Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star MONDAY, JUNE 30th, 1919. PEACE AT LAST.

Hokitika Guardian, 30 June 1919, Page 2

Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star MONDAY, JUNE 30th, 1919. PEACE AT LAST.

The fiercest agonies have shortest reign, And after dreams of horror, comes again The welcome morning with its rays of peace. When Britain got its first inkling of peace a few days ago a rainbow shot across the sky to anticipate the commemorating gunfire. Here, yesterday, in the afternoon, a rainbow appeared also, and a little later came the news that peace was signed—in the long last. The heavens declared the glory of God in anticipation of man’s signal. What of peace, and what of the treaty? The enemy are not receiving it in any spirit of humility, but in an aggressive, arrogant mood that does not forbode well. They say they are accepting it only under compulsion, which mood, However, is true of their tenets, for they recognise only force. If it is going to take force to impose the details of the treaty, then we shall have something of an armed peace, and not that perpetual reign of peace for which tho great world war was waged to a definite conclusion. So far the enemy are ready to elude the conditions of peace when they can, and the Allies must needs take a firmer hold than that displayed hitherto. Perhaps a striking example of necessary force will carry its lesson to the dullest Teuton mind, and this might he the shortest cut to save additional trouble. The signing of the treaty marks the official ending of the Great War, and having passed that sometime distant mile-stone at last we may now look forward to the happy realisation of all those great hopes for the world which the experiences of war have taught us are possible, of realisation.