Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 1918. THE WEEK .

Hokitika Guardian, 9 November 1918, Page 2

Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 1918. THE WEEK .

“Some of us laid down our lives at Ypres • there, too, many of us said farewell-for all time to our eareless youth. No one of ns will ever regret his sacrifices or forget the terror and the splendour of those days. “Of those who bav e fallen, write only upon their monuments: ‘They Feu. At Ypres.’ —it is immortal honour.” A Belgian orator in speaking on the anniversary of the Battle of the Yser, with happy hyperbole, has said: “National anniversaries are landings arranged by History upon the staircase of the centuries. They offor to a people periodical seasons for collecting us thoughts and for seeking the lessons of the past, teachings whence the efforts of the morrow may profit.” A new anniversary has come into the. calendar, an anniversary of the highest compliment to Great Britain. America is going to celebrate to-day in New York “British'Day” out of compliment to the prodigies of the British arms at Ypres and in recognition of the faithful services of the British Navy in keeping the seas for freedom. It is a great international compliment- which will be felt and -'appreciated right round the English speaking world. It is an outward and visible sign of those bonds of kinship and kindly affectionate sentiment which have ripened into full maturity under the stress and trial of the Great War. It is in fact the great achievement of the Great War, the first practical sign of the welding together of the two greatest races of proved excellence, which, united in common action, can do so much tor the lasting betterment of the world. The Americans have made a happy choice for the celebration of this great appreciation. The 9th. November was the natal day of King Edward, the Peacemaker, who did the world such service in holding peace during his lifetime, and yet preparing the bulwark for the world’s defence, which when war fell suddenly, came, just managed to stave off defeat and lay the first foundations for the victory which has come. King Edward made possible the Entente between Britain and Prance an event happily consummated in 1903. In those halvcon days it was largely a matter of sentiment and the two peoples who then began to fraternise and understand each other, liardly dreamt what a future tor them was bound up in that friendly union so happily made betimes. The anniversary to-day is selected by our American cousins to mark the battle of Ypres. No single day suffices for this event, for modern battles are not limited—as was Waterloo—to a day. The modern battle runs into days, weeks, months and perhaps (as has happened) only years can bring the final decision. The first battlo of Ypres ranged from October 20th to November l7th., 1914 —a period of twenty-seven days. Victory finally rested with Sir John French nftcr a most anxious and trying time. America has honoured Britain in n particular way, by selecting this outstanding event of the war tor “British Day.” A critic who was through it all, said: “There is no name connected with the European War than will live longer in men’s minds that that of Ypres. It is a word that carries its suggestion of deathless heroism, its sad symbolism of sacrifice, and its glorious tradition of victory to all corners of the earth. : where the Anglo-Saxon, tongue is heard. Ypres, Ypres ‘la morte’—a city of the Dead —but deathless for all time.” To hold Ypres the best blood of the Allies has been shed. General French was there with his Contemptible army—“contemptible” of death, that civilisation might live. It was a great drain on . Britain’s small foycea, great only in the remarkable fight, it put up. Belgians were there, too, as also the French then later the Canadians,. Tureoa and Indians —all giving their lives dying to maintain the position upon which depended the whole fortunes of the Western War. There were two separate battles of Ypres in the first twelve months of the war, each critical each costly, but. both victorious. Another writer has said: “Out of the medly of contemporary accounts and stories of the war in Flanders tales of the. salient of Ypres take premier place, and no other battle name can assail the majesty of the Dead City. It is in this very breadth and spaciousness of the images that the name evokes, that clear idea of the city itself is lost. Ypres mean* so much to us British that it

is hard to realise it as a little Flemish town, the kernel of those lines of defence that twice withstood the stupendous onslaught of the Gorman legions. The city now is ashes, but its name will live for ever. The story of its death is the story of the collapse of the Gorman offensive in Flanders. The German effort was to seize Calais and the English Channel coast nn,d so cut ‘off tho British troops from further operations in France. The Battle of Ypres was a period of many terrors. The German hosts Hpic and span, were in endless numbers, far outnumbering the defenders. The German attack was supported by many guns which wrought great havoc. It is a, tragic fact that in the first defence of Ypres the British had but a single large-calibre gun, which all through the days of battle duelled steadily with the distant German. armament.

Tun toll of war eat up the defenders in deadly- earnest. One acount says that ”ns new regiments arrived, they marched out to tho front lines, and were seen no more, hut as tottered handfuls., of wounded—the skeleton of companies commanded by a corporal.” Another account says: “How desperate was the struggle , the British casualty lists showed. At one stage there was no question of reliefs. Every man practically in the British forge was in the front line, an men held the trenches day after day, night after night, with- . out sleep, with little food, and no m- ; termission from heavy shell-fire. But the enemy were held.” When the Bavarians and Wurtembergers alike were broken and exhausted, the Prussian Guard was brought- up. They advanced in solid masses and were met j by a direct frontal fire. In on or two ; places they got through, only to be j thrown out. It was a furious day of j charge and counter charge, and dusk fell upon the victorious remnant of the j British force still holding the positions, j before which the Prussian Guard lay j “dead in wide piled swathes and j knots.” Deterred, the Germans shelled ■ the town irrespective of damage. Fires j broke out everywhere, till the place he- ; came a burning ruin. So finished the J first phase of the martyrdom of Ypres. Shell and fire, the mad vengeance of I the disappointed Germans, had raped the beauty that had lasted for six hundred years. But Ypres still stood, and the spirit of Ypres endured to drive back the Germans once again. Six months later began the second battle of Ypres—and General French was again victorious. The great beauty of Ypres had passed to destruction—the great glory of Ypres had attained immortality.' So we find the Americans to-day honoring this great feat of British - arms—occasioned by Britain championing the right of small nations, the weak against the strong. What- a happy choice for an anniversary!

But the Americans do our nation great* er honour to-day. Their recognition of Britain is a special appreciation of the British Navy—that bulwark of defence unbroken by fifty one months of strenuous war. The British Navy has been called the Silent Navy. Necessarily it must work discreetly to achieve • its objectives, but its silence is not a j suggestion of its indolence. On the contrary, ill through the months of war the Navy has held on to its task. The Navy was ready tor war and at the first injunction to proceed to battle stations it instantly sprang to the emergency of a war looting. A great strain was put upon the Navy, yet nothing was too great to ask of its splendid personnel. The enemy ploughed every sea. Where an enemy ship was thought to be, there our cruisers searched out tliG foe. A few weeks sufficed to drive tho enemy warships from the sea, and then began the blockade of enemy coastsAlwavs ready for whatever might come along in the way of lighting, the Navy performed other duties. Boon British troops were on every front, in far Asia, in distant colonial possessions, nearer home; whercever our brave soldiers were, the Navy succoured them. They kept the highways of the sea, so thar men and food might pass to where required, and what they did ior their own nation, they did for the Allies, more, they did it tor the whole world. This latter is the great service America wishes to honor to-day, _ The same freedom of the seas, a service faithfully performed is being honoured by our great Allies. In the recognition of Britain's proud distinction on the high seas do not let us forget the glory won by the mercantile marine, which have added lustre to the splendour of the traditions associated with the magnificent reputation of the Mistress of the Seas.