it more triumphantly emerged. (Cheers.) Whei; he read of the conditions under which they fought his mind marvelled at the nerve and resolution which could endure it—men drawn from civil employment ar--1 rayed against men trained for years ' and under officers instructed to prepare for that very hour.

“ Stonewall Jackson’s campaigns filled us with admiration and wonder —how that man of iron led bis troops through the mire and the swamps ; but they were never called upon to lie days and nights in quaking moi’asses under ceaseless thunderbolts from a powerful artillery and then march into battle through an engulfing quagmire under a hailstorm of machine-gun fire. We owe a debt of the deepest gratitude to the great New Army of England.” (Cheers.) Though the time lias not come for appraisiug the services of our generals, he mentioned, on the authority of “ a brilliant member of our General Staff,” whom he did not name, three of the most conspicuous figures - Lord French, Sir Douglas Haig, and Sir Stanley Maude. Sir Douglas Haig has shown himself to he both a great general and a great leader of

men. (Cheers.) England, the Premier went on, has contributed 75 per cent, of this New Army,, and also of its losses.

“Great Britain,” interrupted several Scottish members.

“ I am coining to Scotland presently,” said the Prime Minister, to the accompaniment of English laughter, “ but I want to say a word about English first Tt is necessary to dwell upon fill at fact, for the simple reason that our foes are circulating the old lie that England fights her battles with the arms of others. England has contributed 75 per cent of the men and' 75 per cent of the losses. Scotland, as al ways, has done her share. Ireland has made a distinguished contribution. So has my own little country.”

Then the Dominions —between 700,000 and 800,000 men from over the seas, five times the number of our original Expeditionary Force. He praised the resource and courage of the Canadians in the second battle of Ypres, the dash and tenacity of the Anzacs, the stout fighting of the men from South A frica and Newfoundland, the loyal support to British arms ot the troops from India.

THE LIVING AND TUB DEAD,

The Air Service had appeared for the first time in war. “ They are the cavalry of the clouds, with the heavens for their battlefield. Every flight is a romance of chivalry, made by knights without fear or reproach.” Tfie artillery, trained in a few months, won the admiration and inspired the terror of the enemy. The Medical Service had .worked manfully, courageous!} 7 , tenderly ; the tenderness and care shown by the nurses had brought thanks to the lips of hundreds of thousands.

Air Lloyd George’s voice sank to a deeper, quieter note as he came to speak of the gallant dead and the sorrows of those who mourn them. “The anguish, of hundreds of thousands of homes is too profound to be expressed in words ; but, judging the multitude of them I know, not by those whom I do not know, there is not one of them who would recall the valiant dead to life at the price of their country’s dishonour (“Hear, hear.”} The example of these brave men who have fallen has enriched the life of the nation. You cannot have four millions of men in any land who voluntarily sacrificed everything the world can offer in obedience to a higher call without ennobling (he countries from which they come. And the fallen! .While they have illumined with fresh lustre the glory of their native land,, they have ton,died with a new dignity the households which they left for the battlefield. There will be millions who will live to tell children now unborn how millions aro?e in England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, in the ends of the earth; how men of our race left ease and comfort, faced privation, torture, and death, to win protection for the weak and justice for the oppressed. (Cheers.)

“There are hundreds of thousands who will never come back. For them there will be for ages to come saerdd memories in a myriad of homes of brave, chivalrous men who gave up their lives for justice, for right for freedom in peril. This resolution means that the greatest Empire on earth through this House thanks the living for the readiness with which they obeyed the summons and the gallantry with which they supported its behests. It also means that this great Empire through this House enters each house of the heroic dead, grasps the bereaved by the hand, and says, ‘ I'he Empire owes you gratitude for your share of the sacrifice as well as for theirs, partakes in your pride for their valour and in your grief for their fall.” (Cheers.) To the murmur of sympathetic cheers the Prime Minister then moved his rose* lutioja

