Hokitika Guarian & Eveing Star And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 7, ]918 HOLD FAST

Hokitika Guardian, 7 August 1918, Page 2

Hokitika Guarian & Eveing Star And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 7, ]9lB HOLD FAST

Tick message front Mr Lloyd George to the British Empire on war anniversary day to “hold fast,” is a necessary injunction in those times of war-weari-ness and the pleadings of the pacifist. All the British traditions for the exercise of tenacity should prompt the nation to fulfil the injunction of the message to the letter. What, has happened and is happening at the front, should be the real incentive to carry on the war “till a just and lasting settlement is achieved.” The latest outrage on thp High seas in torpedoing another British hospital ship, should be reason enough not to seek to parley with our murderous enemies, except as masters of the situation. Mr Winston Churchill's trenchant reply to Lord Lansdowne’s peace letter is the spirit the nation should manifest at all times to those who would urge a patched peace, and leave our children and the world with a more bitter war to face in a decade or two hence. Mr Churchill’s denunciation of a peace at the price of posterity suffering greater than the world now suffers, 'should be endorsed by the whole Empire, so that once and for all the- weaklings and faint of heart, would know that their pleadings are empty and vain. It is to be regretted indeed that Britain which entered the war for such a noble purpose, should now be counselled to withdraw for personal motives. It must not be forgotten why Britain is iu the war—to succour the weak. To leave the smaller nations now to the tender mercies of the .enemy is to sanction their total destruction. A patched peace means that they can never be rehabilitated. Peace by arrangement now will be a settlement by bargaining and the overrun, weakened and destroyed small nations have nothing wherewith to bargain. They would be preyed upon more and more and not to hold fast, and make the dawning victory assured, is to barter the future of the downtrodden nations for our own immediate safety. The great effort this war has called forth, its sacrifice and toll; will have been in vain if such a capitalation should mark the end of Great Britain’ A part in this great war. Cur claim to “greatness” as an Empire would surely bo lost for ever • for wo should bo guilty of betraying the charge we took up when, four years ago, British statesmen in so fine a spirit, took up the enemy’s challenge to' tho world, and resolved to champion the rights of nil nations to exist and to maintain the full effect and meaning of solemn international treaties entered into by way of guarantee. If the outcomo of the war does not ensure this completely, then indeed will the sacrifice of tho war have been in vain, and history will rightly assign tlie 'blame to tho weakness of those people who in the time of stress faltered by the way and were disposed to give in, to lot go-—instead ftf holding fast—to the ideals their lenders had set before them. This is a time for unity of thought and accord of action in the desire to win the war. It is as much the duty of remote, places as busy centres to on] tin to and demonstrate the right spirit. Mr Lloyd George’s message should come to Us ns a behest, and we should accept the command os from one who knows, and who is capable, of leading the nation on to the final victory which will give us the only peace acceptable .