That the thanks of this House be given to the officers, petty officers, and men of the Navy for their unfailing ( watch upon the seas during more than three years of ceaseless danger hud stress ivhile guarding our shores and protecting from the attacks of a bar- * barous foe the commerce upon which ‘ the victory of the Allies depends. That the thanks of this House be ] given to the officers, non-commissioned , officers, and men of the British armies i in the field, and also to the women in the medical and other services , auxiliary thereto, for their unfailing courage and endurance in defending the right, amid sufferings and hardship unparalleled in the history of war, and for their loyal readiness to continue the work to which they have set their hands until the liberty of the world is secured. ! That the thanks of this House be accorded lo the gallant troops fronu the Dominions overseas, from India, and from the Grown Colonies, who have travelled many thousands of miles to share with their comrades from the British Isles in the sacrifices and triumphs of the battlefield, and to take their full part in the struggle for human freedom. That the thanks of this House be accorded to the officers and men of the ' Mercantile Marine for the devotion to L duty with which they have continued to carry vital supplies to the Allies 1 through seas infested with deadly ’ peril. | And that this Hoiise doth acknowledge with grateful admiration the valour and devotion of those who have ’ offered their lives in the service of ’ their country, and tenders its syni- ’ pathy to tlieir relations and friends J in the sorrows they have sustained.

Ml! ASQUITH

Mr Asquith expressed the feelings of the House in a brief speech. Silence might, he said, be the truest eloquence invthe face of facts and emotions too large for speech. The forces arrayed, the endurance of the poople, the tale of loss, were on a scale unexampled in the annals of mankind. Any thoughts, even if expressed by Pericles or by Lincoln, would be hopelessly inadequate to so great a theme. What more could be said when wo were witness, month by month and year by year, of the vast uanorama of heroism and suffering. “ It strikes us dumb, with a sense at once overbearing and unutterable, of admiration and gratitude.” (Cheers.) So he contented himself with a few simple additions to what had been said. He added to the names of the soldiers' who had ® been mentioned those of “ two great admirals. Sir John Jellieoe and Sir David Beatty.” (Cheers.) He spoke of a loss which the House of Commons suffered during the recess—“ one of the youngest and most loved of our members, Francis MacLaren, who gave his life in a youth of radiant promise, still untarnished by disappointment.” Mr MacLaren’s father, Lord Aberconway, sitting in the Peers’ Gallery, heard the generous tribute. “ Let it not be said,” concluded Air Asquith, “ when the judgment of history conies to be recorded, that such men gave their lives in vain. Let such a spirit be maintained until the end ; and, as we know, it must end in the enthronement of the sovereignty of right.” (Cheers.)

IRISH VAI.OUR. Other leaders of parties—an extending list—-joined in support of the motion.

Air Redmond (Nationalist): My heart and mind go out fin a very special way to the Irish troops. By their constancy, endurance, and gallantry tftey have in every field of war shed lustre upon their race, and however torn by dissension and misfortune their country may be at this moment the hearts of Irishmen are filled with pride and gratitude for their achievements. During the last year and a half a new and bitter trial has been imposed upon them'by what has been happening in Ireland, but those lamentable events have not touched the valour or loyalty of the troops, who believed that they were not only going to fight in the just cause of civilisation and liberty but also for the happiness, the prosperity, and the liberty of Ireland. They had seen a section of their countrymen repudiate that idea, and thus they had brought home to them a new and poignant feeling of anguish. They need have no misgivings. Time will moderate them. Even at this moment, when ephemeral causes disturb Irish opinion, the doings of the Irish troops are regarded with pride and gratitude by the great bulk of the Irish race. Air O’Grady (Labour) : The deeds in the field of men drawn' from the dockside, the railways, the mines, the factories, and the shops give the lie direct to the German philosophers and politicians who say that we are a decadent race. Mr Eugene Wason (Scottish): Scottish representatives will always be proud of the part chat Scottish troops have played in the war. Sir Herbert Roberts (Welsh) :. Wales has never faltered, and whatever sacrifice be demanded of her in the war will be given cheerfully. General Page Croft (National Party) : We should have been crying for bread to-day but for the Navy, which has kept the surface of the ocean clear of the ships of, the enemy, while against the strongest position ever conceived in war British troops have been successful on practically every single occasion.

Air Peto spoke for the Mercantile Alarine and Colonel Yate for the Indian Army. The resolution was carried by a large and unanimous House.